199-649: Canadian Confederation (French: Confédération canadienne ) was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada , Nova Scotia , and New Brunswick —were united into one federation , called the Dominion of Canada , on July 1, 1867. This process occurred in accordance with the rising tide of Canadian nationalism that was then beginning to swell within these provinces and others. Upon Confederation, Canada consisted of four provinces: Ontario and Quebec , which had been split out from
398-415: A "liberal order" in northern North America. Many Canadian historians have adopted McKay's liberal order framework as a paradigm for understanding Canadian history. In 2008, historian Andrew Smith advanced a very different view of Confederation's ideological origins. He argues that in the four original Canadian provinces, the politics of taxation were a central issue in the debate about Confederation. Taxation
597-602: A Father of Confederation. As well, Joey Smallwood referred to himself as "the Last Father of Confederation" because he helped lead Newfoundland into the union in 1949. All the former colonies and territories that became involved in the Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, were initially part of New France , and were once ruled by France . Nova Scotia was granted in 1621 to Sir William Alexander under charter by James I . This claim overlapped
796-406: A battle between a staunch individualist economic philosophy and a comparatively collectivist view of the state's proper role in the economy. According to Smith, the victory of the statist supporters of Confederation over their anti-statist opponents prepared the way for John A. Macdonald 's government to enact the protectionist National Policy and to subsidize major infrastructure projects such as
995-658: A champagne lunch on board the Victoria where Mr. McGee's wit sparkled brightly as the wine), they carried the Lower Province delegates a little off their feet." The delegates from the Quebec conference considered if the resolutions would be better suited for acceptance if a popular vote were held on them. However, due to the divide amongst religious groups and general mistrust between areas in Canada, they believed that such
1194-627: A raid on the blockhouse at LaHave, Nova Scotia. On September 11, a child was killed in a raid on the Northwest Range. Another raid happened on March 27, 1759, in which three members of the Oxner family were killed. The last raid happened on April 20, 1759, at Lunenburg, when the Miꞌkmaq killed four settlers who were members of the Trippeau and Crighton families. The Cape Sable campaign involved
1393-559: A region they called La Grande Ligne ("The Great Road", also known as "the King's Highway"). About 1,500 Acadians accepted the offer, but the land turned out to be infertile, and by the end of 1775, most of them abandoned the province. The British did not directly deport Acadians to Louisiana. Following the expulsion by the British from their home, Acadians found their way to many friendly locales, including France. Acadians left France, under
1592-415: A schooner at Fort Cumberland and killed its master and two sailors. In the winter of 1759, the Miꞌkmaq ambushed five British soldiers on patrol while they were crossing a bridge near Fort Cumberland. They were ritually scalped and their bodies mutilated as was common in frontier warfare . During the night of April 4, 1759, a force of Acadians and French in canoes captured the transport. At dawn they attacked
1791-688: A unit recruited from French prisoners-of-war, which was under Lt. Col. Napier's command, and another brigade formed under Lieutenant-Colonel Williams of the Royal Marines. The force took part in the Battle of Craney Island on 22 June 1813. The most famous action carried out during the war by forces from Bermuda was the Chesapeake Campaign of 1813 and later 1814, including the Battle of Bladensburg northeast outside Washington, D.C. with
1990-625: A vote would be defeated. Thus, they went ahead with the resolutions on their own volition. After returning home from the Charlottetown Conference, Macdonald asked Viscount Monck , the Governor-General of the Province of Canada to invite delegates from the three Maritime provinces and Newfoundland to a conference with United Canada delegates. At the opening of the conference, a total of 33 delegates were included from
2189-565: A warehouse near Fort Edward, killed thirteen British soldiers, took what provisions they could carry and set fire to the building. Days later, the same partisans raided Fort Cumberland. By November 1756, French Officer Lotbinière wrote about the difficulty of recapturing Fort Beausejour: "The English have deprived us of a great advantage by removing the French families that were settled there on their different plantations; thus we would have to make new settlements." The Acadians and Mi'kmaq fought in
SECTION 10
#17327648873392388-599: Is a federation , rather than a confederate association of sovereign states, which is what confederation means in contemporary political theory. The country, though, is often considered to be among the world's more decentralized federations. Use of the term confederation arose in the Province of Canada to refer to proposals beginning in the 1850s to federate all of the British North American colonies, as opposed to only Canada West (now Ontario) and Canada East (now Quebec). To contemporaries of Confederation,
2587-419: Is known Cartier and Macdonald presented arguments in favour of a union of the three colonies, Alexander Tilloch Galt presented the Province of Canada's proposals on the financial arrangements of such a union, and George Brown presented a proposal for what form a united government might take. The Canadian delegation's proposal for the governmental system involved: Other proposals attractive to the politicians from
2786-526: Is largely regarded as a crime against humanity , though the modern-day use of the term "genocide" is debated by scholars. A census of 1764 indicates 2,600 Acadians remained in the colony, having eluded capture. In 1710, during the War of the Spanish Succession , the British captured Port Royal , the capital of Acadia. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht ceded the territory to Great Britain while allowing
2985-509: Is of the utmost importance to have that principle recognized so that we shall have a sovereign who is placed above the region of party—to whom all parties look up; who is not elevated by the action of one party nor depressed by the action of another; who is the common head and sovereign of all. Following the Quebec Conference, the Province of Canada's legislature passed a bill approving the union. The union proved more controversial in
3184-700: Is the remnants of the Hudson's Bay Company 's Columbia District and New Caledonia District following the Oregon Treaty . Before joining Canada in 1871, British Columbia consisted of the separate Colony of British Columbia (formed in 1858, in an area where the Crown had granted a monopoly to the Hudson's Bay Company), and the Colony of Vancouver Island (formed in 1849) constituting a separate crown colony until it
3383-849: The 49th parallel as the border with the United States from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains in Western Canada. Following the Rebellions of 1837 , Lord Durham in his Durham Report , recommended Upper and Lower Canada be joined as the Province of Canada and the new province should have a responsible government . As a result of Durham's report, the British Parliament passed the Act of Union 1840 , and
3582-489: The Alaska Purchase of March 30, 1867, which had been supported in the U.S. Senate (by Charles Sumner, among others) precisely in terms of taking the remainder of North America from the British. The American Civil War had also horrified Canadians and turned many from the thought of republicanism. In Britain, political pressure came from financiers who had lost money by investing in the failed Grand Trunk Railway and
3781-614: The American Revolutionary War / American War of Independence (1775-1783), the control of the adjacent and surrounding Atlantic Ocean by the British Royal Navy meant there was no likelihood of the colony joining the rebellion. Although the rebels were supplied with ships and gunpowder by the Bermudians, Bermudian privateers soon turned aggressively on rebel shipping. After the acknowledgement by
3980-822: The Archdiocese of Halifax, Nova Scotia , until 1953, when it was separated to become the Apostolic Prefecture of Bermuda Islands . The congregation of the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Bermuda (St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church, erected in 1885 in Hamilton Parish ) had previously been part of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada. The Kingdom of Great Britain acquired most of Acadia or Acadie, Nouvelle-France , in connection with
4179-572: The Battle of Jumonville Glen . French Officer Ensign de Jumonville and a third of his escort were killed by a British patrol led by George Washington . In retaliation the French and the Native Americans defeated the British at Fort Necessity . Washington lost a third of his force and surrendered. Major General Edward Braddock 's troops were defeated in the Battle of the Monongahela , and Major General William Johnson 's troops stopped
SECTION 20
#17327648873394378-692: The Bermuda Garrison had been placed under the military Commander-in-Chief America in New York during the American War of Independence. A small regular infantry garrison had existed from 1701 to 1768, alongside the militia, and part of the Royal Garrison Battalion had been stationed there in 1778 but that battalion was disbanded in Bermuda in 1784. The regular military garrison was re-established at Bermuda in 1794 by part of
4577-650: The Bishop of Newfoundland until 1919). Over its duration, British North America comprised the British Empire's colonial territories in North America from 1783 to 1907, not including the Caribbean. These territories include those forming modern-day Canada and Bermuda, having also ceded what became all or large parts of six Midwestern U.S. states ( Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Michigan , Wisconsin , and
4776-455: The Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda until 1919, when Newfoundland and Bermuda each received its own bishop. In 1949, the island of Newfoundland , and its associated mainland territory of Labrador , joined Canada as the tenth province . Canada became semi-independent beginning in 1867, and fully sovereign on foreign affairs beginning with the Statute of Westminster 1931 . Canada gained
4975-674: The Canadian Militia . With the consequent abolition of the British Army's Nova Scotia Command, and the office of its Commander-in-Chief for British North America , the still-growing Bermuda Garrison was elevated to a separate Bermuda Command . ] The Colony of Newfoundland , like Bermuda, was not included in the confederation that unified the other British North American colonies to form the Dominion of Canada in 1867. In 1870, Rupert's Land , which consisted of territories of
