| In August of 1918, the Canadian government authorized the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force to proceed to Vladivostok as part of a larger Allied mission. While the majority of literature the expedition has inspired views it as a failure, the military objectives of the mission -- victory in World War One -- had been achieved before the main body ever arrived. The real story of the intervention in Siberia, however, is not a military one. Created and maintained almost exclusively through the effort of Prime Minister Robert Borden in an atmosphere of rising social unrest, the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force was sent to further Canadian national interests. Although it was accompanied by an economic commission in an attempt to further the Canadian export economy, the principal reason for Borden's sending a 4,192 Canadians to a new military Front was to demonstrate growing national autonomy and Canada's emergence as a nation in the international arena.1.;1The definition of autonomy as independence from Britain was not how the term was understood by the vast majority of Canadians, including Borden, in 1918. Instead, autonomy was seen as Canadian equality within the British Empire, complete with self-government and a voice in foreign affairs. This is how the term is used throughout this paper. |
