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Formation of the Hudsons Bay Company & the Fur Trade
The Hudsons Bay Company and the Fur Trade are really the driving forces behind what established us as the country we are today and created one of our biggest trademarks, our racial diversity. The Fur Trade brought together the French Canadiens from Montreal and the Aboriginals, and formed one of the biggest communities in Canada almost to present day, the Metis. The life for these French Canadiens was very difficult during the long times spent canoeing the beaver fur and such things to Montreal. -
Constitution Act of 1791
The Constitutional Act of 1791 was essentially giving a baby a pacifier to make it stop crying. It created the Legislative Assembly which made it look like the people had power, while they actually did not. The government on the surface looked like it was democratic, but it was actually not in the slightest as the Legislative Assembly's decisions never got through. The oligarchy were actually the ones who held all the power in Canada. -
Immigration to Canada
Immigrants to Canada came from all over during the 1800`s, especially poor Irish farmers, Scottish, and Great Britain entrepreneurs and farmers who hoped to obtain land for cheap. English speaking immigrants came to Upper Canada while French immigrants went to lower Canada. With all these people from seperate nationalities flooding into Canada, Canada was slowly becoming more culturally diverse. -
Immigration to Canada cont.
On the other side of things we had the immigration to Canada from African Americans coming from Lousiana, Mississippi, and other southern slave owning states. The reason why they all fled to Canada is because Canada had a stoic no slavery policy. With all of these different nationalities coming into Canada the country was slowly becoming more culturally diverse. -
Early Canadian Immigration: What was it like to live then?
To live in Canada back in the early 1800's was very difficult, Early Canadians were all very poor and constantly in debt. They established a barter system since basically nobody had any form of currency. Another difficulty they had to live with is since nobody had really explored or done much with Canada yet, there were almost no main roads and all of the land was covered with extremely hard trees which they had to cut down themselves if they wished to grow crops. -
The Family Compact
The Family Compact were essentially a group of nobles who thought they were superior to the peasants because they were British Loyalist descendents. This "group of snobs" could not be opposed by the general populace for the most part because they had control of government budgets, and appointments in the government, as well as making up most of the Executive Council. -
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The Three Major Conflicts of Interest Part 2: The Alaskan Boundary Dispute
The debate over the Alaskan Boundary had been going on between the Russians and the British since 1821, but eventually Canada and the United States of America walked in and decided to throw in their own two cents. Each country had their own claim on why the territory should be theirs, but the British were naturally predisposed towards helping the Americans for a healthier relationship with the Americans. In the end Britain helped the Americans and Canada felt betrayed. -
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The Rebellions of 1837 and 1838
The Rebellion of 1837 was caused by many things. For one, the government that was representative, but not responsible. This means that although the people could elect members in a legislative assembly, they did not actually have any real power. A responsible government could only function with the support of the Legislative Assembly. There was also increasing English domination of Lower Canada. By 1830, over half of the traditional signeurial estates were owned by the English. -
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Lord Durham and his Report
While the rebellions of 1837 may have been a colossal failure, they did manage to do one thing. They managed to get the British to pay attention to the problems in British North America (Canada.) While staying he sentenced the ringleaders of the rebellion to Bermuda and kind of just walked around and talked to people about what they wished for their country. In Upper Canada he determined the fault was with the Family Compact while in Lower Canada he found the problem to be predominately racial. -
The Durham Report
In the Durham Report, Lord Durham made three main reccomendations in his report.
1. Upper and Lower Canada should be united as one country (so the Canadiens could be more easily assimilated by the English-speaking denizens.)
2. That the governer be required to choose the members of his Executive Council from the leaders of the Legislative Assembly (thus creating responsible government)
3. That the colonies should be given authority over their own internal affairs. -
The Gold Rush
The Gold Rush is one of the most important things to Canadian and British Columbian history. So many people came flooding in from other countries introducing new technologies and starting up new companies that it was like you would wake up and find new inventions overnight. Thousands of people flooded into the country daily. -
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The Gold Rush
The Cariboo Gold Rush first started in 1849 with a man finding Gold in the Fraser River, although it didnt really get into full swing until 1865. An insane influx of immigrants from all over the world exploded into British Columbia as they had all fallen for the "get rich quick" vibe, although it didnt help them that large amounts had been found. The difference between the fantasy and the reality of it was that most of the riverbeds were empty by the time the influx of immigrants came in. -
Formation of French Political Parties
For British North America to get anything done in its country it had to have people to make decisions which led to the formation of political parties.