5174-475: The Church of England was made the official religion. These acts granted certain political rights to Protestants while the new laws excluded Catholics from public office and the franchise (the right to vote) and forbade Catholics from owning land in the province. It also empowered British authorities to seize all "popish" property (Church lands) for the crown and barred Catholic clergy from entering or residing in
5373-846: The Commission of Government . Bermuda was increasingly perceived by the British Government as in, or at least grouped for convenience with, the British West Indies. The last official administrative link to the Maritimes was through the established church. In 1879 the Synod of the Church of England in Bermuda was formed and a Diocese of Bermuda became separate from the Diocese of Newfoundland, but continued to be grouped under
5572-962: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts , and later separated to form the State of Maine in 1820, in the United States . Britain acquired much of the remainder of Canada (New France) and the eastern half of Louisiana , including West Florida, from the Kingdom of France , and East Florida from the Kingdom of Spain , by the earlier 1763 Treaty of Paris (1763) , which ended the Seven Years' War (in Europe ) / French and Indian War (in North America ). Spain had not taken possession of any of Spanish Louisiana , which had been ceded to it under
5771-514: The Confederation). The term is also used to divide Canadian history into pre-Confederation and post-Confederation periods. The original Fathers of Confederation are those delegates who attended any of the conferences held at Charlottetown and Quebec in 1864 or in London, United Kingdom, in 1866, leading to Confederation. There were 36 original Fathers of Confederation; Hewitt Bernard , who
5970-591: The Courrier du Canada . Two years later, Alexander Tilloch Galt , George-Étienne Cartier , and John Ross travelled to the United Kingdom to present the British Parliament with a project for confederation of the British colonies. The proposal was received by the London authorities with polite indifference. The royal tour of British North America undertaken by Queen Victoria's son, Prince Albert Edward (later King Edward VII ) in 1860, however, helped lead to
6169-728: The Dominion of Newfoundland , leaving Bermuda as the sole remaining colony in British North America. British North America ceased to exist as an administrative region of the British Empire, with all remaining British colonies in the Western Hemisphere, from Bermuda to the Falkland Islands grouped in the "West Indian Division" of the "Crown Colonies Department" of the Colonial Office. In 1934, Newfoundland returned to British administration under
Canadian Confederation - Misplaced Pages Continue
6368-469: The East Coast of the United States of America , with later areas of settlement on the continent considered separate colonies under their own local administrations and all collectively designated as America (less often as North America ). The Kingdom of England (including the adjacent Principality of Wales ) and the Kingdom of Scotland remained separate nations until their 1707 unification to form
6567-680: The French conquered St. John's, Newfoundland on June 14, 1762, the success galvanized both the Acadians and the natives, who gathered in large numbers at various points throughout the province and behaved in a confident and, according to the British, "insolent fashion". Officials were especially alarmed when natives gathered close to the two principal towns in the province, Halifax and Lunenburg, where there were also large groups of Acadians. The government organized an expulsion of 1,300 people and shipped them to Boston. The government of Massachusetts refused
6766-650: The Gaspé Peninsula coast of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence . Sir Charles Hardy and Brigadier-General James Wolfe commanded the naval and military forces, respectively. After the Siege of Louisbourg (1758), Wolfe and Hardy led a force of 1500 troops in nine vessels to Gaspé Bay , arriving there on September 5. From there they dispatched troops to Miramichi Bay on September 12, Grande-Rivière, Quebec and Pabos on September 13, and Mont-Louis, Quebec on September 14. Over
6965-590: The Haitian Revolution . Louisiana's population contributed to the founding of the modern Cajun population. (The French word "Acadien" evolved into the word "Cadien", which was later anglicized as the word "Cajun"). On July 11, 1764, the British government passed an order-in-council to permit Acadians to legally return to British territories in small isolated groups, provided that they take an unqualified oath of allegiance. Some Acadians returned to Nova Scotia (which included present-day New Brunswick). Under
7164-876: The Hudson's Bay Company ), was administered until 1783 by the Board of Trade , from 1783 through 1801 by the Home Office and by the Home Secretary , then from 1801 to 1854 by the War Office (which became the War and Colonial Office ) and Secretary of State for War and Colonies (as the Secretary of State for War was renamed). From 1824, the British Empire was divided by the War and Colonial Office into four administrative departments, including NORTH AMERICA ,
7363-480: The Hudson's Bay Company , was annexed to Canada as the North-West Territories (NWT) and the new province of Manitoba . British Columbia , the British colony on the west coast north of the 49th parallel , including all of Vancouver Island , joined as Canada's sixth province in 1871, and Prince Edward Island joined as the seventh in 1873. The boundary of British Columbia with Washington Territory
7562-524: The Intercolonial and Pacific Railways. In 2007, political scientist Janet Ajzenstat connected Canadian Confederation to the individualist ideology of John Locke . She argued that the union of the British North American colonies was motivated by a desire to protect individual rights, especially the rights to life, liberty, and property. She contends the Fathers of Confederation were motivated by
7761-436: The Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1801). Scotland's attempts to establish its own colonies in North America and Central America before 1707 had been short-lived, but England brought substantial trans-Atlantic possessions into the new union when English America became British America . In 1775, on the eve of the American Revolution and parallel. American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). British America included territories in
7960-404: The Kingdom of Spain 's long-asserted claim of sovereignty over the entire continent as part of its world-wide Spanish Empire . Spain's similar claim to all of South America had been refuted when the Pope Alexander VI had divided the twin continents of the Americas between Spain and the Kingdom of Portugal in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas . Spain's area of settlement was limited to only
8159-422: The LaHave River at Dayspring was killed and another seriously wounded by a member of the Labrador family. The next raid happened at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia on August 24, 1758, when eight Miꞌkmaq attacked the family homes of Lay and Brant. They killed three people in the raid, but were unsuccessful in taking their scalps, a common practice for payment from the French. Two days later, two soldiers were killed in
Canadian Confederation - Misplaced Pages Continue
8358-408: The London Resolutions , the conference's decisions were forwarded to the Colonial Office . After breaking for Christmas, the delegates reconvened in January 1867 and began drafting the British North America Act . The 4th Earl of Carnarvon continued to have a central role in drafting the act at Highclere Castle alongside the first prime minister of Canada Macdonald, Cartier and Galt, who signed
8557-482: The Mississippi River and later, they settled in the Atchafalaya Basin , as well as in the prairie lands to the west—a region which was later renamed Acadiana . Some Acadians were sent to colonize places in the Caribbean, such as French Guiana , or the Falkland Islands under the direction of Louis Antoine de Bougainville ; these latter efforts at colonization were unsuccessful. Other Acadians migrated to places like Saint-Domingue , but they fled to New Orleans after
8756-416: The Mississippi River . At the same time that Spain gained along the Gulf of Mexico coastline of West Florida (western panhandle of Florida) and regained again East Florida (of the Florida peninsula), forming Spanish Florida until its 1813 / 1819 cession to the adjacent United States. Nova Scotia was split into modern-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 1784. The part of Quebec retained after 1783
8955-486: The Province of Maine , a large, but sparsely populated exclave of the colony of Massachusetts. For four long winter months, William Shirley , who had ordered their deportation, had not allowed them to disembark and as a result, half died of cold and starvation aboard the ships. Some men and women were forced into servitude or forced labor, children were taken away from their parents and were distributed to various families throughout Massachusetts. The government also arranged
9154-466: The Provinces of Nova-Scotia, New-Brunswick, and their Dependencies, including the Island of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Prince Edward and Bermuda were under the Command of His Excellency Lieutenant-General Sir James Kempt GCB, GCH . The established Church of England in Bermuda (since 1978, titled the Anglican Church of Bermuda ) and Newfoundland was attached to the See of Nova Scotia from 1825 to 1839 and from 1787 to 1839, respectively. From 1839,
9353-434: The Queen Anne's War of 1702–1713, and subsequent lands later, after the Seven Years' War / French and Indian War (1753/1756-1763). These territories would become the future provinces of Nova Scotia , New Brunswick , and Prince Edward Island , as well as parts of Quebec in the modern Dominion of Canada and additional territories that would eventually form part of the old Massachusetts Bay Colony , later after 1776 as
9552-428: The Senate and House of Commons of Canada , with the support of nine of the ten provinces of Canada . Following the 1776 declaration of independence of the colonies that were to form the United States (which was to be recognised by the British Government in 1783), the areas that remained under British sovereignty were administered by the Home Office , which had been formed on 27 March 1782, and which also controlled
9751-448: The South Atlantic Ocean archipelago of the Falkland Islands , which had been colonised in 1833, had been added to the remit of the North American Department of the Colonial Office. North American Department of the Colonial Office, 1867 Following the 1867 confederation of most of the British North American colonies to form the Dominion of Canada, Bermuda and Newfoundland remained as the only British colonies in North America (although
9950-440: The Virginia Company and, with The Bahamas , considered with North America prior to 1783), was grouped with the Maritime provinces from 1783, but after the formation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867 and the achievement of dominion status by the colony of Newfoundland in 1907, Bermuda was thereafter administered generally with the colonies in the British West Indies (although the Church of England continued to place Bermuda under
