Canada's Senate: Timeline and Chronology for the History of the Senate and Senate Reform.

HISTORY IN THE NEWS

Dedicated to the background of contemporary events around the world. 

 The Senate



 
History of the Canadian Senate and Senate Reform.

This chronology is based on A Legislative and Historical Overview of the Senate of Canada
Committees and Private Legislation Directorate Revised May 2001: 
http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Senate/LegisFocus/legislative-e.htm  and:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_of_Canada

                               Origins of the Senate.

-With the exception of British Columbia, all of the British North American colonies had bicameral or two chamber legislatures before 1867. It was from these pre-Confederation Legislative Councils, particularly that of the United Province of Canada (the union in 1840 of Upper Canada [Ontario] and Lower Canada [Quebec] ) that the model. The Legislative Council of Prince Edward Island had been elective since 1862 and that of the Province of Canada since 1857. However, there was not a great deal of enthusiasm for an elected second chamber. for the Senate was taken.


                               Senate not to Originate Money Bills. 
1840- Section 57 of the Union Act, 1840 which had constitutionally united Upper and Lower Canada into the United Province. Section 57 of the Union Act removed any doubt as to where money bills were to originate: "57. All Bills for appropriating any Part of the Surplus of the said Consolidated Revenue Fund, or for imposing any new Tax or Impost, shall originate in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada." This was to last as a limitation on the powers of the Senate in the Constitution Act, 1867.

                                 The Quebec Conference begins founding of the Senate.
-1864- Oct 10- The Quebec Conference passes a resolution to form a Canadian senate. The formal origins of the Canadian Senate "emerged from the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864 which met to consider proposals for a union of the British North American colonies. Much of the Quebec Conference was devoted to creating an upper house...Various proposals for its method of selection were considered, including direct election.
-Nova Scotia would have ten Senators, New Brunswick ten and Prince Edward Island four. The record of the discussions which took place at the Quebec Conference shows that the Prince Edward Island delegates argued vigorously that the only safeguard the smaller Provinces would possess was in the Senate and raised the demand for equal representation for all the provinces in the Upper House. This position, MacKay writes "was farther than other Maritime delegations were prepared to go" P.E.I. alone dissented from the Quebec agreement and refused to come into the new federation. In order to retain the equality of sectional representation, the twenty-four maritime members were divided equally between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

                             Constitution Act, 1867
1867- of the Senate: George Brown said it was the key to federation, "the very essence of our compact". "Our Lower Canadian friends have agreed to give us representation by population in the Lower House, on the express condition that they would have equality in the Upper House. On no other condition could we have advanced a step"
-in a limitation on the power of the senate, Section 53 of the Constitution Act, 1867 directs that money bills are to originate in the House of Commons.
-Quebec was given equal representation in the Senate with Ontario - twenty-four seats. Section 24 of the Constitution Act, 1867 provided for a special representation in the case of Quebec: "each of the twenty-four Senators representing that Province shall be appointed for one of the twenty-four electoral districts of Lower Canada ... "
-the Senate is charged with the right to grant divorces.
-in the first Canadian cabinet, five of the thirteen ministers were senators.
1867- Nov. 16- The first sitting of the Senate. The first Senate Speaker is Joseph Edouard Cauchon. During the session, three Standing Committees are appointed: Banking, Commerce and Railways, Contingent Accounts, and Standing Orders and Private Bills.

