The foreign policies of Canada and its predecessor colonies were under British control until the 20th century. This included wars with the United States in 1775-1783 and 1812–1815. Economic ties with the U.S. were always close. Political tensions arose in the 19th century from anti-British sentiment in the U.S. in the 1860s. Boundary issues caused diplomatic disputes resolved in the 1840s over the Maine boundary and in the early 20th century over the Alaska boundary. There is ongoing discussion regarding the Arctic. Canada-US relations have been friendly in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Canada participated in Britain's wars, especially the Boer war, World War I and World War II. However, there was a bitter dispute between Francophone and Anglophone Canada during the First World War. Canada had its own seat in the League of Nations but played a small role in world affairs until the 1940s.
The "golden age of Canadian diplomacy" refers to a period in Canadian history, typically considered to be the mid-twentieth century, when Canada experienced a high level of success in its foreign relations and diplomatic efforts. In the early Cold-War years, Canada served as a mediator in international conflicts, and has since fostered a very positive reputation on the world stage, widely viewed as a responsible and ethical country.
History Colonial era to 1867 The British North American colonies which today constitute modern Canada had no control over their foreign affairs until the achievement of responsible government in the late 1840s. Up to that time, negotiations were carried out by the governors appointed by the British government to encourage immigration, settle local disputes and to promote trade.For recent general histories see and
Disputes with the United States American Revolution
The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the war. Britain made several concessions to the United States at the expense of the North American colonies. Notably, the borders between Canada and the United States were officially demarcated; all land south of the Great Lakes, which was formerly a part of the Province of Quebec and included modern-day Michigan, Illinois and Ohio, was ceded to the Americans as the Northwest Territory. Fishing rights were also granted to the United States in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the coast of Newfoundland and the Grand Banks.
Britain ignored part of the treaty and maintained their military outposts in the Great Lakes areas it had ceded to the U.S., and they continued to supply their Native American allies with munitions. The British evacuated the outposts with the Jay Treaty of 1795, but the continued supply of munitions irritated the Americans in the run-up to the War of 1812.
Other interactions
Notable interactions from the colonial period include the Nootka Convention, the War of 1812, the Rush–Bagot Treaty, the Treaty of 1818, the Webster–Ashburton Treaty, and the Oregon Treaty. Before the granting of responsible government, British diplomats handled foreign affairs and had the goal of achieving British goals, especially peace with the United States; domestic Canadian interests were secondary. The Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 signalled an important change in relations between Britain and its North American colonies. In this treaty, the Canadas were allowed to impose tariff duties more favourable to a foreign country (the U.S.) than to Britain, a precedent that was extended by new tariffs in 1859, 1879 and 1887, despite angry demands on the part of British industrialists that these tariffs be disallowed by London.
On a much smaller scale, Irish activists called Fenians based in the United States launched several tiny raids into Canada, in 1866-1871. All were quickly repulsed. One factor leading to confederation was the greatly exaggerated fear in Canada that the U.S. might seize Canada after winning the American Civil War.
Dominion of Canada: 1867-1914 Soon after Canadian Confederation, the first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald appointed Sir John Rose as his lobbyist in London. When Alexander Mackenzie became prime minister, he sent George Brown to represent Canada in Washington during British-American trade talks. After the Conservative Party came back to power in 1878, the government sent Alexander Galt to London, as well as to France and Spain. Although the British government was concerned about this nascent Canadian diplomacy, it finally consented to giving Galt the formal title of High Commissioner in 1880. A trade commissioner was appointed to Australia in 1894. As High Commissioner, Charles Tupper helped negotiate an agreement with France in 1893 but it was countersigned by the British ambassador as the Queen's official representative to France. Meanwhile, in 1882 the province of Quebec made its first of many forays into the international community by sending a representative, Hector Fabre to Paris in 1882.
Canada's responses to international events elsewhere were limited at this time. During 1878 tensions between Britain and Russia, for example, Canada constructed a few limited defences but did little else. By the time of the British campaign in Sudan of 1884–85, however, Canada was expected to contribute troops. Since Ottawa was reluctant to become involved, the Governor General of Canada privately raised 386 voyageurs at Britain's expense to help British forces on the Nile river. By 1885, many Canadians offered to volunteer as part of a potential Canadian force, however the government declined to act. This stood in sharp contrast to Australia (New South Wales), which raised and paid for its own troops.