10149-414: The WEST INDIES , MEDITERRANEAN AND AFRICA , and EASTERN COLONIES , of which North America included: North America Until 1846, the postal system had a deputy based in British North America, with administration from London. The Colonial Office and War Office, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Secretary of State for War, were separated in 1854. The War Office, from then, until
SECTION 50
#173276488733910348-520: The War and Colonial Office ), with the Secretary of State for War thus becoming the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies until 1854, when the War and Colonial Office was split into the War Office (under the Secretary of State for War ) and the Colonial Office (under the Secretary of State for the Colonies ). Prior to the signing of the 1846 Oregon Treaty , the North American continental colonies were as follows: The North Atlantic oceanic archipelago of Bermuda , not strictly part of
10547-545: The con- prefix indicated a strengthening of the centrist principle compared to the American federation. In this Canadian context, confederation describes the political process that united the colonies in 1867, events related to that process, and the subsequent incorporation of other colonies and territories. The word is now often used to describe Canada in an abstract way, such as in "the Fathers of Confederation"; provinces that became part of Canada after 1867 are also said to have joined, or entered into, Confederation (but not
10746-408: The little Englander philosophy fed a desire to withdraw troops from Britain's colonies. There is extensive scholarly debate on the role of political ideas in Canadian Confederation. Traditionally, historians regarded Canadian Confederation an exercise in political pragmatism that was essentially non-ideological. In the 1960s, historian Peter Waite derided the references to political philosophers in
10945-438: The "Ste Anne's Massacre". On February 18, 1759, Hazen and about fifteen men arrived at Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas. The Rangers pillaged and burned the village of 147 buildings, two Catholic churches and various barns and stables. The Rangers burned a large store-house, containing a large quantity of hay, wheat, peas, oats and other foodstuffs, and killed 212 horses, about five head of cattle and a large number of hogs. They also burned
11144-522: The 1609 wreck there of its flagship, the Sea Venture ). Two areas of settlement in North America had been laid out in 1606, with the name Virginia coming to connote the southern area, between Latitude 34° and Latitude 41° North, administered by the Virginia Company of London. The short form of that company's name was the London Company , but it came to be known popularly as the Virginia Company . The northern area of settlement, which extended to 45° North (an area that would come to be known as New England ),
11343-533: The 1774 address of Thomas Jefferson to the First Continental Congress entitled: A Summary View of the Rights of British America . The term British North America was initially used following the subsequent 1783 Treaty of Paris , which concluded the American Revolutionary War and confirmed the independence of Great Britain 's Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States of America . The terms British America and British North America continued to be used for Britain's remaining territories in North America, but
11542-622: The 1867 confederation of the Dominion of Canada , split the military administration of the British colonial and foreign stations into nine districts: North America And North Atlantic ; West Indies ; Mediterranean ; West Coast Of Africa And South Atlantic ; South Africa ; Egypt And The Sudan ; INDIAN OCEAN ; Australia ; and China . North America And North Atlantic included the following stations (or garrisons): North America and North Atlantic The Colonial Office, by 1862, oversaw eight Colonies in British North America, including: North American Colonies, 1862 By 1867, administration of
11741-414: The Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians was the forced removal of inhabitants of the North American region historically known as Acadia between 1755 and 1764 by Great Britain . It included the modern Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia , New Brunswick , and Prince Edward Island , along with part of the US state of Maine . The Expulsion occurred during the French and Indian War ,
11940-408: The Acadians ). A. J. B. Johnston wrote that the evidence for the removal of the Acadians indicates that the decision makers thought the Acadians were a military threat, therefore the deportation of 1755 does not qualify as an act of ethnic cleansing. Geoffrey Plank argues that the British continued the expulsion after 1758 for military reasons: present-day New Brunswick remained contested territory and
12139-421: The Acadians had to remain in port on their vessels for months. The Colony of Virginia refused to accept the Acadians on grounds that no notice was given of their arrival. They were detained at Williamsburg , where hundreds died from disease and malnutrition. They were then sent to Britain where they were held as prisoners until the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The Acadians who had offered the most resistance to
SECTION 60
#173276488733912338-446: The Acadians on the Petiticodiac . They arrived at present-day Moncton and Danks' Rangers ambushed about 30 Acadians who were led by Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil. The Acadians were driven into the river where three of them were killed and scalped, and the others were captured. Broussard was seriously wounded. Danks reported that the scalps were Miꞌkmaq and received payment for them. Thereafter, he went down in local lore as "one of
12537-561: The Acadians permission to land and sent them back to Halifax. Miꞌkmaw and Acadian resistance was evident in the Halifax region. On April 2, 1756, Miꞌkmaq received payment from the Governor of Quebec for twelve British scalps taken at Halifax. Acadian Pierre Gautier, son of Joseph-Nicolas Gautier, led Miꞌkmaw warriors from Louisbourg on three raids against Halifax Peninsula in 1757. In each raid, Gautier took prisoners, scalps or both. Their last raid happened in September and Gautier went with four Miꞌkmaq, and killed and scalped two British men at
12736-413: The Acadians refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Britain, which would make them loyal to the crown, the British Lieutenant Governor, Charles Lawrence, as well as the Nova Scotia Council on July 28, 1755, made the decision to deport the Acadians. The British deportation campaigns began on August 11, 1755. Throughout the expulsion, Acadians and the Wabanaki Confederacy continued a guerrilla war against
12935-412: The Acadians the legal right to leave Georgia and enter other colonies. South Carolina followed Georgia's example and expediated passports to Acadian exiles in hopes they would move on to other territories. Along with these papers, South Carolina authorities provided the Acadians with two vessels. After running aground numerous times in the ships, some of these Acadians returned to the Bay of Fundy. Along
13134-446: The Acadians to France during the second wave of the expulsion. Approximately 1,000 Acadians went to the Colony of Maryland , where they lived in a section of Baltimore that became known as French Town . The Irish Catholics were reported to have shown charity to the Acadians by taking orphaned children into their homes. Approximately 2,000 Acadians disembarked at the Colony of Massachusetts . There were several families deported to
13333-451: The Acadians to keep their lands. Reluctant to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain, over the following decades some participated in French military operations and helped maintain supply lines to the French fortresses of Louisbourg and Beauséjour . As a result, the British sought to eliminate any future military threat posed by the Acadians and to permanently cut the supply lines they provided to Louisbourg by removing them from
13532-428: The Acadians' allegiance to the French and the Wabanaki Confederacy as a military threat. Father Le Loutre's War had created the conditions for total war ; British civilians had not been spared and, as Governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council saw it, Acadian civilians had provided intelligence, sanctuary, and logistical support while others had fought against the British. During Le Loutre's war, to protect
13731-423: The Americas at all, was also included as its nearest neighbour (after the United States) is Nova Scotia. Besides the local colonial governments in each colony, British North America was administered directly via London. Other than the territory administered by the Honourable East India Company and protectorates , the British Empire, including British North America (but not including the territory administered by
13930-416: The Annapolis region. They were victorious in the Battle of Bloody Creek (1757) . Acadians being deported from Annapolis Royal on the ship Pembroke rebelled against the British crew, took over the ship and sailed to land. In December 1757, while cutting firewood near Fort Anne, John Weatherspoon was captured by Natives—presumably Miꞌkmaq— and was carried away to the mouth of the Miramichi River, from where he
14129-402: The Atlantic Seaboard of the United States, specifically in the region of the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding coasts of Maryland and Virginia . The force was to be composed of the infantry battalion then on garrison duty in Bermuda, the 102nd Regiment of Foot (with its Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles James Napier as Second-in-Command) forming one brigade with Royal Marines and
14328-562: The Atlantic coast of the United States in any war that should transpire. The Royal Navy , British Army , Royal Marines , and Colonial Marines forces based in Bermuda carried out actions of this sort during the subsequent American / Canadian War of 1812 (1812-1815), the North American phase of the larger Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), elsewhere in Europe and the world, versus Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), of France . When
14527-719: The BNA Act, three of the provinces of British North America ( New Brunswick , Nova Scotia , and the Province of Canada (which would become the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec )) joined to form " One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom , " on July 1, 1867, the date of Canadian Confederation . The Atlantic island of Bermuda (originally administered by
14726-693: The British Army's 47th Regiment of Foot and the Board of Ordnance also stationed an invalid company of the Royal Artillery there soon after. The Bermuda garrison was to be part of the Nova Scotia Command until 1869 (in 1815, Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost was Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Provinces of Upper-Canada, Lower-Canada, Nova-Scotia, and New-Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, Vice-Admiral of
