Editing History of Canada (section)

==Canada under British rule ==
{{Main|Canada under British rule|British North America}}
[[File:NorthAmerica1762-83.png|thumb|upright=1.2|Map showing British territorial gains following the [[Seven Years' War]]. [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]] gains in pink, and Spanish territorial gains after the [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762)|Treaty of Fontainebleau]] in yellow.]]
As part of the terms of the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], signed after the defeat of New France in the [[Seven Years' War]], France renounced its claims to territory in mainland [[North America]], except for fishing rights off Newfoundland and the two small islands of [[Saint Pierre and Miquelon]] where its fishermen could dry their fish. France had already secretly transferred its vast [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana territory]] to Spain under the [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762)]] in which King [[Louis XV]] of France had given his cousin King [[Charles III of Spain]] the entire area of the [[drainage basin]] of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the [[Gulf of Mexico]] and from the [[Appalachian Mountains]] to the [[Rocky Mountains]]. France and Spain kept the Treaty of Fontainebleau secret from other countries until 1764.<ref name="FrentzosThompson2014">{{cite book|last1=Frentzos|first1=Christos G.|last2=Thompson|first2=Antonio S.|title=The Routledge Handbook of American Military and Diplomatic History: The Colonial Period to 1877|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SkmDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA87|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-81335-4|page=87}}</ref> However under the Treaty of Paris, the eastern side of the Mississippi river basin became British territory. Great Britain returned to France its most important sugar-producing colony, [[Guadeloupe]], which the French considered more valuable than Canada. (Guadeloupe produced more sugar than all the British islands combined, and [[Voltaire]] had notoriously dismissed Canada as "{{lang|fr|Quelques arpents de neige}}", "[[A few acres of snow]]").<ref name="(Peter)1987b">{{cite book|last1=Kerr |first1=Donald P. (Peter) |title=Historical Atlas of Canada [cartographic Material] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=itsTLSnw8qgC&pg=PA171 |year=1987 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-2495-4 |page=171 }}</ref>

Following the Treaty of Paris, King [[George III]] issued the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]].<ref name=William>{{cite web |title=The Royal Proclamation |url=http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/rp_1763.html |publisher=The Solon Law Archive |first1=William F |last1=Maton |year=1996 |access-date=April 11, 2010 }}</ref> The proclamation organized [[British colonization of the Americas|Great Britain's new North American empire]] and stabilized relations between [[The Canadian Crown and Aboriginal peoples|the British Crown and Aboriginal peoples]], formally recognizing aboriginal title, regulated trade, settlement, and land purchases on the [[Frontier|western frontier]].<ref name=William/> In the former French territory, the new British rulers of Canada first abolished and then later reinstated most of the property, religious, political, and social culture of the French-speaking {{lang|fr|habitants}}, guaranteeing the right of the {{lang|fr|Canadiens}} to practice the Catholic faith and to the use of [[Law of France|French civil law]] (now [[Quebec Civil Code]]) in the [[Quebec Act]] of 1774, passed by the British Parliament.<ref>{{cite web|title=Original text of The Quebec Act of 1774 |url=http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/qa_1774.html |publisher=Canadiana (Library and Archives Canada)|date=1774|access-date=April 11, 2010}}</ref>

===American Revolution and the Loyalists===
{{Further|Invasion of Quebec (1775)|Nova Scotia in the American Revolution}}
[[File:Canadian militiamen and British soldiers repulse the American assault at Sault-au-Matelot.jpg|thumb|left|British soldiers and the [[Canadian militia]] repel an American column during the [[Battle of Quebec (1775)|Battle of Quebec]]]]
During the [[American Revolution]], there was some sympathy for the [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|American cause]] among the Acadians and the New Englanders in Nova Scotia.<ref name=Kenneth/> Neither party joined the rebels, although several hundred individuals joined the revolutionary cause.<ref name=Kenneth>{{cite book|first1=Kenneth|last1=McNaught|title=The Pelican History of Canada|publisher=Pelican|page=[https://archive.org/details/pelicanhistoryof00mcna/page/2 2d ed. 53]|year=1976|isbn=978-0-14-021083-5|url=https://archive.org/details/pelicanhistoryof00mcna/page/2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Raddall|first1=Thomas Head|title=Halifax Warden of the North|publisher=McClelland and Stewart|page=[https://archive.org/details/halifaxwardenofn00radd_1/page/85 85]|year=2003|isbn=978-1-55109-060-3|url=https://archive.org/details/halifaxwardenofn00radd_1/page/85}}</ref> An [[Invasion of Quebec (1775)|invasion of Quebec]] by the [[Continental Army]] in 1775, with a goal to take Quebec from British control, was halted at the [[Battle of Quebec (1775)|Battle of Quebec]] by [[Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester|Guy Carleton]], with the assistance of local militias. The defeat of the British army during the [[Siege of Yorktown]] in October 1781 signalled the end of Great Britain's struggle to suppress the American Revolution.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smuggling.co.uk/history_expansion.html |title=The expansion and final suppression of smuggling in Britain |publisher=Smuggling.co.uk |access-date=August 23, 2010}}</ref>