According to Carman Miller, Canada took a strong interest in the Second Boer War, 1899–1902, when the British with great difficulty suppressed the Boer movement in South Africa. Support for the war was strong in the Anglophone community, as thousands of ambitious young men volunteered and fought. However, there was resistance in rural Canada, the labor movement, non-Anglican clergyman, and the large Irish Catholic community, as well as the smaller Dutch and German communities. Supporters saw an opportunity to assert that Canadian national identity was compatible with ties with the mother country. That alliance, they felt, would help protect them from American threats. Other supporters identified strongly with the pan-Britannic theme, cheering for "Queen and country!" The French Canadian community realized how different it was from Britannia, and began launching separatist movements.
The first Canadian commercial representative abroad was John Short Larke. Larke became Canada's first trade commissioner following a successful trade delegation to Australia led by Canada's first Minister of Trade and Commerce, Mackenzie Bowell.
The Alaska boundary dispute, simmering since the US purchased Alaska from Russia of 1867, became critical when gold was discovered in the Canadian Yukon during the late 1890s. Alaska controlled all the possible ports of entry. Canada argued its boundary included the port of Skagway, held by the U.S.. The dispute went to arbitration in 1903, but the British delegate sided with the Americans, angering Canadians who felt the British had betrayed Canadian interests to curry favour with the U.S.
In 1909, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier reluctantly established a Department of External Affairs and the positions of Secretary and Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, largely at the urging of the Governor-General Earl Grey and James Bryce, the British ambassador in Washington, who estimated that three-quarters of his embassy's time was devoted to Canadian-American matters.
Laurier signed a reciprocity treaty with the U.S. that would lower tariffs in both directions. Conservatives under Robert Borden denounced it, saying it would integrate Canada's economy into that of the U.S. and loosen ties with Britain. The Conservative party won the 1911 Canadian federal election.
1914-1929 First World War
The Canadian Forces and civilian participation in the First World War helped to foster a sense of British-Canadian nationhood. The British-oriented population was empowered, and everyone else was marginalized, especially the French, Irish Catholic, and East European elements. The famous military achievements came during the Somme, Vimy, Passchendaele battles and what later became known as "Canada's Hundred Days". The costs were high: 67,000 killed and 173,000.
British Canadians were annoyed in 1914-16 when Washington insisted on neutrality and seemed to profit heavily while Canada was sacrificing its wealth and its youth. However, when the US finally declared war on Germany in April 1917, there was swift cooperation and friendly coordination, as one historian report: Official co-operation between Canada and the United States—the pooling of grain, fuel, power, and transportation resources, the underwriting of a Canadian loan by bankers of New York—produced a good effect on the public mind. Canadian recruiting detachments were welcomed in the United States, while a reciprocal agreement was ratified to facilitate the return of draft-evaders. A Canadian War Mission was established at Washington, and many other ways the activities of the two countries were coordinated for efficiency. Immigration regulations were relaxed and thousands of American farmhands crossed the border to assist in harvesting the Canadian crops. Officially and publicly, at least, the two nations were on better terms than ever before in their history, and on the American side this attitude extended through almost all classes of society.
Support for Britain caused a major political crisis over conscription, as Francophones, especially in Quebec, rejected national policies. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was an enemy in the war. Large numbers of its emigrants had settled in the Prairie Provinces. Some 8,000 were classified as enemy aliens, and were interred in camps. Another 80,000 had to report regularly to the local police.
The Liberal party was deeply split, with most of its Anglophone leaders joining the unionist government headed by Prime Minister Robert Borden, the leader of the Conservative party. The Liberals regained their influence after the war under the leadership of William Lyon Mackenzie King, who served as prime minister with three separate terms between 1921 and 1949.
As its reward for significant contributions to the victory, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden won London's approval that Canada be treated as a separate signatory to the Treaty of Versailles.
1920s After Canada shared in victory in the First World War, there were two alternative strategies for Canada's foreign policy, according to C.P. Stacey. The Conservative Party, under prime ministers Robert Borden and Arthur Meighen, called for close cooperation with London as part of the British Empire. This carried on the wartime coalition built on pro-British elements. However the Liberal Party, under its new leader Mackenzie King, sought a nationalistic and isolationist approach of the sort that appealed to the French Canadian element, as well as other non-British ethnic groups. King, acting as his own Foreign Minister, achieved his goal by close cooperation with his Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, Oscar D. Skelton, and with Clifford Sifton, the influential newspaperman from Manitoba.