14925-473: The British Government of the independence of the former thirteen rebellious continental colonies in the negotiated Treaty of Paris of 1783, finally recognizing the independence of the new United States of America which it originally declared on July 4, 1776. Bermuda was grouped regionally by the British Government with The Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador provinces of modern eastern Canada , and, more widely, with British North America. Following
15124-621: The British North American Colonies, including Newfoundland, which had not participated in prior meetings. Monck obliged and the Conference went ahead at Quebec City in October 1864. The Conference began on October 10, 1864, on the site of present-day Montmorency Park. The Conference elected Étienne-Paschal Taché as its chairman, but it was dominated by Macdonald. Despite differences in the positions of some of
15323-556: The British claim to Acadia, putting villages at risk of attack from the Miꞌkmaq. Other Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath because they were anti-British. Various historians have observed that some Acadians were labelled "neutral" when they were not. By the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians, there was already a long history of political and military resistance by Acadians and the Wabanaki Confederacy to
15522-409: The British colonies. While there was clear animosity between Catholics and Protestants during this time period, many historians point to the overwhelming evidence which suggests that the motivation for the expulsion was military. The British wanted to cut off supply lines to the Miꞌkmaq, Louisbourg and Quebec. They also wanted to end any military threat which the Acadians posed (See Military history of
15721-462: The British government in London, where Brown received "a most gracious answer to our constitutional scheme". He also met with William Gladstone—who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer and, later, Prime Minister—"who agreed in almost everything". In April 1865, Brown, Macdonald, Cartier and Galt met with the government and found "the project of a federal union of the colonies was highly approved of by
15920-658: The British in response to British aggression which had been continuous since 1744 (see King George's War and Father Le Loutre's War ). The first wave of the expulsion began on August 10, 1755, with the Bay of Fundy Campaign during the French and Indian War. The British ordered the expulsion of the Acadians after the Battle of Beausejour (1755). The campaign started at Chignecto and then quickly moved to Grand-Pré , Piziquid ( Falmouth / Windsor, Nova Scotia ) and finally Annapolis Royal . On November 17, 1755, George Scott took 700 troops, attacked twenty houses at Memramcook, arrested
16119-587: The British occupation of Acadia. The Miꞌkmaq and the Acadians were allies through numerous inter-marriages during the previous century. While the Acadians were the largest population, the Wabanaki Confederacy, particularly the Miꞌkmaq, held the military strength in Acadia even after the British conquest. They resisted the British occupation and were joined on numerous occasions by Acadians. These efforts were often supported and led by French priests in
16318-401: The British removing Acadians from present-day Shelburne County and Yarmouth County . In April 1756, Major Jedidiah Preble and his New England troops, on their return to Boston, raided a settlement near Port La Tour and captured 72 men, women and children. In the late summer of 1758, Major Henry Fletcher led the 35th regiment and a company of Gorham's Rangers to Cape Sable. He cordoned off
16517-600: The British settlers from attacks along the former border of New England and Acadia, the Kennebec River , the British built Fort Halifax ( Winslow ), Fort Shirley ( Dresden , formerly Frankfurt) and Fort Western ( Augusta ). After the British capture of Beauséjour , the plan to capture Louisbourg included cutting trade to the Fortress in order to weaken the Fortress and, in turn, weaken the French ability to supply
16716-618: The British—particularly those who had been at Chignecto—were reported to have been sent to the southernmost colonies (the Carolinas and the Colony of Georgia ), where about 1,400 Acadians settled and were "subsidized" and put to work on plantations . Under the leadership of Jacques Maurice Vigneau of Baie Verte , the majority of the Acadians in Georgia received a passport from the governor, John Reynolds . These passports gave
16915-412: The Charlottetown Conference varied among the different newspapers. In the Maritimes, there was concern that the smooth Canadians with their sparkling champagne and charming speeches were outsmarting the delegates of the smaller provinces. "From all accounts it looks as if these [Canadian] gentlemen had it all their own way; ... and that, what with their arguments and what with their blandishments, (they gave
17114-622: The Chignecto region and were victorious in the Battle of Petitcodiac (1755). In the spring of 1756, a wood-gathering party from Fort Monckton (former Fort Gaspareaux ) was ambushed and nine were scalped. In April 1757, the same band of Acadian and Miꞌkmaw partisans raided Fort Edward and Fort Cumberland near present-day Jolicure, New Brunswick , killing and scalping two men and taking two prisoners. July 20, 1757, some Miꞌkmaq killed 23 and captured two of Gorham's rangers outside Fort Cumberland. In March 1758, forty Acadians and Miꞌkmaq attacked
17313-739: The Colonies ; the Prince's comments and critiques were later cited by both the Earl of Durham and participants of the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences . Lord Durham presented his idea of unification in 1839 Report on the Affairs of British North America , which resulted in the Act of Union 1840. Beginning in 1857, Joseph-Charles Taché proposed a federation in a series of 33 articles published in
17512-546: The Dominion of Canada was created by the British North America Act, 1867 . The confederation process brought together the provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The former Province of Canada was split back into its two parts, with Canada East (Lower Canada) being renamed Quebec , and Canada West (Upper Canada) renamed Ontario . Following confederation in 1867, the British Army withdrew from Canada in 1871, handing military defence over to
17711-668: The Falkland Islands also continued to be administered by the North American Department of the Colonial Office). Although the British Government was no longer responsible for Canada, its relationship with Canada and subsequent dominions would continue to be overseen by the Secretary of State for the Colonies (who headed the Colonial Office) until the creation of the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (a position initially held in common with
17910-512: The French advance at Lake George . In Acadia, the primary British objective was to defeat the French fortifications at Beauséjour and Louisbourg and to prevent future attacks from the Wabanaki Confederacy, French and Acadians on the northern New England border. (There was a long history of these attacks from Acadia – see the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688 , 1703 , 1723 , 1724 , 1745 , 1746 , 1747 .) The British saw
18109-667: The French claims to Acadia , and although the Scottish colony of Nova Scotia was short-lived, for political reasons, the conflicting imperial interests of France and the 18th century Great Britain led to a long and bitter struggle for control. The British acquired present-day mainland Nova Scotia by the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 and the Acadian population was expelled by the British in 1755. They renamed Acadia "Nova Scotia", which included present-day New Brunswick . The rest of New France
18308-672: The Islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Prince Edward and Bermuda were under the Command of Lieutenant-General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke . Below Sherbrooke, the Bermuda Garrison was under the immediate control of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bermuda , Major General George Horsford). ), and was expanded greatly during the 19th century, both to defend the colony as a naval base and to launch amphibious operations against
18507-583: The Lunenburg settlement nine times over a three-year period during the war. Boishebert ordered the first Raid on Lunenburg (1756) . In 1757, the second raid on Lunenburg occurred, in which six people from the Brisson family were killed. The following year, March 1758, there was a raid on the Lunenburg Peninsula at the Northwest Range (present-day Blockhouse, Nova Scotia ) when five people from
18706-600: The Maritime colonies were: By September 7, 1864, the delegates from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island gave a positive answer to the Canadian delegation, expressing the view the federation of all of the provinces was considered desirable if the terms of union could be made satisfactory and the question of Maritime Union was waived. After the Conference adjourned on September 9, there were further meetings between delegates held at Halifax , Saint John , and Fredericton . These meetings evinced enough interest that
18905-463: The Maritime provinces, however, and it was not until 1866 that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia passed union resolutions, while Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland continued to opt against joining. In December 1866, sixteen delegates from the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia travelled to London, where the Earl of Carnarvon presented each to Queen Victoria in private audience , as well as holding court for their wives and daughters. To
19104-416: The Maritimes, when he had gone down earlier that summer with a trade mission of Canadian businessmen, journalists and politicians. George Brown remarked in a letter to his wife Anne that at a party given by the premier of PEI, Colonel John Hamilton Gray, he met a woman who had never been off the island in her entire life. Nevertheless, he found Prince Edward Islanders to be "amazingly civilized". Reaction to
19303-422: The Miꞌkmaq in their warfare against the British. According to historian Stephen Patterson , more than any other single factor – including the massive assault that eventually forced the surrender of Louisbourg – the supply problem brought an end to French power in the region. Lawrence realized he could reduce the military threat and weaken Fortress Louisbourg by deporting the Acadians, thus cutting off supplies to
19502-705: The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath was Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Provinces of Lower-Canada, Upper-Canada, Nova-Scotia, and New-Brunswick, and their several dependencies, Vice-Admiral of the same, Lieutenant-General and Commander of all His Majesty's Forces in the said Provinces, and their several dependencies, and in the Islands of Newfoundland, Prince Edward, and Bermuda, &c. &c c. &c. Beneath Dalhousie,
19701-550: The North American theatre of the Seven Years' War . Prior to 1758, Acadians were deported to the Thirteen Colonies , then later transported to either Britain or France . Of an estimated 14,100 Acadians, approximately 11,500 were deported, of whom 5,000 died of disease, starvation or shipwrecks. Their land was given to settlers loyal to Britain, mostly immigrants from New England and Scotland . The event
