Canadian History and Governance

• Canada's growth began with the first Indigenous migrations 12,000 to 16,500 years ago.

First Indigenous Migrations

• Migrants developed unique cultures shaped by environmental factors.
• Some groups were agricultural, while most hunted and gathered.

First European Contacts

• Vikings attempted settlement but failed.
• John Cabot (British) claimed Newfoundland in 1497 but vanished.
• Jacques Cartier (French) failed but made contact with the Iroquois.
• Cartier took an Iroquois leader to France, where he died.

New France

• Samuel de Champlain (French) founded New France, a continuous European settlement.
• Champlain, an entrepreneur, sought beaver pelts.
• Puritans settled in Massachusetts in 1630.

French and English Contact

• The French engaged in the fur trade and allied with the Huron and Algonquian.
• The French had relatively good relations with Indigenous peoples, needing their cooperation for trapping.
• The fur trade kept the land relatively unchanged, unlike farming.
• The French built trading forts and ports but lacked the manpower to defend them.
• The British focused on farming and tried to enslave Indigenous peoples, leading to bad relations.
• British farming practices required displacing Indigenous populations.

Seven Years' War

• European affairs affected other parts of the world.
• France ceded New France to Britain, making eastern North America British.
• The Royal Proclamation and Quebec Act angered Americans.

American Revolution

• Loyalists who disagreed with the revolution left the U.S. for Canada.

Constitutional Act of 1791

• Divided Canada into Upper Canada and Lower Canada colonies.

War of 1812

• An attempt to overthrow the British failed.

Failed Revolutions of 1837

• The Durham Report of 1839 analyzed the causes of the rebellions.
• The report called for the assimilation of French Canadians.

Act of Union

• Gave the colonies some power, but Britain remained in control.
• Marked the beginning of responsible government and democracy due to British influence.

Confederation of Canada

• The British North America Act became the Constitution of Canada.
• Canada gained control of domestic affairs but not foreign affairs.

Culture Clash

• Early agricultural societies developed administrative institutions and family governance.
• Religion broadened the idea of family beyond blood relations.
• Grain surpluses enabled the development of an administrative class.

Acadians and New France

• The Beaver Wars in the 1600s involved conflicts over access to northern pelts.
• The War of Spanish Succession led to the Treaty of Utrecht.
• Britain took most of Acadia, while France kept Île St. Jean and Île Royale.
• Britain governed French Catholics, and more British colonists arrived in Acadia.
• The British wanted Acadians to swear loyalty and reject Catholicism.

Louisburg

• The French built Louisburg on Île Royale to protect merchant ships.
• During the War of Austrian Succession, the English attacked and took Louisburg.
• Many Acadians supported the French, raising questions of loyalty.
• The British began construction at Halifax.
• Louisburg was eventually returned to the French.

Jesuits Arrive

• The Protestant Reformation led to the Catholic Counter-Reformation and the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).
• Jesuits established religious and educational institutions to centralize power back to the Pope.
• This marked the beginning of ultramontanism, emphasizing papal powers.
• Jesuits faced attacks and killings due to being seen as harbingers of disease.
• Jesuit devotion became a key element of Quebec society, which remained attached to its faith while France became more secular.
• Religious orders, including the Jesuits, became a foundation of the education system.
• The first Jesuit school in Canada was established in 1635.

Seven Years' War and Treaty of Paris

• The French lost most of New France to the English in the Treaty of Paris (1763).
• The French retained St. Pierre and Miquelon.
• Tensions began between the British government and English colonists in North America.
• The French and First Nations saw benefits in aligning with the British rather than the soon-to-be U.S. colonists. -The English colonists rebelled.
• Imperial powers brought major European powers to war in 1756.
• Competing interests in North America brought the war to New France.
• First Nations were drawn into the war, with their futures dependent on the nations they allied with.
• Battles occurred at Louisbourg (1758) and Quebec City (1759), with British troops occupying Montreal in 1760, ending New France.

BNA in 1763

• The thirteen colonies separated from British North America: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
• The American Revolution started in Massachusetts, leading to British punishment.
• Other colonies feared similar treatment and joined forces for independence.
• Nova Scotia and Quebec remained part of British North America.
• The thirteen colonies were progressive and independent, while Nova Scotia and Quebec depended on Britain.
• The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ceded all land (except St. Pierre and Miquelon) to Britain.
• The Decapitation Thesis involved the out-migration of French elites who saw no future in the colony.
• Catholics (Jesuits) remained to transform the region, even under British rule.
• The people of Quebec became increasingly dependent on religion for leadership.
• The French did not develop the bourgeois mentality needed for the coming industrial revolution.
• Business interests became dominated by English Protestants.

