Vimy Ridge Research Paper

Although it operated with British oversight at Vimy Ridge, the Canadian led victory demonstrated to the world that Canada had become a sovereign nation. Canada stopped being only a colony of Britain after WWI, they became much more. Canada became a nation. First of all, before the battle of Vimy Ridge Britain had complete control over Canada. After Vimy Ridge Britain only assigned Canada with tasks and where they were to fight; Canada decided how to complete and go about doing these tasks; tasks such as defeating the Germans at vimy ridge. Historian Desmond Morton stated “By 1918, the British retained little more than tactical command of the Canadian units in France...In military terms, if not yet constitutional law, the war transformed Canada from a colony into a junior but

In return showing the world how strong they truly were and that they did not need Britian. In addition, Canada initiated their never before seen tactics to win the battle of Vimy Ridge. They designed new strategy and tactics such as the rolling barrage to defeat the germans at Vimy. According to D.J Goodspeed “No matter what the constitutional historians may say, it was on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, and not on any other date that Canada became a nation.” The British thought that that Canadians were crazy for attempting such maneuvers. Even though April 9, 1917 is not the official date in history, it is the date that Canadians accomplished something that no one else was able to, capture Vimy Ridge. Canada became a nation by trying new ideas, showing how they were different; Canada was unique and most definitely not British. Canada was something new, improved and innovative; a sovereign nation. A final example of how Canada stopped being a colony after the war was how at the end of WWI all the sovereign nations gathered to sign a peace treaty finalizing the war. Canada was granted permission to have a signature on the