19900-672: The Nova Scotian delegates, the Queen said, "I take the deepest interest in [Confederation], for I believe it will make [the provinces] great and prosperous." At meetings held at the Westminster Palace Hotel, the delegates reviewed and approved the 72 resolutions; although Charles Tupper had promised anti-union forces in Nova Scotia he would push for amendments, he was unsuccessful in getting any passed. Now known as
20099-495: The Ochs and Roder families were killed. By the end of May 1758, most of those on the Lunenburg Peninsula had abandoned their farms and retreated to the protection of the fortifications around the town of Lunenburg, losing the season for sowing their grain. For those who did not leave their farms, the number of raids intensified. During the summer of 1758, there were four raids on the Lunenburg Peninsula. On July 13, 1758, one person on
20298-491: The Province of Canada was formed in 1841. The new province was divided into two parts: Canada West (the former Upper Canada) and Canada East (the former Lower Canada). Governor General Lord Elgin granted ministerial responsibility in 1848, first to Nova Scotia and then to Canada. In the following years, the British would extend responsible government to Prince Edward Island (1851), New Brunswick (1854), and Newfoundland (1855). The area constituting modern-day British Columbia
20497-567: The Province of Canada, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The province of Prince Edward Island , which had hosted the first meeting to consider Confederation, the Charlottetown Conference , did not join Confederation until 1873. Over the years since Confederation, Canada has seen numerous territorial changes and expansions, resulting in the current number of ten provinces and three territories . Canada
20696-473: The Province of Canada. The Charlottetown Conference began on September 1, 1864. Since the agenda for the meeting had already been set, the delegation from the Province of Canada was initially not an official part of the Conference. The issue of Maritime Union was deferred and the Canadians were formally allowed to join and address the Conference. No minutes from the Charlottetown Conference survive, but it
20895-607: The Removals. There is significant evidence in the correspondence of military and civil leaders for Anti-Catholicism . Faragher writes, "The first session of the Nova Scotia Assembly ... passed a series of laws intended to institutionalize Acadian dispossession" including an act titled "An Act for the Quieting of Possessions to Protestant Grantees of land formerly occupied by the French." In it and two subsequent acts,
21094-889: The Royal Navy's blockade of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States was orchestrated from Bermuda (In the New England region, where support for the United States Government's war against Britain was low and from which Britain continued to purchase and receive grain to feed its army engaged in the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal , was at first excluded from this blockade). In 1813, Lieutenant-Colonel, Sir Thomas Sydney Beckwith arrived in Bermuda to command an expeditionary force tasked with raiding
21293-609: The Secretary of State for the Colonies) in 1925. The reduction of the territory administered by the British Government would result in re-organisation of the Colonial Office. In 1901, the departments of the Colonial Office included: North American and Australasian ; West Indian ; Eastern ; South African ; and West African (two departments). Of these, the "North American and Australasian Department" included: North American and Australasian Department, 1901 Expulsion of
21492-628: The United States without taxes or tariffs, which was then considered to be beneficial for Canada) was cancelled by the United States in 1865, partly as revenge against Britain for unofficial support of the south in the American Civil War. Additionally, the U.S. doctrine of " manifest destiny " raised fears of another American invasion (Canadians had fended off American incursions during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Fenian raids , and St. Albans Raid ), only further inflamed by
21691-662: The Western Hemisphere northeast of New Spain , apart from the islands and claims of the British West Indies in the larger West Indies islands chain in the Caribbean Sea , near the Gulf of Mexico . These were: The Somers Isles, or Bermuda , had been occupied by the Virginia Company since its flagship, the Sea Venture , was wrecked there in 1609, and the archipelago was officially added to
21890-411: The acceptable compromise of giving Newfoundland four senators of its own when it joined. The delegates from the Maritimes also raised an issue with respect to the level of government—federal or provincial—that would be given the powers not otherwise specifically defined. Macdonald, who was aiming for the strongest central government possible, insisted this was to be the central government, and in this, he
22089-498: The accommodation that Acadians and Anglo-Americans reached." As well, the British were clearly not concerned that the Acadians were French, given the fact that they were recruiting French " foreign Protestants " to settle in the region. Further, the New Englanders of Boston were not banishing Acadians from the Atlantic region; instead, they were actually deporting them to live in the heart of New England: Boston and elsewhere in
22288-594: The adoption of orphaned children and provided subsidies for housing and food for a year. The Colony of Connecticut prepared for the arrival of 700 Acadians. Like Maryland, the Connecticut legislature declared that "[the Acadians] be made welcome, helped and settled under the most advantageous conditions, or if they have to be sent away, measures be taken for their transfer." The Colony of Pennsylvania accommodated 500 Acadians. Because they arrived unexpectedly,
22487-630: The area. Without differentiating between those who had remained neutral and those who took up arms, the British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council ordered all Acadians to be expelled. In the first wave of the expulsion, Acadians were deported to other British North American colonies. During the second wave, they were deported to Britain and France, and from there a significant number migrated to Spanish Louisiana , where "Acadians" eventually became " Cajuns ". Acadians fled initially to Francophone colonies such as Canada ,
22686-411: The bottom of the river, raiding Kennebecais and Managoueche ( City of Saint John ), where they built Fort Frederick . Then they moved up the river and raided Grimross ( Arcadia, New Brunswick ), Jemseg , and finally reached Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas. Contrary to Governor Lawrence's direction, New England Ranger Lieutenant Hazen engaged in frontier warfare against the Acadians in what has become known as
22885-651: The cape and sent his men through it. One hundred Acadians and Father Jean Baptistee de Gray surrendered, while about 130 Acadians and seven Miꞌkmaq escaped. The Acadian prisoners were taken to Georges Island in Halifax Harbour. En route to the St. John River Campaign in September 1758, Monckton sent Major Roger Morris of the 35th Regiment, in command of two men-of-war and transport ships with 325 soldiers, to deport more Acadians. On October 28, Monckton's troops sent
23084-650: The church located just west of Old Government House, Fredericton . The leader of the Acadian militia on the St. John river, Joseph Godin-Bellefontaine , refused to swear an oath despite the Rangers torturing and killing his daughter and three of his grandchildren in front of him. The Rangers also took six prisoners. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign, also known as the Gaspee Expedition, British forces raided French villages along present-day New Brunswick and
23283-531: The close conditions, while others were allowed to join communities and live normal lives. In France, 78 Acadian families were repatriated to Belle-Île-en-Mer off the western coast of Brittany after the Treaty of Paris. The most serious resettlement attempt was made by Louis XV , who offered 2 acres (8,100 m ) of land in the Poitou province to 626 Acadian families each, where they lived close together in
23482-546: The company's territory in 1612, then managed by a spin-off, the Somers Isles Company , until 1684, but maintained close links with Virginia and Carolina Colony (which had subsequently been settled from Bermuda under William Sayle in 1670). The British Government originally grouped Bermuda with North America (the archipelago is approximately 1,035.26 km (643 mi) east-southeast of Cape Hatteras , North Carolina (with Cape Point on Hatteras Island being
23681-576: The contemporary governmental structure in the Province of Canada and distrust between English Protestants and French Catholics. Further, demographic pressure from an expanding population and economic nationalism wanting economic development butted against a lack of an inter-colonial railroad, which hampered trade, military movement, and transportation in general. Externally, the Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty (a free trade policy, starting in 1854, whereby products were allowed into
23880-602: The continent that would become modern Canada had been in Newfoundland which would not join Confederation until 1949. The Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol began to settle Newfoundland and Labrador at Cuper's Cove as far back as 1610, and Newfoundland had also been the subject of a French colonial enterprise . In the wake of the American Revolution , an estimated 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled to British North America . The British created
24079-492: The delegates decided to hold a second Conference. One of the most important purposes of the Charlottetown Conference was the introduction of Canadians to the leaders from the Maritime Provinces and vice versa. At this point, there was no railway link from Quebec City to Halifax, and the people of each region had little to do with one another. Thomas D'Arcy McGee was one of the few Canadian delegates who had been to
24278-566: The delegates on some issues, the Quebec Conference, following so swiftly on the success of the Charlottetown Conference, was infused with a determinative sense of purpose and nationalism . For the Reformers of Canada West, led by George Brown, the end of what they perceived as French-Canadian interference in local affairs was in sight. For Maritimers such as Tupper of Nova Scotia or Tilley of New Brunswick, horizons were suddenly broadened to take in much larger possibilities for trade and growth. On
24477-591: The deportation orders, Acadian land tenure had been forfeited to the British crown and the returning Acadians no longer owned land. Beginning in 1760 much of their former land was distributed under grant to the New England Planters . The lack of available farmland compelled many Acadians to seek out a new livelihood as fishermen on the west coast of Nova Scotia, known as the French Shore. The British authorities scattered other Acadians in groups along
