History 2201E Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-10: English Canada, Indigenous Rights, Political Evolution
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Pre-Confederation
9 – A New Union and New Explorations
- Lord Durham leaves, canada in a state of uncertainty
o 1838
o Authoritarian gov’t
- The act of Union 1840 combined Upper and Lower Canda to create the province of
Canada – February 19, 1841
o United colony would have one governor, one executive council, one legislative
council and one elected legislative assembly
o Had an equal number of seats for each half of the legislature
▪ Unfair to the more populous French-dominated half
o Set the tone for a long tradition of federalism in canada
o Each half of the colony retained distinct legal and education systems
o French- and english-speaking districts needed some amount of cooperations in
politics
- Elected legislature had the power of the purse
o Crown no longer had any control over revenues
- Baldwin-Lafontaine – part of canada’s political evolution
o Responsible gov’t still an unrealized goal
10 – A Turning Point for British North America, 1846-1849
- Britain’s overseas colonies were part of mercantilism
- Responsible gov’t became a new practice
o The executive council had to have the support of the elected assembly
o Governor would act in the advice of his executive council
- In the 1859s, British North America’s economy moved towards one of continental
orientation, with the US becoming the dominant trade partner
o New transportation networks, the railway!!, helped to reinforce the economic
continentalism
11 – Transformation in British North America, 1849-1864
- Large population growth
- Three Maritimes colonies – Nova Scotia, NB, and PEI had grown to over half a million
from a mere 80,000 at the start of the century
- Britain banned slavery in her empire in 1807and legislative in 1833
- BNA a beacon of freedom to slaves in the US
- Josiah Henson escaped to Canada with his wife and dour children in October 1830
o Created Dawn Settlement an Upper Canadian community for 500 black fugitive
slaves
- The Underground Railroaf brought up to 30,000 to freedom especially after the 1850
passafe of the Fugigitve Slave Act of 1850 (US)
o Act took away the traditional sanctuary north of the ohio river
- By the mid-19thC., newcomer attitudes towards inidigenous people in BNA were
hardening
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o In an earlier era, cooperation had been essential
▪ Valuable trade relations, marital relations
o The 1821 merger between the HBC and NWC, shifted the Montreal-based-fur-
trade network to a maritime-based trade
▪ Reduced the opportunities for this commercial cooperation and undercut
Native power by eliminating fur-trade competition
o An era of peace with the U.S. shifted the indigenous status from alliance to
irrelevance
▪ No longer needed for military alliances with indiengous nations
▪ 1830 britain changed the administration of Native Affairs from military
authroities to civilian ones
o Moratality from disease meant that almost all indigenous communtiies were in
sharp demographic decline
▪ Ex. TB
o Pre-Confederation measures had lasting significance for Canadian natives
▪ 1839 – Crown Lands Protections Act
• Indigenous Lands are now Crown lands
• Crown was to be the guardian of the land natives held in common
• Because Natives held their lands in common, not as indidivuals,
they were barred from voting
o Did not possess property
▪ 1858 – ended the tradition of annual presents to Indigenous nations
• Wants to minimize costs
▪ In the 1850s trying to define who was an Indian – part of limiting gov’t
obligations
o A dark side of responsible gov’t
- Between 1845-1873, more than 300,000 contract labourers left the region
- The province of Canada’s west population boom transformed the political landscape,
increased demands for representation according to its greater numbers and contributing to
religious sectarianism
12 – Confederation, 1858-1867
- The artificial equality of political representation for French Canada East and English
Canada West had been pu in place with the 1840 Act of Union ensured that no one party
could reliably capture and keep a majority in the colony’s legislative assembly
o What made it more complex was the divisions within each district
- The equal representation put in place in 1840 was meant to deny the then-more-numerous
French canadaians a majority voice
o But by the 1850s with english Canada west having more population, saw th equal
representation as an injustice that allowed French roman catholics unue indluence
▪ West 1.4 million
▪ East 1.1 million
Post-Confederation
1 – Creating a Nation in an Era of Change and Anxiety
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- Canada’s nation-building project came with an attempt to marginalize, remake, and erase
the indigenous nations as they had existed in North America as Canada moved to settle
and develop lands in the west
o One state’s nation’s building frequently succeeds in destroying another – cultural
genocide in treatment of Indigenous people
- 11 numbered treaties with Canada’s Indigenous peoples
o Territory from present-day northwest Ontario to the Rockies and some of the
Canadian North
o Canada promised to reserve land from newcomer settlement, annual cash
payments, hunting and fishing rights, gratuities, provision of agricultural
implements and livestock, schools and to protect the First Nations peoples from
hunger and disease and enable them to embrace the agricultural economy
o This did not happen, reserve system led to widespread hunger, starvation and
disease that the federal gov’t promised to prevent
o Didn’t look at treaties as something signed between sovereign nations but rather
as real estate transactions
o Indigenous thought they were sharing, not giving up their lands
2 – Challenges, Realities, and Promises: The National Dream and Colonization, 1874-1896
- Canada had threatening policies and used the brute force of the state against ethnic
groups to achieve its policy objectives
- Macdonald and Conservatives had a new National Policy – integrating numerous parts of
the country
o New tariff policy: good for Canadas manufacturers, laborers and farmers and a
way to keep American manufacturers out
o Period of protectionism and high tariffs
o Conservatives will help the economy
o Canada for the Canadians – Anti-Americanism
▪ Too close of a relationship with U.S. would undermine Canada’s ability to
act independently
o Conservatives returned to power in 1878 – a fundamental shift in Canada
o An important step toward Canadian sovereignty
o Goals: integrated east-west economy by growing the manufacturing sector in
central and eastern Canada, settle the west, and secure the country with a
transcontinental railway system
o Wanted economic development and jobs for Canadians
- Setline the West became an important nation building
- Hoped the Dominion Lands Act of 1872 would attract immigrants
o Giving away free land
o Only 1.5 million immigrants chose Canada, 8 million to U.S., 3 million to
Australia
o 2 million left Canada
▪ Mostly from Quebec
▪ Going to U.S. for better economic opportunities
o Chinese migrant workers initially recruited to build the CPR
▪ Were not welcomed
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