For Lower Canada (which changed to East Canada) there was the Parti Rouge led by Antoine-Aime Darion who were allied with the Clear Grits and the Parti Bleu. Their beliefs were American style of government and radicality. They were mostly supported by French farmers and anyone opposed to the English. -
Formation of French Political Parties pt.2
There was also the Parti Bleu which was allied with the Parti Rouge and the Clear Grits. They had no problem forming an alliance with the West Canadian political parties so long as it didnt harm French interests. Their main backers were most French Canadiens, as well as the Catholic Church. -
Formation of English Political Parties
The Clear Grits representing Canada West was lead by George Brown who was allied with the Parti Rouge and the Parti Bleu. Their beliefs were that they hated the French-Catholics (Clear Grits followed the Anglican church.) They also advocated representation by population and the party was for the most part made up of wealthy Englishmen. Their voter support was basically all of Canada West. -
Formation of English Political Parties pt.2
And then there were the underdogs, the Tories. Lead by our first Prime Minister of Canada, John A MacDonald. They were allied with the Parti Bleu and the Clear Grits. John A MacDonald was a very astute politician and the Tories as a whole were a whole lot less democratic than the Clear Grits. The Tories were supported for the most part via urban businesses. The racial diversity in the government of Canada helped to create the cultural mosaic we know and love today. -
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The Charlottetown Conference
The Charlottetown Conference was originally held to discuss the practicality of a Maritime Union only, but the idea was soon dismissed on accounts of it being, yknow, awful. Eventually talks turned to just creating a union of all the colonies across Canada. The Canadians dominated this conference as almost the first four days of it were just them explaining their proposal. The Atlantic Colonies were impressed enough that they decided to hold another conference at a later date. -
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The Quebec Conference
And this was the conference where the actual detailed work was done. The key decision made at this conference is that the form of government should be a Federation with two levels, provincial and federal, rather than a strong national government with just one leve. The pros of this were that a federal union gave colonies control over their own internal affairs, however a con and a fear of many of the founding fathers is that a conflict between provinces could lead to civil war. -
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The Three Major Conflicts of Interest Part 1: The Boer War
This is where some major conflicts in Canadian history start over conflicting interests. English Canada (formerly Canada West) was divided for the most part over whether or not to send aid to the British who didnt really need it. The benefits of sending them aid was that we would be better friends with Britain who were a major military and economic powerhouse at the time. The French were against it because they absolutely HATED the British and didnt see any benefits towards us helping them. -
The Three Major Conflicts of Interest Part Three: The Tin Pot Navy
For this final conflict of interests, the German Empire was getting stronger and Canada needed to be able to protect its own coasts (fishing and merchant fleets) and wanted to be able to assist Britain when required. The "Tin Pot Navy" was proposed and French Canadiens were immediately against it because again, they hated Britain. The rest of Canada was kind of mixed with some saying do it and some saying dont. We compromised with making boats for Britain in times of need. -
Going over Theme: Identity, Society, and Culture
The question was demonstrate the friction between key groups of people and show how it contributed to the cultural mosaic that we have in todays Canada. I believe that I demonstrated it in a decently executed fashion but I wish I could go over it in more detail.
The second question was explore the factors which influence, shape, and reflect Canada's identity. I may explore the interactions among societies or examine the development of culture and the arts. I think I did continued in part 2 -
Going over Theme: Identity, Society, and Culture. Part 2
You may explore the interactions among societies or examine the development of the culture and the arts.
I believe I did this question far better than I did the first question. In almost every point and in my timelines I went over how Canada was affected by the decisions made by the people or how it was affected by the Fur Trade and the Gold Rush, etc.