24676-468: The earlier secret Treaty of Fontainebleau of 1762, from France of French Louisiana until seven years later in 1769. By the terms of the later Treaty of Paris (1783) , the United States acquired the southern and western portions of the former Royal French colony in the interior of the North American continent of New France / (later Quebec ), south of the Great Lakes to the Ohio River and west to
24875-405: The edge of the Rocky Mountains . Then 28 years later, in the subsequent 1846 treaty, Britain and the United States split the jointly-administered Oregon Country lands of the Pacific Northwest region between the Americans and the British, extending the 49th parallel line further west to the Puget Sound . The United States was assigned lands south of the 49th parallel, but Britain retained all of
25074-558: The expulsion in the popular 1847 poem, Evangeline , about the plight of a fictional character, which spread awareness of the expulsion. After the British gained control of Acadia in 1713, the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of loyalty to become British subjects. Instead, they negotiated a conditional oath that promised neutrality. They also worried that signing the oath might commit male Acadians to fight against France during wartime and that it would be perceived by their Mi'kmaq neighbours and allies as an acknowledgement of
25273-450: The expulsion. Historian John Grenier asserts that Faragher overstates the religious motivation for the expulsion and obscures the fact that the British accommodated Acadians by providing Catholic priests for forty years prior to the Expulsion. Grenier writes that Faragher "overstates his case; his focus on the grand dérangement as an early example of ethnic cleansing carries too much present-day emotional weight and in turn overshadows much of
25472-492: The following weeks, Hardy took four sloops or schooners, destroyed about 200 fishing vessels, and took about 200 prisoners. The Acadians took refuge along the Baie des Chaleurs and the Restigouche River . Boishébert had a refugee camp at Petit-Rochelle, which was probably located near present-day Pointe-à-la-Croix, Quebec . The year after the Battle of Restigouche , in late 1761, Captain Roderick Mackenzie and his force captured over 330 Acadians at Boishebert's camp. After
25671-442: The foot of Citadel Hill. Pierre went on to participate in the Battle of Restigouche. Arriving on the provincial vessel King George, four companies of Rogers Rangers (500 rangers) were at Dartmouth April 8 until May 28 awaiting the Siege of Louisbourg (1758) . While there they scoured the woods to stop raids on Dartmouth. In July 1759, Miꞌkmaq and Acadians killed five British in Dartmouth, opposite McNabb's Island. By June 1757,
25870-481: The fort at New Gloucester . During this period, the Wolastoqiyik and Miꞌkmaq were the only tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy who were able to fight. On August 13, 1758, Boishebert left Miramichi, New Brunswick with 400 soldiers, including Acadians whom he led from Port Toulouse . They marched to Fort St. George ( Thomaston ) and unsuccessfully laid siege to the town, and raided Munduncook ( Friendship ) where they wounded eight British settlers and killed others. This
26069-427: The fort. During the expulsion, French Officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert led the Miꞌkmaq and the Acadians in a guerrilla war against the British. According to Louisbourg's account books, by late 1756 the French had regularly dispensed supplies to 700 natives. From 1756 to the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, the French made regular payments to Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope and other natives for British scalps . Once
26268-416: The founding of the Thirteen Colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America. The British Empire's colonial territories in North America were greatly expanded in connection with the Treaty of Paris (1763) , which formally concluded the Seven Years' War , referred to by the English colonies in North America as the French and Indian War , and by the French colonies as la Guerre de la Conquête . With
26467-401: The highest numbers of fatalities during the expulsion. By the time the second wave of the expulsion had begun, the British had discarded their policy of relocating the Acadians to the Thirteen Colonies, and had begun deporting them directly to France. In 1758, hundreds of Île Royale Acadians fled to one of Boishebert's refugee camps south of Baie des Chaleurs. The Petitcodiac River Campaign
26666-406: The holdings of absentee landlords . "Never was there such an opportunity as now for the birth of a nation" proclaimed a pamphlet written by S. E. Dawson and reprinted in a Quebec City newspaper during the Conference. Again, reaction to the Quebec Conference varied depending on the political views of the critic. George Brown was the first, in December 1864, to carry the constitutional proposals to
26865-423: The idea of a Maritime Union which would join their three colonies together. The government of the Province of Canada surprised the Maritime governments by asking if the Province of Canada could be included in the negotiations. The request was channelled through the Governor-General, Monck, to London and accepted by the Colonial Office. After several years of legislative paralysis in the Province of Canada caused by
27064-411: The imperial authorities". On the form of the proposed system of governance for Canada, the Fathers of Confederation were influenced by the American republic. Macdonald said in 1865: By adhering to the monarchical principle, we avoid one defect inherent in the constitution of the United States . By the election of the president by a majority and for a short period, he never is the sovereign and chief of
27263-472: The influence of Henri Peyroux de la Coudreniere , to settle in Louisiana , which was then a colony of Spain. Louisiana was transferred to the Spanish government in 1762. Because of the good relations which existed between France and Spain, and because of their common Catholic religion, some Acadians chose to take oaths of allegiance to the Spanish government. Soon the Acadians composed the largest ethnic group in Louisiana. First, they settled in areas along
27462-413: The island of Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador, as well as Bermuda, became parts of the Diocese of Newfoundland and Bermuda , with the shared Bishop ( Aubrey George Spencer being the first) alternating his residence between the two colonies. A separate Bermuda Synod was incorporated in 1879, but continued to share its Bishop with Newfoundland until 1919, when the separate position of Bishop of Bermuda
27661-423: The issue of the Senate, the Maritime Provinces pressed for as much equality as possible. With the addition of Newfoundland to the Conference, the three Maritime colonies did not wish to see the strength of their provinces in the upper chamber diluted by simply adding Newfoundland to the Atlantic category. It was the matter of the Senate that threatened to derail the entire proceedings. It was Macdonald who came up with
27860-417: The legislative debates on Confederation as "hot air". In Waite's view, Confederation was driven by pragmatic brokerage politics and competing interest groups. In 1987, political scientist Peter J. Smith challenged the view Canadian Confederation was non-ideological. Smith argued Confederation was motivated by new political ideologies as much as the American and French Revolutions and Canadian Confederation
28059-414: The military until this was transferred to the War Office in 1794. The Home Office referred to the remaining North American continental colonies and the archipelago of Bermuda (located 640 miles (1,030 km) off North Carolina ) as British North America and their administration was increasingly linked. In 1801, administration of the colonies was moved from the Home Office to the War Office (which became
28258-423: The most 'obnoxious' Acadians and replace them with Protestant immigrants. In time the Protestants would come to dominate their new communities." Shirley wanted "peaceable [loyal] subjects" and specifically, in his own words, "good Protestant ones." Faragher compared the expulsion of the Acadians to contemporary acts of ethnic cleansing . In contrast, some leading historians have objected to this characterization of
28457-454: The most reckless and brutal" of the Rangers. Colonel Robert Monckton led a force of 1,150 British soldiers to destroy the Acadian settlements along the banks of the Saint John River until they reached the largest village of Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas ( Fredericton, New Brunswick ) in February 1759. Monckton was accompanied by New England Rangers led by Joseph Goreham, Captain Benoni Danks, Moses Hazen and George Scott. The British started at
28656-472: The nation. He is never looked up to by the whole people as the head and front of the nation. He is, at best, but the successful leader of a party. This defect is all the greater on account of the practice of reelection. During his first term of office, he is employed in taking steps to secure his own reelection and, for his party, a continuance of power. We avoid this by adhering to the monarchical principle—the sovereign, whom you respect and love. I believe that it
28855-403: The nearest landfall); 1,236 km (768 mi) south of Cape Sable Island , Nova Scotia; 1,759 km (1,093 mi) northeast of Cuba , and 1,538 km (956 mi) due north of the British Virgin Islands . Although Bermudians , with close ties of blood and trade to the southern continental American colonies (especially Virginia and South Carolina), tended towards the rebels early in
29054-422: The need to maintain a double legislative majority (a majority of both the Canada East and Canada West delegates in the Province of Canada's legislature), Macdonald had led his Liberal-Conservative Party into the Great Coalition with Cartier's Parti bleu and George Brown 's Clear Grits . Macdonald, Cartier, and Brown felt union with the other British colonies might be a way to solve the political problems of
29253-461: The neighbouring towns destroying the plantations. On May 13, they raided Frankfort ( Dresden ), where two men were killed and a house burned. The same day they raided Sheepscot (Newcastle) and took five prisoners. Two people were killed in North Yarmouth on May 29 and one taken captive. The natives shot one person at Teconnet, now Waterville , took prisoners at Fort Halifax and two prisoners at Fort Shirley (Dresden). They also captured two workers at
29452-418: The new River St. Lawrence and Coast of America and North America and West Indies Station , set up the first Admiralty House, Bermuda at Rose Hill, St. George's. In 1813, the area of command became the North America Station again, with the West Indies falling under the Jamaica Station , and in 1816 it was renamed the North America and Lakes of Canada Station . The headquarters was initially in Bermuda during
29651-407: The northeastern part of Minnesota ), which were formed out of the Northwest Territory , large parts of Maine , which had originally been within the French territory of Acadia , and very briefly, East Florida , West Florida , and the Bahamas . When the Kingdom of England began its efforts to cross the Atlantic Ocean and settle in eastern North America in the late 16th century , it ignored
