Social reflection #6
– Concept of History
Why we have to learn history? Most people say, “to avoid making the same mistake again.” This is also the right reason but I think, history is the basis of the things. If we want to learn something, first we have to know what is it. I think history is also basic to know about this country we live in. And I don’t think history only means the past. I think we are constantly making history, just as the moment we live now becomes the past a second later. Currently, we learn only about important events that happened in the past through history. Through such events, it seems to show how we have developed and how to solve the problems that are still lacking.
– Minority groups before 1914
-The Chinese head tax-
Between 1885 and 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act imposed a corporate tax on Chinese entering Canada. With few exceptions, the Chinese had to pay $50 to come to Canada. Later, they had to pay more money. Although the first major wave of Chinese immigrants, which began in 1858, began with a gold rush, many Chinese immigrants came to build CPR. In 1885, the Commission concluded that there was little evidence to support the negative claims against China, but Chinese immigration helped the development of British Columbia.
-The Komagata Maru-
The Komagata Maru was an incident that ruled out immigrants from India from Canada. When Indian immigrants tried to immigrate to Canada on a ship, the Canadian government sent Indian immigrants back for a long time. When they returned to India, most of them were arrested by the British government and many people were shot during the arrest process.
In addition to these incidents, there have been incidents where Canada has opposed many immigrants.
The exclusion of black Oklahoman farmers from coming to Canada in 1910
They came to Canada to avoid racism. However, Canada rejected all black immigrants because Canada thought they were unfit to immigrate to Canada. And this was after 1914, but from 1920 until the end of World War II, Canada rejected Jewish immigrants.
Immigration itself can help the country develop, but in the short term, an increasing number of immigrants can help with economic difficulties. Even in past, Canada might not be ready for a lot of immigrants.
– Women’s history, Equality
Women have been discriminated against for being weak in the history of Canada as well as other countries. Many people in the past hated women’s involvement in politics and thought they could not be leaders. In Canada in the past, women have not been able to vote and have been oppressed in many forms of life. However, unlike what people thought in the past, women were not weak.
It can only be seen in World War I. During World War I, many men were out to fight, so there was a huge manpower shortage. But it was the women who filled the vacancy. They kept their homes, grew crops and fed the soldiers. Although many women’s rights have been found because people have broken prejudice from the past to the present. But I think it is difficult to say that our world is still equal. I think the difficult but sure way is to get rid of prejudice and listen to the voices of more people.