The 20th century was a very depressing, brutal and overall gruesome time for the world due to the 108 million lives lost in war. Throughout Canadian history there have been countless events, actions and decisions that we can call defining moments in our history. Over the course of the 20th century, Canada grew to the point of becoming a country in its own right, this was the result of the wars we took part in and we were surprisingly victorious in our battles. In Canadian history, there have been many defining moments such as the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Canada's membership of NATO, and the effects of the Great Depression on Canada. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay In World War I there were many battles to retake land, one of them was Vimy Ridge which was retaken by Canada. The Battle of Vimy Ridge began on April 9 and ended on April 12, 1917. This was an important point to retake because it was a point of territorial advantage and gave our side a great new advantage in the war. The reason why this was a defining moment for Canada is that France tried to retake their land and then British troops tried to retake the position, but they also lost. When the Canadians arrived we took back the land thanks to Arthur Currie's tactics. General Arthur Currie used an expert attack called "Creeping Barrage", in which after firing the artillery took 50 minutes to reload, in which time they continued until they fired again or passed no man's land. This was our greatest victory in World War I and the battle that proved to other countries that we were a strong and independent country. In conclusion, this battle gave us pride and showed others that we were no longer simply British troops, we were Canadians. The Great Depression was a worldwide epidemic that lowered the economy of every country in the world, which led to many problems and, in general, caused the Second World War. After World War I, wartime jobs became widespread, leading to new lows in unemployment in many countries. This was accompanied by buying things on credit, which led to many people buying stocks on credit. On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, leading Canada and many other countries to enter a depression where everything was worth 40% less than before. This is a defining moment in Canadian history because it led to our participation in the Second World War. The war effort gave jobs to many previously unemployed Canadians, which made the economy grow much faster than if there had been no war. The war effort itself lost over 44,000 Canadian lives and 54,000 Canadians were injured, but after the war the previously depressed countries became stable. Therefore, without the war, the depression caused by the stock market would not have been lifted from Canada. NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between North America and Europe, under which if an outside party invades a member of the alliance, other countries will help them fight. After World War II, the Americans and the Soviet Union began a dangerous argument over political systems; Americans wanted a democratic government to rule all countries while the Soviet Union wanted a communist world. Because of this argument, the Soviet Union also sought Canada as an enemy, this pushed Canada to join NATO. Canada joined NATO not only to protect itself from the Soviet Union, but also to.