When the British [[History of New York City|evacuated New York City]] in 1783, they took many Loyalist refugees to Nova Scotia, while other Loyalists went to southwestern Quebec. So many Loyalists arrived on the shores of the [[Saint John River (New Brunswick)|St. John River]] that a separate colony—[[New Brunswick]]—was created in 1784;<ref>{{cite web|title=Territorial Evolution, 1867|url=http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/auth/english/maps/historical/territorialevolution/1867/1|publisher=Natural Resources Canada|year=2010|access-date=April 12, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215180858/http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/auth/english/maps/historical/territorialevolution/1867/1|archive-date=December 15, 2010}}</ref> followed in 1791 by the division of [[Quebec]] into the largely French-speaking [[Lower Canada]] ([[French Canada]]) along the St. Lawrence River and the Gaspé Peninsula and an anglophone Loyalist [[Upper Canada]], with its capital settled by 1796 in [[York, Upper Canada|York]] (present-day [[Toronto]]).<ref name="Armstrong1985">{{cite book|first1=F. H. |last1=Armstrong|title=Handbook of Upper Canadian Chronology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZL9EJW4v2FYC&pg=PA2|year=1985|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=978-0-919670-92-1|page=2}}</ref> After 1790, most of the new settlers were American farmers searching for new lands; although generally favourable to republicanism, they were relatively non-political and stayed neutral in the [[War of 1812]].<ref>{{cite book|first1= Fred |last1=Landon |title=Western Ontario and the American Frontier|year=1941|publisher=Carleton University Press|pages=17–22|isbn=978-0-7710-9734-8}}</ref> In 1785, Saint John, New Brunswick became the first incorporated city in what would later become Canada.<ref name="thecanadianencyclopedia.ca"/>

[[File:Henry Sandham - The Coming of the Loyalists.jpg|thumb|Landing of [[United Empire Loyalists|loyalist migrants]] to [[New Brunswick]], 1783. After the [[American Revolutionary War]], the remaining [[British North America]]n colonies saw an influx of loyalist migrants.]]
[[File:AricanNovaScotianByCaptain William Booth1788.png|thumb|A [[Black Loyalist]] wood cutter in [[Shelburne, Nova Scotia]] in 1788]]

The signing of the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1783 formally ended the war. Great Britain made several concessions to the US at the expense of the North American colonies.<ref name=Jones>{{cite book|first1=Howard |last1=Jones|title=Crucible of power: a history of American foreign relations to 1913|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TFyLOUrdGFwC&pg=PA23|access-date=September 17, 2011|year=2002|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8420-2916-2|page=23}}</ref> Notably, the [[Canada–United States border|borders between Canada and the United States]] were officially demarcated;<ref name=Jones/> all land south and west of the Great Lakes, which was formerly a part of the [[Province of Quebec (1763-1791)|Province of Quebec]] and included modern-day Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, was ceded to the Americans. Fishing rights were also granted to the United States in the [[Gulf of St. Lawrence]] and on the coast of Newfoundland and the [[Grand Banks]].<ref name=Jones/> The British ignored part of the treaty and maintained their military outposts in the Great Lakes areas it had ceded to the U.S., and they continued to supply their native allies with munitions. The British evacuated the outposts with the [[Jay Treaty]] of 1795, but the continued supply of munitions irritated the Americans in the run-up to the War of 1812.<ref name="Willig2008">{{cite book|first1=Timothy D. |last1=Willig |title=Restoring the chain of friendship: British policy and the Indians of the Great Lakes, 1783–1815|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FtzyNOrEjY8C&pg=PP1YEAR|publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-4817-5 |pages=243–44<!---The holding forts = p 14; Jay treaty is pp 55-56; evacuation of posts = p 59; weapon sales are on p 104 & 121; support for Indians in Midwest = 59-61; Indians in Michigan = p 76--->|year=2008}}</ref>

