83-397: The North-Western Territory was a region of British North America extant until 1870 and named for where it lay in relation to Rupert's Land . Due to the lack of development, exploration, and cartographic limits of the time, the exact boundaries, ownership, and administration of the region were not precisely defined when the territory was extant. There is also not a definitive date when
166-473: A criminal and civil jurisdiction within certain parts of North America", in 1821. As well, large areas of Rupert's Land were not accurately mapped then to know the precise boundaries. The British made almost no effort to assert sovereignty over the aboriginal peoples of the area. In accordance with the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , large-scale settlement by non-aboriginal people was prohibited until
249-688: 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
332-589: Is sometimes also considered to have been part of the territory as well. The North-Western Territory was not technically within the area of land granted to the Hudson's Bay Company in May 1670, as the region did not drain into Hudson's Bay. However, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was still the de facto administrator of the region and the territory was included in the same process of transferring Rupert's Land to Canada from
415-614: 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
498-856: The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825 , officially the Convention Concerning the Limits of Their Respective Possessions on the Northwest Coast of America and the Navigation of the Pacific Ocean , defined the boundaries between Russian America and British claims and possessions of the Pacific Coast , and the later Yukon and Arctic regions of North America . It was agreed that along the coast at
581-822: 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
664-692: 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
747-650: 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
830-455: 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
913-674: 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
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#1732765354605996-846: 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
1079-962: 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
1162-783: 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
1245-640: The Dryad affair. The same clauses enabled British access to the Stikine River goldfields in 1862 but were not assumed by the Americans upon their purchase of Russian interests in 1867, resulting in further conflict over British rights of access to the inland regions. The treaty's terms pertaining to the Arctic Ocean (referred to as the "Frozen Ocean" in the treaty) also played a part in the terms of
1328-469: 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
1411-924: 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 ,
1494-535: 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
1577-506: 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
1660-527: 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
1743-666: The Klondike Gold Rush , again as with the Stickeen Territory to prevent efforts at American takeover and also to enable easier governance. 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
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#17327653546051826-648: 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
1909-742: 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,
1992-492: 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
2075-543: 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
2158-673: 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
2241-632: 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
2324-586: 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
2407-648: 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
2490-711: 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 ),
2573-533: 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
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2656-622: 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
2739-423: 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
2822-402: 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
2905-443: 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
2988-488: 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
3071-449: 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
3154-473: 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
3237-543: The British first asserted sovereignty over the territory. Maps vary in defining the boundaries of the territory; however, in modern usage, the region is generally accepted to be the region bounded by modern-day British Columbia , the continental divide with Rupert's Land , Russian America (later Alaska ), and the Arctic Ocean . The territory covered what is now the Yukon , mainland Northwest Territories , northwestern mainland Nunavut , northwestern Saskatchewan , and northern Alberta . Northern modern-day British Columbia
3320-422: The Colony of British Columbia was extended to the 60th parallel north , a measure which also brought into British Columbia its portion of the Peace River Block , which had not been part of the Stikine Territory. In 1868, shortly after Canadian Confederation , the Hudson's Bay Company agreed to surrender its vast territories to the new dominion . However, it was not until July 15, 1870, that the transfer to Canada
3403-468: 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
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3486-457: 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
3569-420: The HBC, effective on July 15, 1870. It is obscure when exactly Great Britain first asserted sovereignty over the territory; however, after France accepted British sovereignty over the Hudson Bay coast by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) , Britain was the only European power with practical access to that part of the continent. The Hudson's Bay Company , despite the royal charter assigning only Rupert's Land to
3652-425: 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
3735-462: 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,
3818-525: 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
3901-560: 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 Treaty of St. Petersburg, 1825 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 1825 or
3984-450: The United States on the one hand, and Canada (with Britain acting, in foreign affairs, on behalf of Canada) on the other. Other terms of the treaty, including the right to navigation by British vessels to both commerce in the region affected, and also access to rivers crossing the designated coastal boundary, were exercised by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1834 but were met with opposition by then Russian-American Company Governor Wrangel in
4067-406: 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
4150-475: 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
4233-409: The company, had long used the region as part of its trading area. The North West Company also hunted and trapped on the land and this led to frequent conflicts between the companies. To ease tensions, the British government assigned administrative duties to the HBC, while still allowing The North West Company to hunt on the lands with the passage of "An act for regulating the fur trade, and establishing
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#17327653546054316-411: 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
4399-405: 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
4482-424: The form of warships and a blockade. This conflict, known as the Dryad affair, led to the RAC-HBC Agreement , in which the RAC agreed to lease the mainland coastal portion of the region south of Cape Spencer at the entrance to Cross Sound and the HBC promised to supply Russian America settlements with foodstuffs and manufactured goods. In addition the HBC waived its demand for payments for damages incurred during
4565-416: 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
4648-413: 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
4731-431: The lands were surrendered by treaty . In 1862 during the Stikine Gold Rush , part of the North-Western Territory became the Stickeen (Stikine) Territory when the Stikine became inundated by American miners and, to prevent any resulting American claims to or agitation for the region, Governor James Douglas of the Vancouver Island and British Columbia colonies declared the area a British territory. The coastal area at
4814-411: The limit of overlapping American claims in the parallel Russo-American Treaty of 1824 . The Russian sphere in the region was later sold to the United States, eventually becoming the State of Alaska , while the British claim, along the coast to the south of parallel 54°40′ is now the coast of the Canadian province of British Columbia , and for inland regions it defined the western limit of what became
4897-414: 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
4980-419: The modern day Canadian territory of Yukon. It also defined associated rights and obligations concerning waters and ports in the region. The treaty, in establishing a vague division of coastal Russian interests and inland British interests between 56 and 60 degrees north latitude, led to conflicting interpretations of the meaning of the treaty's wording which later manifested in the Alaska Boundary Dispute between
5063-412: The mouth of the Stikine was part of Russian America at the time, but the British had rights of free navigation to the Stikine by treaties in 1825 and 1839 as well as a lease of coastal lands to the south of it. The boundary of the North-Western Territory in this region, and likewise the Stickeen Territories created from it, south of and northwards from the Stikine, had been set as "ten marine leagues" from
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#17327653546055146-403: 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
5229-418: 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
5312-407: 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
5395-448: 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,
5478-411: 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
5561-400: 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
5644-425: 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
5727-414: The sea, but this remained undefined until the Alaska Boundary Settlement of 1903. The North-Western Territory's boundary with Russian America north of the 60th Parallel had been set at the 141st line of longitude by the Treaty of St. Petersburg in 1825 . The year following the creation of the Stickeen Territories, part of the Stikine returned to the North-Western Territory when boundaries were adjusted and
5810-440: 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
5893-418: The southern tip of Prince of Wales island (now known as parallel 54°40′ north ) northward to the 56 parallel, with the island wholly belonging to Russia, then to 10 marine leagues (56 km) inland going north and west to the 141st meridian west and then north to the "Frozen Ocean", the current Alaska/Canadian Yukon boundary, would be the boundary. The coastal limit had, the year before, been established as
5976-593: 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
6059-720: 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
6142-500: 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
6225-433: 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
6308-524: 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
6391-532: 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,
6474-624: 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
6557-664: 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
6640-857: Was made. On that date the North-Western Territory became part of the newly created Northwest Territories (often stylized as the North-West Territories). In 1880, the British Arctic Territories were claimed by Canada and later formed the Northwest Territories and Nunavut . In 1898 the Yukon Territory was formed when the areas west of the Mackenzie Mountains were removed from the Northwest Territories during
6723-620: 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
6806-662: 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
6889-536: 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
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