                             Development of Parliamentary Privilege.
1868- the Senate and parliamentary privilege: "In 1868 the Canadian Parliament enacted a law which gave to each of the houses, in almost the identical words used above, the powers, immunities, and privileges enjoyed by the British House of Commons at the time of passing the British North America Act, "so far as the same are consistent with and not repugnant to the said Act." A further section stated that these were part of the general and public law of Canada and "it shall not be necessary to plead the same, but the same shall in all Courts in Canada and by and before all judges be taken notice of judicially". The act also protected the publication of any proceedings against civil or criminal suit if these were published under the order or authority of the Senate or House of Commons. This was followed in the same year by an act professing to give to the Senate or to any select committee on private bills of the Senate or of the House the power to examine witnesses on oath.
                             Senate Seats for New Provinces.
1870 - Entry of Manitoba. The Manitoba Act provides for the addition of two Senators for that province.
1871 - Entry of British Columbia. The British Columbia Terms of Union awards three Senate seats to B.C.
                             Powers of Canadian Parliament to be Identical to British powers.
1873- on parliamentary privilege: the power to examine witnesses on oath was extended to any committee of either house. This latter act was disallowed by the British government on the ground that it was ultra vires, in that it tried to give powers to the Canadian houses which were not possessed in 1867 by the British House of Commons. The earlier act had been, in fact, ultra vires also, although it had been allowed to stand.
1873-  When Prince Edward Island entered Confederation pursuant to the Prince Edward Island Terms of Union, 1873, it did so on the terms and conditions of the Quebec resolutions. Senate representation was therefore readjusted to ten Nova Scotia seats, ten New Brunswick seats and four from P.E.I.
1874 - The British Government replies that it could not advise Her Majesty to comply with the request of Prime Minister Alexander MacKenzie to appoint extra Senators pursuant to Section 26 of the Constitution Act, 1867. 
1875-an amendment to the British North America Act, which repealed the original section 18 and substituted another to the effect that the privileges, immunities, and powers of the Canadian Parliament and its members were never to exceed those enjoyed from time to time by the British House of Commons.
1875- The first major legislative confrontation between the Senate and House of Commons. The Senate rejects a bill for the construction of a railway from Esquimalt to Nanaimo in British Columbia.
1876- on privilege: Inasmuch as the British House of Commons in 1871 had given to its committees the power to examine witnesses on oath, the Canadian Parliament was able in 1876 legally to endow its committees with the same power.
1879 - The "Northwest Territories" of the time were given two seats in the Senate, a figure which was doubled in 1903. 1889  

                          Evolution of the Senate

1879- Creation of the Senate Standing Committee on Divorce.
1891-two governments in the nineteenth century were led by Senators, Sir John Abbott (1891-92) and Sir Mackenzie Bowell (1894-96). Nearly every major portfolio except that of Finance has been held at one time or another by a Senator.
1894 - Creation of the Standing Committee on Internal Economy and Contingent Accounts.
1905 - Entry of Alberta and Saskatchewan. These newly-created provinces each obtain four seats.
1907 (circa) -Originally, the Senate was composed of 72 members, but increased as the country geographically and demographically grew in size. In the first forty years of Confederation, a series of arrangements to provide representation to Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta and Saskatchewan brought a total number of Senate seats to eighty-seven.
1913 - Senate defeats Naval Assistance Bill saying "This House is not justified in giving its assent to the bill until it is submitted to the judgement of the country."

                            Constitution Act, 1915.
1915 - Passage of the Constitution Act, 1915 which reorganized and rationalized the basis of representation by creating a fourth division, the Western division, composed of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, each represented by six Senators. The same act provided for the awarding of six seats in the Senate to Newfoundland when it entered Confederation, which it did in 1949. 
1915- the number of senators increased to 96.

                            Senate May Amend Money Bills.
1918- May 9- "the Senate has historically taken the position that it has the constitutional right to amend (but not increase) money bills sent up from the House of Commons. The Report of the Special Committee Appointed to Determine the Rights of the Senate in Matters of Financial Legislation (the Ross Report) tabled in the Senate."

                           Eligibility to sit in Senate makes Women "Persons."
1930 - "Persons Case" decision by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Edwards v. Attorney General for Canada ([1930] A.C. 124) confirming the possibility of appointing women to the Senate. On February 14, 1930, Mrs. Cairine MacKay Wilson, daughter of the late Senator MacKay of Ontario, was summoned to the Senate, becoming Canada's first woman Senator.
1931 - Statute of Westminster grants British dominions complete autonomy. The Statute of Westminster authorizes the Balfour Report (1926), granting Canada full legislative authority in both internal and external affairs.
1949- the number of senators is increased to 102.

                            Newfoundland.
1949- Newfoundland entered Confederation only in 1949, pursuant to the Newfoundland Act, which confirmed the Terms of Union between the province and Canada. The Terms of Union provided for representation in the Senate by six members.

