|
Approximately
620,000 Canadians served in the Canadian
Expeditionary Force, including 425,000
who served overseas; more than 60,000
were killed and 172,000 wounded, an enormous
number for a small nation. Canadian military
cemeteries overseas, carefully maintained
by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission,
graphically convey the scale of this
loss.
Canada
was still a colony in 1914, but battlefield
successes stimulated a desire among Canadians
for greater national autonomy and international
recognition. In 1919, Canada signed the
Treaty of Versailles, which formally
ended the war, and joined the newly-created
League of Nations as a member state in
its own right. Canada had come of age.
|
 |