29850-448: The off-shore of the West Coast of Vancouver Island (including a small portion of the southern tip of Vancouver Island south of the 49th parallel). After threats and squabbles over rich timber lands, the boundary between Maine and Nova Scotia was clarified by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842, negotiated by Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton . The Canadas were united into the Province of Canada in 1841. On 1 July 1867,
30049-472: The offspring of such unions to be sent to English schools and raised as "English Protestants" (quote from a letter by Shirley). This was linked to larger anxieties in the realm over the loyalty of Catholics in general—as Charles Stuart 's Jacobite Rebellion was a Catholic-led rebellion as was Le Loutre's rebellion in Nova Scotia. Shirley, who in part was responsible for the Removals, according to historian Geoffrey Plank, "recommended using military force to expel
30248-411: The passage of the British North America Act by the British Parliament in London , with the then establishment of the modern Dominion of Canada . After the War of 1812 (1812-1815), the Treaty of 1818 established the east/west 49th parallel, north of latitude as the United States–British North America international border, extending from Rupert's Land (north of the Great Lakes) further west to
30447-405: The political system. Queen Victoria remarked on "the impossibility of our being able to hold Canada; but, we must struggle for it; and by far the best solution would be to let it go as an independent kingdom under an English prince." Several factors influenced Confederation, caused both by internal sources and pressures from external sources. Internally, there was political deadlock resulting from
30646-493: The province, as they wanted no repeat of Le Loutre and his type of war . In addition to other anti-Catholic measures, Faragher concludes "These laws—passed by a popular assembly, not enacted by military fiat—laid the foundation for the migration of Protestant settlers." In the 1740s, William Shirley had hoped to assimilate Acadians into the Protestant fold. He did so by trying to encourage (or force) Acadian women to marry English Protestants and statutes were passed which required
30845-404: The region. The Wabanaki Confederacy and Acadians fought against the British in six wars, including the French and Indian Wars , Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War , over a period of 75 years. In 1753, French troops from Canada marched south and seized and fortified the Ohio Valley . Britain protested the invasion and claimed Ohio for itself. On May 28, 1754, the war began with
31044-424: The remaining Acadians and killed two hundred head of livestock to deprive the French of supplies. Acadians tried to escape the expulsion by retreating to the St. John and Petitcodiac rivers, and the Miramichi in New Brunswick. The British cleared the Acadians from these areas in the later campaigns of Petitcodiac River , Saint John River , and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1758. The Acadians and Miꞌkmaq resisted in
31243-400: The right to establish and accept foreign embassies, with the first one being in Washington, D.C. The last vestiges of Canada's constitutional dependency upon Britain were eliminated when Canadians from various provinces agreed on an internal procedure for amending the Canadian Constitution. This agreement was implemented when the British Parliament passed the Canada Act 1982 at the request of
31442-425: The same, Lieutenant-General and Commander of all His Majesty's Forces in the said Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper-Canada, Nova-Scotia and New-Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, and in the islands of Newfoundland, Prince Edward, Cape Breton and the Bermudas, &c. &c. &c. Beneath Prevost, the staff of the British Army in the Provinces of Nova-Scotia, New-Brunswick, and their Dependencies, including
31641-451: The separate province of New Brunswick in 1784 for the Loyalists who settled in the western part of Nova Scotia. While Nova Scotia (including New Brunswick) received slightly more than half of this influx, many Loyalists also settled in the Province of Quebec, which by the Constitutional Act 1791 was separated into a predominantly English Upper Canada and a predominantly French Lower Canada . The War of 1812 and Treaty of 1818 established
31840-440: The separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century of the English Reformation period, Roman Catholic worship was outlawed in England (subsequently Britain ) and its colonies, including Bermuda, until the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 , and operated thereafter under restrictions until the [[20th century]]. Once Roman Catholic worship was allowed and reestablished, Bermuda formed part of
32039-399: The settlers had to be completely withdrawn from Lawrencetown (established 1754) because the number of Indian raids prevented settlers from leaving their houses. In nearby Dartmouth , in the spring of 1759, another Miꞌkmaw attack was launched on Fort Clarence , located at the present-day Dartmouth Refinery , in which five soldiers were killed. Before the deportation, the Acadian population
32238-404: The ship Moncton and chased it for five hours down the Bay of Fundy. Although Moncton escaped, one of its crew was killed and two were wounded. In September 1756, a group of 100 Acadians ambushed a party of thirteen soldiers who were working outside Fort Edward at Piziquid. Seven were taken prisoner and six escaped back to the fort. In April 1757, a band of Acadian and Miꞌkmaw partisans raided
32437-412: The shores of eastern New-Brunswick and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It was not until the 1930s, with the advent of the Acadian co-operative movements, that the Acadians became less economically disadvantaged. According to historian John Mack Faragher , the religious and ethnic dimensions of the Expulsion of Acadians are in addition to, and deeply connected with, the military exigencies cited as causes for
32636-426: The sort of communities Britain's colonial officials tried to discourage. More worryingly for the British authorities, some Acadians threatened to migrate north to French-controlled regions, including the Saint John River, Île Royale ( Cape Breton Island ), the coasts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Canada. Because the British believed their policy of sending the Acadians to the Thirteen Colonies had failed, they deported
32835-434: The subsequent Burning of Washington in August 1814, retribution for the "wanton destruction of private property along the north shores of Lake Erie" by American forces under Col. John Campbell in May 1814, the most notable being the Raid on Port Dover to draw United States forces away from the Canadian border. In 1828, His Excellency George, Earl of Dalhousie , (Baron Dalhousie, of Dalhousie Castle,) Knight Grand Cross of
33034-411: The term British North America came to be used more consistently in connection with the provinces that would eventually form the Dominion of Canada , following the Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839), called the Durham Report. The Dominion of Canada was formed under the British North America (BNA) Act, 1867 , also referred to as the Constitution Act, 1867. Following royal assent of
33233-422: The ultimate acquisition of most of New France ( Nouvelle-France ), British territory in North America was more than doubled in size, and the exclusion of France also dramatically altered the political landscape of the continent. The term British America was used to refer to the British Empire's colonial territories in North America prior to the United States Declaration of Independence , most famously in
33432-399: The uncolonized northern part of Acadia, Île Saint-Jean (now Prince Edward Island ), and Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island ). During the second wave of the expulsion, these Acadians were either imprisoned or deported. Along with the British achieving their military goals of destroying the fortress of Louisbourg and weakening the Mi'kmaq and Acadian militias, the result of the Expulsion
33631-435: The unification of the colonies by confirming a common bond between their inhabitants; indeed, the monarchy played a "pivotal legal and symbolic role [...] in cementing the new Canadian union". Further, by 1864, it was clear that continued governance of the Province of Canada under the terms of the 1840 Act of Union had become impracticable. Therefore, a grand coalition of parties, the Great Coalition , formed in order to reform
33830-495: The values of the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She argues their intellectual debts to Locke are most evident when one looks at the 1865 debates in the Province of Canada's legislature on whether or not union with the other British North American colonies would be desirable. In the spring of 1864, New Brunswick premier Samuel Leonard Tilley , Nova Scotia premier Charles Tupper , and Prince Edward Island premier John Hamilton Gray were contemplating
34029-433: The very southern and southwestern parts and coastal edges of the continent of North America, however, and it had little ability to enforce its sovereignty. Disregarding, as did Spain, the sovereignty of the indigenous nations, England claimed the entire North America continent at this point (though its western, northern, and southern boundaries were ill-defined, vague, and not yet clear), which it named Virginia in honour of
34228-400: The virgin queen, Elizabeth I (1533-1603, reigned 1558-1603). England's first successful settlement in North America was Jamestown , established by the Virginia Company of London in 1607, with the second being the Atlantic Ocean archipelago of Bermuda (or the Somers Isles ), added to the territory of the same company in 1612 (the company having been in occupation of the archipelago since
34427-471: The visitor book in 1866. After suggestions of 'Franklin' and 'Guelfenland', they agreed the new country should be called Canada , Canada East should be renamed Quebec and Canada West should be renamed Ontario . There was, however, heated debate about how the new country should be designated. Ultimately, the delegates elected to call the new country the Dominion of Canada, after "kingdom" and "confederation", among other options, were rejected. The term dominion
34626-412: The way, they were captured and imprisoned. Only 900 managed to return to Acadia, less than half of those who had begun the voyage. Others also tried to return home. The South Carolina Gazette reported that in February, about 30 Acadians fled the island to which they were confined and escaped their pursuers. Alexandre Broussard, brother of the famed resistance leader Joseph Broussard, dit Beausoleil ,
34825-426: The whole thing is, or more perfectly", going on to suggest a unified Canada consisting of two provinces—one formed from Upper and Lower Canada and the other from the Maritime colonies—each with a lieutenant governor and executive council, one located in Montreal and the other in either Annapolis Royal or Windsor . Edward said he would pass the report on to the Earl Bathurst , the then- Secretary of State for War and