                            Process of Senate Reform.
1965- in what was the first significant step towards Senate reform, The Constitution Act, 1867 was amended so that all Senators appointed after that date were to retire at age 75.
1968- the Senate no longer allowed to grant divorces. Since 1968, the authority for granting divorces rests with all provincial courts.
1968-69 - Restructuring of Senate Committees. Foreign Affairs replaces External Relations, and Health, Welfare and Science replaces Immigration and Labour. Creation of the Standing Senate. Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. Major revision undertaken to Senate Rules.

                            Appointment of First Woman Speaker.
1972 - Appointment of the first woman Speaker, Muriel McQueen Ferguson.  
-during the 1970's, Senate impact on Commons legislation was principally to be found in recommendations emanating from pre-study committee reports made to bills in advance of their coming before the Senate. Such pre-study of the 1975 Bankruptcy Bill led to almost 140 amendments being proposed.
1974- the number of senators is increased to 104.

                           Senate Confronting House of Commons.
-during the latter 1980's and the 1990's, the Senate became more active in formally opposing and amending Commons legislation. Among the more controversial bills which led to confrontation between the Senate and House of Commons were the following: (i) in 1985, Bill C-11, the Borrowing Authority Bill; (ii) in 1986, Bill C-67, the "gating" amendments proposed to the Penitentiary Act; (iii) in 1987, Bill C-22, the Drug Patent Bill and Bill C-84, the Immigration Bill; (iv) in 1988, Bill C-60, the Copyright Bill, Bill C-103, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Bill and Bill C-130, the Free Trade Bill; (v) in 1989, Bill C-21, the Unemployment Insurance Act amendments; (vi) in 1990, Bill C-28, the "clawback" Income Tax Bill and Bill C-62, the Goods and Services Tax; (vii) in 1991, Bill C-43, the Abortion Bill, which was defeated at third reading; (viii) in 1996, Bill C-28, the Lester B. Pearson International Airport Bill, which was also defeated at third reading; and, (ix) in 1998, Bill C-220, the profit from authorship respecting a crime Bill, which was defeated at report stage.
1975- Pursuant to the Constitution Act, 1975, the two territories were entitled to be represented in the Senate by one member each. Like the Province of Newfoundland, they were not added to an existing region but treated as an exception to the sectional divisions.

                           Consent of Provinces Required to Reform Senate.
1979 - On December 21, 1979 in Re: Authority of Parliament in Relation to the Upper House [1980], 1 S.C.R. 54, the Supreme Court rules that Parliament cannot fundamentally alter the Senate in virtue of section 91(1) of the B.N.A. Act, 1867. In this Bill C-60 reference, the Supreme Court confirmed that the consent of the provinces was necessary for the reform of the essential elements of the Constitution and the powers of the Senate. 
1993- The Nunavut Act of 1993 separated the new Territory of Nunavut from the Northwest Territories and granted it representation in the Senate by one member.
1999- the number of senators is increased to 105.

                            Senate Powers Limited by a Repatriated Constitution.
1982 - Passage of the Constitution Act, 1982. Under the new amending formula, the Canadian Parliament is given exclusive authority to amend the provisions of the Constitution of Canada in relation to the Senate. A more demanding formula governs amendments affecting the Senate's powers, selection of Senators, the number of Senators by which a province is entitled, and the residency conditions to be met by Senators. In these areas, amendments may be made by proclamation of the Governor General authorized by resolutions of the Senate, the House of Commons and the legislative assemblies of seven provinces representing 50% of the population of all of the provinces. The Constitution Act, 1982 provides that for constitutional amendments the Senate has only a suspensive veto of 180 days. In the absence of Senate agreement, the House of Commons has only to wait 180 days and then adopt the constitutional amendment a second time.  
1982- section 47(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982 provides that amendments to the constitution can be made without the consent of the Senate.

                              New Senate Rules under Meech Lake.
1987 - The 1987 Meech Lake Accord contains a provision regarding vacancies in the accord. The proposed new procedure could guarantee that no person would be appointed to the Senate who was not acceptable to both levels of Government. The political accord accompanying the proposed Constitution Amendment, 1987 contains a commitment ensuring that the new nomination procedure for Senators is to take effect forthwith upon signature of the accord and prior to the proclamation of the amendments. The provisional procedure is to apply until there are constitutional amendments regarding the Senate generally or until the Accord fails to be ratified. Six Senators are appointed pursuant to this accord. In 1990, time expires for the ratification of the Accord.
1989 - Creation of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples.

