The Forgotten Peace:
Mediation at Niagara Falls, 1914
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by Michael Small
University of Ottawa Press, Ottawa, 2009
152 pp., illus., $24 paperback
Overshadowed in most history books by the First World War, the Mexican Revolution had a curious connection to Canada that is examined by Michael Small in his new book The Forgotten Peace.
In 1914, with American Marines occupying the port of Veracruz and with the United States and Mexico on the verge of war, the two countries accepted a joint offer of mediation from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The site chosen for the peace conference was the Clifton Hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
“For Canadians,” Small notes, “the conference provided an unexpected spectacle on their doorstep, combining high diplomacy and low intrigue around the gardens and cataracts of Canada’s most famous natural attraction.”
While the conference ended with high hopes, it was in the end largely irrelevant. The civil war in Mexico carried on and American-Mexican relations continued to be tense.
Given the conflicts in which our country now finds itself engaged, Small’s resurrection of Canada’s foray into mediation-hosting is an important gesture.
— Joel Ralph (Read bio)
Joel Ralph is the director of programs for Canada's History Society.