Problems with the Proclamation Act of 1763

• A military government operated in Quebec until after the Seven Years' War.
• Governing the French, who greatly outnumbered the English, required accommodation.
• Determining the status of the Catholic Church was an issue.
• The Proclamation Act sets the stage for the American Revolution
• Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1766) was a war between Native Americans and the British in the Ohio Country and around the Great Lakes.
• It Prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, upsetting the English colonists who expected to settle and farm that land.
• British debts from the Seven Years' War led to the belief that colonists should pay.
• Following the Proclamation Act, relations between the British and colonists declined.
• English colonists had developed autonomy and elected colonial councils.
• They sought to preserve their freedom in a conservative democratic revolution.
• The English colonists viewed the checks and balances from the English Civil War and Glorious Revolution as belonging to them.
• The British believed the colonists benefited from trade opportunities and security.
• Taxation without Representation: The American colonists were being taxed by the British crown due to mercantilism.

Taxes imposed by the British

• Sugar Act: Taxed sugar, molasses, and other goods.
• Stamp Act: Required colonists to buy a stamp for every piece of paper.
• Rebellions led to its repeal in 1766.
• Townshend Act: Imposed duties on imported goods like glass and tea.
• All taxes were revoked except the one on tea.
• Tax on tea became a symbolic gesture of British authority and oppression.

Tea Act and Boston Tea Party

• The Tea Act of 1773 aided the financially struggling British East India Company by granting it a tea monopoly.
• The Boston Tea Party involved colonists destroying tea on British ships.
• Cost almost 2 million dollars and angered the British Crown, leading to the Coercive Acts.

British Response to the Boston Tea Party

• Passed the Intolerable Acts in 1774, including:
• Boston Port Act: Closed Boston's port until the East India Company was repaid.
• Administration of Justice Act: Allowed British officials to be tried in Britain.
• Massachusetts Government Act: Revoked Massachusetts' charter, preventing them from electing officials.
• Quartering Act: Required colonists to house and care for British troops.
• Quebec Act: Expanded Quebec's border into American territory and established Catholicism as its primary religion.
• These acts contributed to rising resentment, leading to the formation of militias.
• The Declaration of Independence was declared on July 4, 1776.

First Continental Congress

• Following the Intolerable Acts, 12 colonies met to decide how to respond to Britain.
• Quebec was invited but declined due to reasonable treatment by the British, a desire to avoid being part of an English Protestant country, and the benefits of the British Empire's links.
• The Americans invaded Quebec in December 1775, believing the people wanted liberation from the British.
• Benedict Arnold led troops to Quebec City but were turned back by British troops.
• Guy Carleton led French militia, but they were not eager to fight.
• The Americans fled as winter came.

Impact of American War of Independence

• Many in the thirteen colonies did not support the war against Britain.
• Around 40,000 Loyalists moved north into Nova Scotia and Quebec.
• They were unified under an idea of conservatism.
• Loyalists in Nova Scotia: Approximately 30,000 arrived and demanded their own colony, leading to the creation of New Brunswick in 1784.
• Loyalists in Quebec: Approximately 10,000 arrived, desiring elected councils.
• The Constitutional Act in 1791 granted them their own colony, Upper Canada (Ontario).
• Quebec, now Lower Canada, became smaller.
• Both colonies were granted elected assemblies to represent their interests to the British.
• Provisions favoring the French in the Quebec Act were maintained.
• Foundations were laid for democratic governance in Canada, a bilingual and multicultural nation, and a comparison with the democratic, populous, and economically successful U.S.
• Increased immigration threatened the Quebecois and native way of life.

Royal Proclamation & Quebec Act

• Royal Proclamation: Established new laws to govern North America and its territories, aiming to solidify British influence on trade and the economy.
• French-Speaking Canadians: Adjusted to new British law, concerned about preserving their language, culture, and religion due to the Acadian deportation and fear of British encroachment and church closures.
• British Crown: Organized ruling by compartmentalizing society, favoring New France and Indigenous peoples with land to ensure loyalty and prevent American autonomy, expanding and controlling colonists to pay off war debts, recognizing the importance of securing the future for English settlers.
• Americans: Sought to expand to the west into former French territory, driven by a culture of seeking better opportunities in new places, restricted from entering certain lands granted to New France or Indigenous peoples, subjected to new laws that prioritized British rule.
• Indigenous groups: Worried about British policies affecting them, sought protection of newly gained territory from British farming settlers, viewed the situation as good in the short term due to French allies but bad in the long term due to increased contact with European settlers.

Quebec Act:

• French-Speaking Canadians: Viewed the act positively, as it restored their religion, permitted French civil laws and the seigneurial system, and allowed Catholics to hold government positions, aiming to ensure their loyalty.
• British Crown: Saw Quebec as a strategic location for troops in case of war and accommodated French needs and customs to govern better.
• Americans: Angered by the expansion of Quebec into their land, disliked the reinstatement of the Catholic Church, feeling that the British favored the French while punishing them with the Intolerable Acts.
• Indigenous groups: Sought to protect their territories from incoming British settlers, viewing the situation as good in the short term due to French allies but bad in the long term due to increased contact with settlers.