        Outgoing Prime Minister Mulroney Stacks the Senate with Patronage Appointments   
1993- -A few weeks prior to leaving office, Mr. Mulroney filled the fourteen vacancies in the Senate with 13 Conservatives and one Independent. As a result, in 1993 Prime Minister Chrétien's Liberal caucus of 41 Liberals faced 58 Conservatives and 5 Independents
2001 - Creation of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights and of the Standing Senate Committee on Defence and Security.

                       Recent Moves Toward Senate Reform.
2005- NDP and Bloc Quebecois called for abolition of Senate.
2006-2009- Prime Minister Harper and his Conservatives repeatedly introduced and amended senate reform bills which kept dying.
2008- -under Harper's Conservatives a large number of vacant seats were left unfilled until just after the prorogation during the 2008 Canadian parliamentary dispute when Harper filled the remaining seats rather than risk seeing them filled by any incoming coalition government. Among his new appoinrtees were Mike Duffy and Pam Wallin. (Wikipedia)
2010- during its national convention, the Green Party calls for a senate elected by proportional representation.

                                 Senate Expenses Sacandal
2013-Senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin embroiled in the Senate Expenses Scandal.
2013,-the NDP appears to begin to embrace senate reform as a compromise, before returning to a pro-abolition platform, including a pro-abolition website, www.RollUpTheRedCarpet.ca.

Syria: A History of US Decisions to Intervene or Declare War in Other Conflicts.

HISTORY IN THE NEWS

Dedicated to the background of contemporary events around the world. 

 

The United States.




IN BRIEF:  Of all the humanitarian interventions that the US has helped to enforce, the prospect of a Syrian operation bears only a passing resemblance to the major strike on Libya against Qaddafi with UN and NATO support- but bears most resemblance to the U.S.-led NATO intervention against Serb atrocities in Kosovo, where action was taken without the UN. However in this case any sort of NATO-led mission would have to go ahead without Britain. If the US goes it alone, there will be uneasy reflections on the unilateral arrogance of the Bush 2003 invasion of Iraq.
 
IN THE NEWS:  AS A BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY VOTE BACKS DOWN ON MILITARY ACTION IN SYRIA, AND EVEN AS AS FRANCE PROMISES TO SUPPORT U.S. ACTION,  PRESIDENT OBAMA DITHERS ON A VARIETY OF OPTIONS, ALL OF WHICH SEEM BAD. THE PROBLEM IS, HE IS COMPELLED TO STRIKE, OR HIS 'RED LINE' ON THE USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS WILL LOOK RIDICULOUS AND THE U.S. WILL LOSE PRESTIGE. 

THE FACTS: 

-the First and Second World Wars and the invasion of Afghanistan (in the wake of 9/11) are the United States' only truly defensive wars.



-the Korean War and the Gulf War against Iraq were in defense of the United Nations.

-the Tripolitan War and the War of 1812 were largely about trade and maritime law.


-the United States occupied Haiti and Nicaragua because those countries had defaulted on international loans but the United States had murkier interests as well.

-the Mexican War and the Spanish American War were essentially wars of territorial acquisition by the United States.

-the CIA's covert Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba was in a sense an extension of the Spanish American War.

-American aims in the invasions of Grenada and Panama are debatable. The War in Vietnam and the 2003 US invasion of Iraq had little real justification.

-the US-led NATO bombing of Kosovo was a unilateral NATO humanitarian action taken without United Nations approval.


IN HISTORY:
  

THE WAR IN VIETNAM.
1962- February 7- The first sign of a looming Vietnam conflict emerges when President Kennedy admits that advisers already in Vietnam would engage the enemy if fired upon.  The sending of these advisers acted as a compass-point of no return and there was no turning back once they took this crucial step which would inevitably lead the country into this conflict. Many believe that this day was the day that step was taken.