Canadian historians have had mixed views on the long-term impact of the American Revolution. [[Arthur R. M. Lower|Arthur Lower]] in the 1950s provided the long-standard historical interpretation that for English Canada the results were counter-revolutionary:

<blockquote>[English Canada] inherited, not the benefits, but the bitterness of the Revolution…. English Canada started its life with as powerful a nostalgic shove backward into the past as the Conquest had given to French Canada: two little peoples officially devoted to counter-revolution, to lost causes, to the tawdry ideals of a society of men and masters, and not to the self-reliant freedom alongside of them.<ref name="Lower1958">{{cite book|first1=A.R.M.|last1=Lower|title=Canadians in the making: a social history of Canada|url=https://www.questia.com/read/982591/canadians-in-the-making-a-social-history-of-canada|year=1958|publisher=Longmans, Green|pages=135–36|access-date=August 29, 2017|archive-date=February 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180213025019/https://www.questia.com/read/982591/canadians-in-the-making-a-social-history-of-canada|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

Recently Michel Ducharme has agreed that Canada did indeed oppose "republican liberty", as exemplified by the United States and France. However, he says it did find a different path forward when it fought against British rulers after 1837 to secure "modern liberty". That form of liberty focused not on the virtues of citizens but on protecting their rights from infringement by the state.<ref>Michel Ducharme, ''The Idea of Liberty in Canada during the Age of Atlantic Revolutions, 1776–1838'' (2014).</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = McNairn | first1 = Jeffrey L. | year = 2016 | title = As the Tsunami of Histories of Atlantic and Liberal Revolutions Wash up in Upper Canada: Worries from a Colonial Shore | journal = History Compass | volume = 14 | issue = 9| pages = 407–429 | doi = 10.1111/hic3.12334 }}</ref>

===War of 1812===
{{Main|War of 1812}}
[[File:Laura Secord warns Fitzgibbons, 1813.jpg|thumb|Loyalist [[Laura Secord]] warning the British Lieutenant [[James FitzGibbon]] and First Nations of an impending [[Battle of Beaver Dams|American attack at Beaver Dams]], 1813]]
The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and the British, with the British North American colonies being heavily involved.<ref name="ThompsonRandall2002">{{cite book|first1=John |last1=Herd Thompson |first2=Stephen J. |last2=Randall|title=Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies|url=https://archive.org/details/canadaunitedstat00thom_0|url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-2403-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/canadaunitedstat00thom_0/page/19 19]}}</ref> Greatly outgunned by the [[Royal Navy|British Royal Navy]], the American war plans focused on an invasion of Canada (especially what is today [[Eastern Ontario|eastern]] and [[Southwestern Ontario|western Ontario]]). The American frontier states voted for war to suppress the First Nations raids that frustrated the settlement of the frontier.<ref name="ThompsonRandall2002"/> The war on the border with the United States was characterized by a series of multiple failed invasions and fiascos on both sides. American forces took control of [[Lake Erie]] in 1813, driving the British out of western Ontario, killing the Shawnee leader [[Tecumseh]], and breaking the military power of [[Tecumseh's Confederacy|his confederacy]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
 |last1        = Allen
 |first1       = Robert S
 |first2       = Tabitha
 |last2        = Marshall
 |title        = Tecumseh
 |encyclopedia = [[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]
 |publisher    = [[Historica Canada]]
 |edition      = online
 |date         = July 23, 2015
|url          = https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/tecumseh
 |access-date  = January 17, 2016
|archive-date = December 5, 2013
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20131205082828/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/tecumseh/
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> The war was overseen by British army officers like [[Isaac Brock]] and [[Charles de Salaberry]] with the assistance of First Nations and loyalist informants, most notably [[Laura Secord]].<ref>{{cite DCB |first=Ruth |last=McKenzie |title=Ingersoll, Laura |volume=9 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ingersoll_laura_9E.html}}</ref>

