Canadian History 1920s & 1930s TIMELINE timeline

The Indian act was passed by the Canadian government so that the government could take control of their land. In return for their land, the government promised to give them benefits such as healthcare, education and reserves exclusively for them. The Indian act isn't as good as it sounds though because the government was then given complete control over their lives. They dictated what jobs they could get if they had Indian status if they could drink alcohol and many other things.

The telephone allowed information to be transported long distances in an instant. People could now talk to people far away in real-time as opposed to writing letters that would take weeks to arrive at their recipient. The first trans-canada call was made in 1916 from Montreal to Vancouver. At first, this technology was not widely available but over time many more people got it.

The Spanish flu originated in America and it jumped from pigs to birds to humans. Once the flu got to Europe through humans it ravaged the trenches and spread quickly. Once the war was over and the soldiers came back to Canada they brought the flu with them creating a pandemic. Conditions were similar to todays, no big gatherings, only essential services and to keep clean.

Prohibition was the banning of alcohol because they believed that it was negatively affecting society. They believed alcohol was the cause of marriages ending and people spend all of their money on it. Lots of people put a fierce resistance up to it and they privately distilled their own. Eventually, the government thought if people are just going to make their own we should profit off of it so liquor became legal and controlled by the government.

In WW1 some Canadian woman was given the right to vote and when the war was finished they did not want that taken away. They campaigned for suffrage and they didn't just want the right to vote, They wanted to be able to be elected to office also. It took a lot of work but they got there. Ontario was the first to let some women vote in municipal elections. In 1918 borden extended suffrage to most women and gave them the right to run in government.

In Canada immigration policies were very strict and racist. Generally, only people from Brittan were accepted into Canada and if you didn't have a British-sounding last name you wouldn't likely be let in. At the time people were still afraid of the enemy and potential communists so that also further restricted the number of people that could come. When p[eople were allowed to come to Canada, we wanted them to be farmers because Canada had lots of available land and not enough people to farm it.

After WW1 the allies established a democratic government in Germany but the Germans didn't know how it worked so nothing happend. Also because of the massive debts Germany had they needed to pay them so they printed a lot of money. This lead to hyperinflation where 1 loaf of bread cost billions of notes. The Germans were frustrated with their economic situation and they wanted a new leader. They then elected Hitler who made sweeping changes in the government and made it fascist.

Insulin was a life-changing cure for many people. Before insulin diabetes was a deadly disease and people who had it did not live long and died quickly but with insulin, this all changed. Insulin gives sugar to the body which it is not producing allowing people with the disease to live a normal life and survive. The inventors Fredrick Banting and J.J.R. Macleod were awarded the Nobel prize for this discovery

Canada brought over many Chinese workers to help build the trans-canada railway and when they were done building it they didn't appreciate them or want them here anymore. They were a head tax imposed making Chinese people have to pay to move to Canada and that price kept increasing. Then in 1923, Canada passed the Chinese excl8usion act that barred all Chinese people from coming to Canada. This separated a lot of families and created a lot of single Chinese men in Canada.

In Canada, there were more people and people were living longer and as a result, older people had to be supported. At first, old people had to rely on income from their children and that was costly and not everyone might be able to afford it. Mr. Woodsworth and other reformers wanted to change this. They lobbied and eventually, Canada created an old-age pension. The old-age pension was a bit weird and very discriminative but it was a start to the system we have today.

The radio was a revolutionary way to be entertained back in the day. You could now listen to live broadcasts such as hockey games, music and the news right from your own house. At the time more than 80% of the broadcasts that Canadians Litsend to were from the USA. In the 1920s more people bought radios as the quality became better and the price decreased.

Child labour was prevalent in Canada for a long time. Families sent their kids to work because they needed more money to support themselves. This in turn led to fewer children getting an education and getting there would be fewer people to do skilled jobs. In the early 20th century people started to campaign to abolish child labour and in 1929 most provinces made child labour illegal In factories and mines. This did not put a complete stop to child labour but it was a good step forward.

On black Tuesday the stock market crash happened to lead to the crash in stocks and the beginning of the great depression. The cause of this is that companies were overvalued and people realized it and they started selling their stocks. This started a chain reaction and soon stocks hit rock bottom. Now many people became broke, the economy was in shatters and it was a terrible time for society. Many people had to put their lives on hold as they were unable to pay their debts, bills and buy food.

Crop failure was one of the causes of the great depression. Farmers in the prairies did not rotate their crops which lead to worse soil conditions. This combined with drought and high temperatures completely destroyed the croplands. Farmers were unable to grow any food because the soil wasn't good enough and there was no rain. This led to farmers abandoning their farms in search of work elsewhere. Now crops weren't getting grown, farmers lost their jobs and it just added to the great depression.

Residential schools were created because Canadian politicians thought that Canada had an Indian problem so they created residential schools to assimilate them into Canadian culture. The conditions in residential schools were horrible, kids got sick, beaten, and abused both mentally and physically. The schools were basically just mini prisons. The government portrayed them as good spots for the students but in reality, they were horrible and the public had no idea what was going on there.

In the 1930s many men were out of work and so they rode freight tracking across the country looking for work. The government tried to fix this by providing relief camps where men can work but they didn't like the pay or conditions there and they demanded more. Then they planed a walkout to jump onto freight trains and head to Ottawa to directly protest to the prime minister. Eventually oner 1500 men gathered in Vancouver to rally for change and to collect money for food.

Bombardier got its start out as the first company to produce snowmobiles. its founder Joseph Armand bombardier started built snowmobiles to help get around easier when the roads weren't plowed so he constructed the snowmobile. He first produced 7 and there was a massive demand for more. Bombardier then grew exponentially into other divisions such as transportation and aerospace but as of recently has fallen onto hard times and is on the verge of bankrupcy.

Th St.Louis was a passenger ship from Germany that was filled with jews. The Jews were escaping persecution in Germany and they fled on a boat to Canada. When they reached Canada they were not accepted so they went to America next and it was the same thing. Eventually, they just went back to Germany because no countrys accepted them. This is an example of anti-Semitism in early Canada and this resulted in half of the passengers of the St. Louis being killed in Germany.