KOSOVO
1999- January- Serbs driving out Kosovars through mass murder or ethnic cleansing. NATO bombs Serb Positions in Kosovo.
1999- 24 March- 10 June- NATO, led by US NATO forces, launches air strikes, destroying government offices, bridges over the Danube, and power stations. The Serbs are forced to withdraw from Kosovo.


RELEVANT DATES:

THE TRIPOLITAN WAR.
1801-1805- war between the US and the Karmanli Dey of Tripoli (present day Libya) about the amount of tribute US shipping should pay to the Dey for protection from pirates.  The US settles the issue by invading Tripoli.

THE WAR OF 1812
1812-15 - War of 1812 between the US and Britain, partly over the effects of British restrictions on US trade and Britain's boarding and searching US ships for deserters during the Napoleonic Wars.

THE MEXICAN WAR
1846-May 8,  The US invades Mexico to protect the independence of  Texas which had separated from northern Mexico. The first conflict of the Mexican War occurs north of the Rio Grande River at Palo Alto, Texas when United States troops under the command of Major General Zachary Taylor rout a larger Mexican force.  Zachary had been ordered by President Polk to sieze disputed Texas land settled by Mexicans

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.
1860-61 - Eleven pro-slavery southern states secede from Union and form Confederate States of America under leadership of Jefferson Davis, triggering civil war with abolitionist northern states.
1861- the firs shots of the war are fired by Southern troops on the Union held fort, Fort Sumter, in South Carolina.

THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR.

1898- April 22, 1898 - The blockade of Cuba begins when the

 United States Navy 

aids independence forces within Cuba.  

Several days later, the U.S.A. declares

 war on Spain, backdating its declaration to April 20.  

On May 1, 1898, 

the United States Navy destroyed the Spanish fleet

 in the Philippines. On June 20, 

the U.S. captured Guam.

1898, May 12-  San Juan, Puerto Rico is bombed 

by the American navy 

under the command of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson.  

Puerto Rico is overtaken by

 the United States between July 25 with its landing at  

Guanica Bay and August 12.  These acts during 

the Spanish-American War would 

ultimately result in Spain deciding in December 

to cede lands, including Puerto Rico, 

to the United States. 

NICARAGUA

1912- August 14 - The United States Marines are ordered

 to Nicaragua due to its default on loans to the United States and its European
allies.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR.
1917- February 3- The United States government cuts diplomatic ties with Germany.  The Zimmerman Telegram is given to the United States by Britain on February 24, showing the offer by Germany to give Mexico back the southwest United States if they would declare war on the United States.

1917-18 - US intervenes in World War I, rejects membership of League of Nations.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR.
1941 - Japanese warplanes attack US fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii; US declares war on Japan; Germany declares war on US, which thereafter intervenes on a massive scale in World War II, eventually helping to defeat Germany.

THE KOREAN WAR.
 1950- Backed by Stalin, North Korea invades US-occupied South Korea. The US, with allied UN countries, occupies and defends South Korea.

THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION OF CUBA
1961 - Bay of Pigs invasion: an unsuccessful attempt to invade Cuba by Cuban exiles, organised and financed by Washington. 

THE WAR IN VIETNAM.
1962- February 7- The first sign of a looming Vietnam conflict emerges when President Kennedy admits that advisers already in Vietnam would engage the enemy if fired upon.  The sending of these advisers acted as a compass-point of no return and there was no turning back once they took this crucial step which would inevitably lead the country into this conflict. Many believe that this day was the day that step was taken.

THE INVASION OF GRENADA.
1983 - US invades Caribbean nation of Grenada, partly prompted by its concerns over the island's ties with Cuba.

THE INVASION OF PANAMA
1989 - US troops invade Panama, oust its government and arrest its leader, one-time Central Intelligence Agency informant General Manuel Noriega, on drug-trafficking charges.

THE GULF WAR
1990- August 2, 1990 - Iraq invades its neighbor, Kuwait, setting into motion the beginning of U.S. involvement in the Gulf War.  Four days later, the United Nations begins a global trade embargo against Iraq.  On November 29, the United Nations passes a resolution, #678, stating that Iraq must withdraw its forces from Kuwait by January 15, 1991 or face military intervention.
1991 - US forces play dominant role in war against Iraq, which was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and ended with the expulsion of Iraqi troops from that country.