The War ended with no boundary changes thanks to the [[Treaty of Ghent]] of 1814, and the [[Rush–Bagot Treaty]] of 1817.<ref name="ThompsonRandall2002"/> A demographic result was the shifting of the destination of American migration from Upper Canada to [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]] and [[Michigan]], without fear of Indigenous attacks.<ref name="ThompsonRandall2002"/> After the war, supporters of Britain tried to repress the [[republicanism in Canada|republicanism]] that was common among American [[Immigration to Canada|immigrants to Canada]].<ref name="ThompsonRandall2002"/> The troubling memory of the war and the American invasions etched itself into the consciousness of Canadians as a distrust of the intentions of the United States towards the British presence in North America.<ref name=Gwyn>{{cite book|first1=Richard |last1=Gwyn|title=John A: The Man Who Made Us|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHs8qlWcl4gC&pg=PP1|volume=1|year=2008|publisher=Random House of Canada|isbn=978-0-679-31476-9|page=1}}</ref><sup>pp.&nbsp;254–255</sup>

===Rebellions and the Durham Report===
{{Further|Rebellions of 1837|Durham Report}}
[[File:L'Assemblée des six comtés à Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu, en 1837 by Charles Alexander 1891.tif|thumb|Leaders of the [[Patriote movement]] and their followers during the [[Assembly of the Six Counties]] in 1837.]]
The [[rebellions of 1837]] against the [[British Empire|British colonial government]] took place in both Upper and Lower Canada. In Upper Canada, a band of Reformers under the leadership of [[William Lyon Mackenzie]] took up arms in a disorganized and ultimately unsuccessful series of small-scale skirmishes around Toronto, [[London, Ontario|London]], and [[Hamilton, Ontario|Hamilton]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/explore.php?Lang=1&tableid=11&tablename=theme&elementid=2__true |title=The 1837–1838 Rebellion in Lower Canada |website=McCord Museum's collections |date=1999 |access-date=December 10, 2006}}</ref>

In Lower Canada, a more substantial rebellion occurred against British rule. Both English- and French-Canadian rebels, sometimes using bases in the neutral United States, fought several skirmishes against the authorities. The towns of [[Chambly, Quebec|Chambly]] and [[Sorel, Quebec|Sorel]] were taken by the rebels, and Quebec City was isolated from the rest of the colony. Montreal rebel leader [[Robert Nelson (insurrectionist)|Robert Nelson]] read the "[[Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada]]" to a crowd assembled at the town of [[Napierville, Quebec|Napierville]] in 1838.<ref name=Elinor/> The rebellion of the ''[[Patriote movement]]'' was defeated after battles across Quebec. Hundreds were arrested, and several villages were burnt in reprisal.<ref name=Elinor>{{cite book|first1=Allan |last1=Greer|title=The Patriots and the People: The Rebellion of the 1837 in Rural Lower Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/patriotspeoplere0000gree|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-6930-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/patriotspeoplere0000gree/page/6 6]}}</ref>
[[File:Incendie Parlement Montreal.jpg|thumb|left|The [[burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal]] in 1849. Painting by [[Joseph Légaré]], c. 1849.]]
The British government then sent [[John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham|Lord Durham]] to examine the situation; he stayed in Canada for five months before returning to Britain, bringing with him his [[Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839)|Durham Report]], which strongly recommended [[responsible government]].<ref name=Responsible/> A less well-received recommendation was the amalgamation of Upper and Lower Canada for the deliberate assimilation of the French-speaking population. [[The Canadas]] were merged into a single colony, the [[United Province of Canada]], by the 1840 [[Act of Union (1840)|Act of Union]], and responsible government was achieved in 1848, a few months after it was accomplished in Nova Scotia.<ref name=Responsible>{{cite web|title=1839–1849, Union and Responsible Government|url=http://www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/constitution/constitution11_e.html|publisher=Canada in the Making project|year=2005|access-date=April 11, 2010}}</ref> The parliament of [[United Canada]] in Montreal was [[Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal|set on fire by a mob of Tories]] in 1849 after the passing of an indemnity bill for the people who suffered losses during the rebellion in Lower Canada.<ref name="FrancisFrancis2009b">{{cite book |first1=R. D. |last1=Francis |first2=Richard |last2=Jones |first3=Donald B. |last3=Smith|title=Journeys: A History of Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GbbZRIOKclsC&pg=PA147|year= 2009|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-17-644244-6|page=147}}</ref>

