Canada and Chemical Weapons :: Canadian Canada History

Canada and Chemical Weapons Chemical weapons date back the Peloponnesian war of 428-424 BC when they were used against the Spartans; the chemicals used were incendiary devices and sulfur-based gases that were blown by the wind onto besieged cities. The chemical weapons used then aren't nearly as deadly as those used in more recent times such as mustard gas, they were more to cause there enemies to retreat. There have been many incidents in history in which chemical weapons have been used as I have found in two articles on the history of chemical weapons. The articles I found are "A Short History of Chemical Weapons", and "Creating the Faith: The Canadian Gas Services in the First World War". Chemical weapons have been used in many occasions in war, including Ancient Times, The Middle Ages, World War I, and World War II and so on throughout time. Many kinds of chemical weapons have been used but modern chemical weapons started on April 22, 1915, with the Germans use of Chlorine gas on the Allie troops in WWI. In this incident 6,000 cylinders of the gas were released by 2 battalions along a 6 kilometer of the front, and the wind dispersed the clouds of gas killing 5,000 soldiers and putting 1,500 more out of the war. This caused great panic because nothing like this had happened before and wasn't expected by the allies. Previous to this event in the Middle Ages they used such things as arsenic and more natural things as chemicals which were as powerful as the chlorine gas ended up being in WWI. Chemical weapons were used many times after the Germans used chlorine gas in WWI, chlorine, phosgene, benzyl bromide, hydrogen cyanide, and then mustard gas in 1917. Mustard gas bec ame the worst and most popular chemical weapon used when it came out because of how harmful it was to the enemies; in addition it was figured that 1,300,000 soldiers were killed by the chemical weapons by the end of WWI. This essay stated that: "If the first World War had continued for yet another year it would indeed have been called the first Chemical War" (A Short History of Chemical Weapons) In WWII the use of chemical weapons decreased a lot and was only used in the Far East. Since WWI has really been called the birthplace of chemical weapons Tim Cook starts his article there with the Germans use of chlorine gas and how chemical weapon use escalated from that point.