KOSOVO
1999- January- Serbs driving out Kosovars through mass murder or ethnic cleansing. NATO bombs Serb Positions in Kosovo.
1999- 24 March- 10 June- NATO, led by US NATO forces, launches air strikes, destroying government offices, bridges over the Danube, and power stations. The Serbs are forced to withdraw from Kosovo.

THE 9/11 ATTACKS.
2001 11 September - Coordinated suicide attacks on various high-profile targets, prompting the US to embark on a ''war on terror'' which includes the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
2001 October - US leads massive campaign of air strikes against Afghanistan and helps opposition forces defeat the Taliban regime and find Saudi-born dissident Osama Bin Laden, who is suspected of masterminding the 11 September attacks.

THE IRAQ WAR
 2002-2003- The United States, searching for a pretext to invade Iraq as part of a Middle Eastern democracy project, attempts to gain United Nations approval by claiming that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has concealed Weapons of Mass Destruction, namely agents used in bacterial or chemical warfare. United Nations inspectors find no such weapons. The United States then invades Iraq unilaterally.


2011- CIVIL WAR IN LIBYA- 
No fly zone and air support for Libyan rebels fighting the Qaddafi regime in U.N. operation led by France, the United States and Britain.  

Same Nations in Syrian Standoff Two Centuries Ago.

HISTORY IN THE NEWS

Dedicated to the background of contemporary events around the world. 

Syria: The Obligation to Protect is Nothing New.

Hugh Graham, August 29, 2013.

            In 1876, the British public cried out for the protection of Serbs being slaughtered by their Ottoman rulers. Prime Minister Disraeli decided against it: he felt that Britain needed the Ottoman empire as a bulwark against Russia. 

            As the United States moves war ships closer to Syria; as France touts evidence for a poison gas attack by Syria's Assad government on its own people, and Britain clamours for intervention, the challenge seems simpler than Disraeli's: merely to protect the Syrian people from atrocities committed by its own government.

             In the region, the diplomatic use of the verb "to protect" is old: it has grown like a plant as big and as ancient as the cedars of Lebanon.The West has expressed the same thing in the same region, though in different ways, over centuries. The present concern of Europe, and Europe's cultural extension, the United States and Canada, plays upon a deep and sometimes murky political unconscious.


              In the nineteenth century, Europe showed concern for the rights of the "djimmi" or "people of the book" in the Levant: the Jews and Orthodox, Catholic and Maronite Christians who were second class citizens under Ottoman rule. France was concerned to protect the Maronite Christian minority in Lebanon which it had sponsored and educated. Britain decided to protect Lebanon's Druze Muslims from their Maronite enemies, as a counterweight to French influence.

           The confused and doddering Ottoman Empire gave first the French, then the British and then the Russians, and then both the British and the Russians the exclusive right to protect the holy places of Christianity. Russia wanted to protect fellow Slavs in the Balkans from their Ottoman masters. Disraeli's British public demanded the protection of Serbs from the Ottomans. More recently, Europe and the United States have helped to protect the state of Israel. They tried to protect peoples and interests during the Lebanese Civil war but were forced out. And presently they have worked to protect the democratic uprising in Libya and stood by unable to protect the Arab Spring anywhere else.

           Back in 19th century there was quite another use of the word "protect" in the same region. Britain and  France wanted to protect their trade with the Levant. Britain wanted to protect her eastern Mediterranean sea route to British India first from French and then from Russian ambitions. Russia wanted to protect naval access to the Mediterranean from British interference. Europe wanted to protect the Balkans from Russian ambitions. Russia wanted to protect the Balkans from both Europe and from Ottoman Turkey. Almost everyone sought protection from one another by using the Ottomans as a buffer. All that protecting usually coincided with the the protection of certain peoples and ethnic groups.

             It might be said that this time it's different, that the Western urge to intervene is purely humanitarian. But the same actors are still there and in some ways doing the same things. Is it purely a coincidence? Not entirely. The geography hasn't changed. Moreover, humanitarianism is mostly a western and somewhat Christian idea- at its most noble and its most ridiculous.