Between the [[Napoleonic Wars]] and 1850, some 800,000 immigrants came to the colonies of British North America, mainly from the [[British Isles]], as part of the [[Great Migration of Canada|great migration of Canada]].<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis | url = http://www.minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/04-05/essay.cfm | title = The Industrial Revolution | access-date = November 14, 2007 | first1= Robert Jr. |last1=Lucas | year = 2003 | quote = it is fairly clear that up to 1800 or maybe 1750, no society had experienced sustained growth in per capita income. (Eighteenth-century population growth also averaged one-third of one per cent, the same as production growth.) That is, up to about two centuries ago, per capita [[real income|incomes]] in all societies stagnated at around $400 to $800 per year. | author-link = Robert Lucas, Jr. | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080516211911/http://minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/04-05/essay.cfm | archive-date = May 16, 2008 }}</ref> These included [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]]-speaking [[Highland Scots]] displaced by the [[Highland Clearances]] to Nova Scotia and Scottish and English settlers to the Canadas, particularly Upper Canada. The Irish Famine of the 1840s significantly increased the pace of [[Irish Catholic]] immigration to British North America, with over 35,000 distressed Irish landing in Toronto alone in 1847 and 1848.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Mark |last1=McGowan|title=Death or Canada: the Irish Famine Migration to Toronto 1847|publisher=Novalis Publishing Inc|year= 2009|page= 97|isbn=978-2-89646-129-5}}</ref>

===Pacific colonies===
{{Further|History of British Columbia}}
[[File:Oregoncountry2.png|thumb|Map of the [[Columbia District]], also referred to as [[Oregon Country]]. The region was [[Oregon boundary dispute|disputed territory]] between the UK and the US until 1846, with the signing of the [[Oregon Treaty]].]]
Spanish explorers had taken the lead in the [[Pacific Northwest|Pacific Northwest coast]], with the voyages of [[Juan José Pérez Hernández]] in 1774 and 1775.<ref name=Barman>{{cite book|first1=Jean |last1=Barman|title=The West beyond the West: a history of British Columbia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_X_aK5pD5kgC&pg=PA20|year=1996|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-7185-9|page=20}}</ref> By the time the Spanish determined to build a fort on [[Vancouver Island]], the British navigator [[James Cook]] had visited [[Nootka Sound]] and charted the coast as far as Alaska, while British and American [[Maritime Fur Trade|maritime fur traders]] had begun a busy era of commerce with [[Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast|the coastal peoples]] to satisfy the brisk market for sea otter pelts in China, thereby launching what became known as the [[Old China Trade|China Trade]].<ref name=Sutton>{{cite book|first1=John |last1=Sutton Lutz|title=Makúk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2MNSaoAecIC&pg=PA44|year=2009|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=978-0-7748-5827-4|page=44}}</ref>
In 1789 war threatened between Britain and Spain on their respective rights; the [[Nootka Crisis]] was resolved peacefully largely in favour of Britain, the much stronger naval power at the time. In 1793 [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander MacKenzie]], a Scotsman working for the [[North West Company]], crossed the continent and with his Aboriginal guides and French-Canadian crew, reached the mouth of the [[Bella Coola River]], completing the first continental crossing north of Mexico, missing [[George Vancouver]]'s charting expedition to the region by only a few weeks.<ref>{{cite book
|first1=Margaret
|last1=Ormsby
|author-link = Margaret Ormsby
|title=British Columbia: A History
|publisher=Macmillan
|year=1976
|url=https://www.questia.com/library/book/british-columbia-a-history-by-margaret-a-ormsby.jsp
|isbn=978-0-7581-8813-7
|page= 33
|access-date=April 16, 2010}}</ref> In 1821, the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company merged, with a combined trading territory that was extended by a licence to the [[North-Western Territory]] and the [[Columbia District|Columbia]] and [[New Caledonia (Canada)|New Caledonia]] fur districts, which reached the Arctic Ocean on the north and the Pacific Ocean on the west.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Our History
|publisher=Hudson's Bay Company
|url=http://www.hbc.com/hbc/history/
|year=2009
|access-date=April 16, 2010
|archive-date=April 24, 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100424100034/http://www.hbc.com/hbc/history/
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

The [[Colony of Vancouver Island]] was chartered in 1849, with the trading post at [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] as the capital. This was followed by the [[Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands]] in 1853, and by the creation of the [[Colony of British Columbia (1858-1866)|Colony of British Columbia]] in 1858 and the [[Stikine Territory]] in 1861, with the latter three being founded expressly to keep those regions from being overrun and annexed by American gold miners.<ref name=Barman2>{{cite book|first1=Jean |last1=Barman|title=The West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JbYe6fCOSTAC&pg=PA67|access-date=September 8, 2013|year=2006|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-7185-9|page=67}}</ref> The Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands and most of the Stikine Territory were merged into the Colony of British Columbia in 1863 (the remainder, north of the 60th Parallel, became part of the North-Western Territory).<ref name=Barman2/>