35024-418: The winter and Halifax during the summer (both of which were designated as Imperial fortresses , along with Gibraltar and Malta ), but Bermuda, became the year-round headquarters of the Station in 1821, when the area of command became the North America and West Indies Station . The Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax , was finally transferred to the Government of the Dominion of Canada in 1907. Before 1784,
35223-515: The women and children to Georges Island. The men were kept behind and forced to work with troops to destroy their village. On October 31, they were also sent to Halifax. In the spring of 1759, Joseph Gorham and his rangers arrived to take prisoner the remaining 151 Acadians. They reached Georges Island with them on June 29. November 1759 saw the deportation to Britain of 151 Acadians from Cape Sable who had been prisoners on George's Island since June. In July 1759 on Cape Sable, Captain Cobb arrived and
35422-436: The world-wide war, the Royal Navy spent a dozen years of peace-time charting the barrier reef around Bermuda to discover the channel that enabled access to the northern lagoon, the Great Sound , and Hamilton Harbour . Once this had been located, a base was established (initially at St. George's before the construction of the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda ) in 1794, when Vice-Admiral Sir George Murray , Commander-in-Chief of
35621-481: Was prime minister of the United Kingdom at the time.) The act received royal assent on March 29, 1867, and set July 1, 1867, as the date for union. British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland , then further south at Roanoke and Jamestown, Virginia , and more substantially with
35820-505: Was Boishébert's last Acadian expedition; from there he and the Acadians went to Quebec and fought in the Battle of Quebec (1759) . In the first wave of the expulsion, most Acadian exiles were assigned to rural communities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and South Carolina. In general, they refused to stay where they were put and large numbers migrated to the colonial port cities where they gathered in isolated, impoverished French-speaking Catholic neighbourhoods,
36019-418: Was a series of British military operations that occurred from June to November 1758 to deport the Acadians who either lived along the river or had taken refuge there from earlier deportations. Benoni Danks and Gorham's Rangers carried out the operation. Contrary to Governor Lawrence's direction, New England Ranger Danks engaged in frontier warfare against the Acadians. On July 1, 1758, Danks began to pursue
36218-535: Was acquired by the British as the result of its defeat of New France in the Seven Years' War , which ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. From 1763 to 1791, most of New France became the Province of Quebec . However, in 1769 the present-day Prince Edward Island , which had been part of Acadia, was renamed "St John's Island" and organized as a separate colony. It was renamed "Prince Edward Island" in 1798 in honour of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn . The first English attempt at settlement on that part of
36417-423: Was allegedly suggested by Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley. The delegates had completed their draft of the British North America Act by February 1867. The act was presented to Queen Victoria on February 11, 1867. The bill was introduced in the House of Lords the next day. The bill was quickly approved by the House of Lords, and then also quickly approved by the British House of Commons . (The Conservative Lord Derby
36616-433: Was also central to the debate in Newfoundland, the tax-averse colony that rejected it. Smith argued Confederation was supported by many colonists who were sympathetic to a relatively interventionist, or statist, approach to capitalist development. Most classical liberals, who believed in free trade and low taxes, opposed Confederation because they feared it would result in Big Government. The struggle over Confederation involved
36815-706: Was among them. About a dozen are recorded to have returned to Acadia after an overland journey of 1,400 leagues (4,200 miles (6,800 km)). After the siege of Louisbourg , the British began to deport the Acadians directly to France rather than to the British colonies. Some Acadians deported to France never reached their destination. Almost 1,000 died when the transport ships Duke William , Violet , and Ruby sank in 1758 en route from Île Saint-Jean ( Prince Edward Island ) to France. About 3,000 Acadian refugees eventually gathered in France's port cities and went to Nantes . Many Acadians who were sent to Britain were housed in crowded warehouses and subject to plagues due to
37014-403: Was being floated as early as 1814. That year, Chief Justice of Lower Canada Jonathan Sewell sent a copy of his report, A Plan for the federal Union of British Provinces in North America , to Prince Edward (both a son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria ), whom Sewell had befriended when they both resided in Quebec City . Edward replied, "nothing can be better arranged than
37213-496: Was created (in 1949, on Newfoundland becoming a province of Canada, the Diocese of Newfoundland became part of the Anglican Church of Canada ; the Church of England in Bermuda, which was re-titled the Anglican Church of Bermuda in 1978, is today one of six extra-provincial Anglican churches within the Church of England overseen by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury , England ). Other denominations also at one time included Bermuda with Nova Scotia or Canada. Following
37412-422: Was driven by a Court Party ideology. Smith traces the origins of this ideology to eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain, where political life was polarized between defenders of classical republican values of the Country Party and proponents of a new pro-capitalist ideology of the Court Party, which believed in centralizing political power. In British North America in the late 1860s, the Court Party tradition
37611-418: Was estimated at 14,000. Most were deported, but some Acadians escaped to Quebec, or hid among the Miꞌkmaq or in the countryside, to avoid deportation until the situation settled down. In present-day Maine, the Miꞌkmaq and the Wolastoqiyik raided numerous New England villages. At the end of April 1755, they raided Gorham , killing two men and a family. Next they appeared in New Boston ( Gray ) and went through
37810-491: Was fired upon by 100 Acadians and Miꞌkmaq. The second wave of the expulsion began with the French defeat at the Siege of Louisbourg (1758) . Thousands of Acadians were deported from Île Saint-Jean ( Prince Edward Island ) and Île Royale ( Cape Breton Island ). The Île Saint-Jean Campaign resulted in the largest percentage of deaths of the deported Acadians. The sinking of the ships Violet (with about 280 persons aboard) and Duke William (with over 360 persons aboard) marked
38009-417: Was represented by the supporters of Confederation, whereas the anti-capitalist and agrarian Country Party tradition was embodied by the Anti-Confederates. In a 2000 journal article, historian Ian McKay argued Canadian Confederation was motivated by the ideology of liberalism and the belief in the supremacy of individual rights. McKay described Confederation as part of the classical liberal project of creating
38208-496: Was settled by arbitration in 1872, and with Alaska by arbitration in 1903. The Arctic Archipelago was ceded by Britain to Canada in 1880 and added to the North-West Territories. Later on, large sections of the NWT were split off as new territories (the Yukon Territory in 1898 and Nunavut in 1999), or provinces ( Alberta and Saskatchewan , both in 1905), or were added to existing provinces (Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, in stages ending in 1912). In 1907, Newfoundland became
38407-462: Was sold or traded to the French, taken to Quebec and was held until late in 1759 and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham , when General Wolfe's forces prevailed. Approximately 55 Acadians, who escaped the initial deportation at Annapolis Royal, are reported to have made their way to the Cape Sable region—which included south western Nova Scotia—from where they participated in numerous raids on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia . The Acadians and Miꞌkmaq raided
38606-418: Was split into the primarily French-speaking Province of Lower Canada (future Quebec ) and the primarily English-speaking Province of Upper Canada (future Ontario ) in 1791. Later the two provinces north of the Great Lakes of the British Empire were combined in 1841 as the Province of Canada (also known as the United Provinces of Canada or the United Canada). This lasted a quarter-century until 1867 and
38805-490: Was supported by, among others, Tupper. At the end of the Conference, it adopted the " seventy-two resolutions " which would form the basis of a scheduled future conference. The Conference adjourned on October 27. Prince Edward Island emerged disappointed from the Quebec Conference. It did not receive support for a guarantee of six members in the proposed House of Commons, and was denied an appropriation of $ 200,000 it felt had been offered at Charlottetown to assist in buying out
39004-590: Was the devastation of both a primarily civilian population and the economy of the region. Thousands of Acadians died in the expulsions, mainly from diseases and drowning when ships were lost. On July 11, 1764, the British government passed an order-in-council to permit Acadians to return to British territories in small isolated groups, provided that they take an unqualified oath of allegiance. Today Acadians live primarily in eastern New Brunswick and some regions of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec and northern Maine. American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow memorialized
39203-402: Was the recording secretary at the Charlottetown Conference , is considered by some to be among them. The individuals who brought the other provinces into Confederation after 1867 are also referred to as Fathers of Confederation . In this way, Amor De Cosmos , who was instrumental both in bringing democracy to British Columbia and in bringing the province into Confederation, is considered to be
39402-410: Was to be administered and settled by the Virginia Company of Plymouth (or Plymouth Company), which established the Popham Colony in what is now Maine in 1606, but this was quickly abandoned and Plymouth Company's territory was absorbed into the London Company's. Over the course of the 17th century , Virginia would come to refer only to the polity that is today the Commonwealth of Virginia on
39601-409: Was united with the colony of British Columbia in 1866. The remainder of modern-day Canada was made up of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory (both of which were controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company and sold to Canada in 1870) and the Arctic Islands , which were under direct British control and became a part of Canada in 1880. The idea of joining the various colonies in North America
#338661