             Does it coincide with more practical interests as it did before? The United States and especially Europe want to protect themselves from the Islamist Syria that glowers on the horizon. Or at least the failed state and launching pad for anti-western terrorism that Syria will certainly become if the West can't find a way of controlling the civil war or waging the peace. Russia wants the same thing- but with Assad still in power because, like Russia, he is suspicious of democracy, he is secular, he is Russia's long-time client and he guarantees Russian naval access to the Mediterranean.

            So if there is Western intervention in Syria, it will not be an entirely holy war. And of course it never was. And even if it may be a little bit holier this time, it will be much, much messier.

The Syria Vacuum- How Middle Eastern Ultranationalists view their countries' Georgraphic Heritage.

HISTORY IN THE NEWS

Dedicated to the background of contemporary events around the world. 

IN BRIEF: "Irredentism" (from Italian irredento, "unredeemed") is any position of a state advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. (Wikipedia)
 

THE FACTS: 

-Syria lies at the heart of the "Greater Syria" of Syrian nationalists and at the heart of the "Greater Iraq" of Iraqi nationalists. The southwestern corner of Syria is part of the Zionist vision of a "Greater Israel." Northern Syria would be included in a Greater Kurdistan or home country for the Kurds. An emirate, imagined by Al Qaeda (which recognizes no modern borders) would combine Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.   

The maps below suggest the aspirations of extreme nationalists or "irridentists" in various Middle Eastern nations should the region erupt in serious, all-out conflict:





The Umayyad Caliphate (cira 700 AD)- The Syrian capital, Damascus, was the seat of the Umayyads, the first Islamic Caliphate. Some in Al Qaeda and Al Nusra would doubtless dream of seeing such a Caliphate spring once again from Syria but of course that would have to be a failed state, a Syria in ruins.
 

 

Greater Syria-  "Greater Syria" or "Bilad al-Sham." According to the wesbite, Geocurrents, "Advocates of a Greater Syria dream of uniting all of the historically Arabic-speaking lands of the eastern Mediterranean. The broadest claims, with the maximal ideological justifications, are advanced by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). The SSNP has designs on a vast territory, encompassing not just the lands of the eastern Mediterranean, but also all of Iraq and significant parts of Iran and Turkey."


 
The United Arab Republic was  a scheme more or less forced on Egyptian president Abdul Nasser in order to prevent a Communist takeover in Syria. It lasted from 1958 to 1961 before its collapse. The idea of unifying Syria with Egypt oddly coincides with the ancient Egyptian empire which stretched from Egypt, through Palestine to Syria.





Greater Iran-  For Iranian ultra-nationalists, Greater Iran would embrace all ethnically Iranian and Farsi-speaking peoples. It approximates the empire of the Persian Sassanids in 600 AD. A greater Iran which erased Israel and controlled all of Palestine would conform more or less to the Persian empire at its greatest extent in about 500 BC.



Greater Iraq- "Map of a Greater Iraq as envisioned by some Iraqi nationalists. The dark green represents contemporary Iraq. The medium green represents territory both claimed by Iraqi nationalists and held by Iraq such as Kuwait under Iraqi occupation, 1990-1991) or held in union by Iraq such as its federation with Joerdan, including Jordanian control over the West Bank during the 1950s. Light green represents territory claimed by Iraqi nationalists that was not held by Iraq" (Wikipedia)






Greater Israel- as it was conceived by the World Zionist Organization in 1918. This ancient historical conception includes southern Lebanon and southwestern Syria.






Greater Kurdistan- is only an idea. It has no home state. It is only the dream of Kursdish nationalists who would form a Kurdish nation out of the border region joining Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

The "Al Qaeda Caliphate" and its "Emirates": Map from an anti-Islamist website which has also appeared on the website for Foreign Policy: (http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/category/topic/al_qaeda) : "The graphic above shows the governance areas for the caliphate that al Qaeda has claimed it is in the process of creating through the jihads of its branches. The exact boundaries of these areas are open to discussion, but the names and general territories are as described by al Qaeda". http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/02/17/confidential-letter-from-al-qaeda-told-jihadists-in-mali-to-hide-their-global-caliphate-agenda/

IN HISTORY:
  

RELEVANT DATES: