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Oct 28, 1500
Spirituality of the First Occupants
The Natives obviously didn't have doctors or nurses to cure sicknesses, instead they had someone practice shamanism and become the priest/medicine man of the group who cured people. They also believed in various myths and legends that they told through stories. They also made dreamcatchers, believed in the circle of life and believed in animalism, which means they respect nature and believe that all things, even animals, had souls. So, when they killed an animal, they would thank their gods. -
Oct 28, 1500
Social Relations/Communications and Exchange of First Occupants
The Natives always had mutual respect for each other, no matter if they were kids or the elder. They followed specific traditions but at the same time had the freedom of actions, there weren't any written laws and no private property. They would communicate only through oral traditions, so their laws and rules were always oral. They had many ceremonies where they would sing and dance. -
The Divine Right of Kings
This was the mentality that the king had total power, mainly because it was believed he was the chosen one by god to be the king. It refers to the immense and absolute power the king had. The Divine Right of Kings influenced the expressions of different cultural ideas. -
King Louis the 14th
Starting from 1643, Louis the 14th was the king of France. He had absolute power in his country but his colony of New France was suffering because its population and economy weren't developing and there were constant Iroquoian attacks. He exercised control over the church which was very rare at the time and he justified his actions by saying God chose him to be king. -
Actions of King Louis the 14th
To help his colony of New France, king Louis the 14th did 3 things. Firstly, he sent a well trained regiment of soldiers to the colony to put an end to the wars with the Iroquoian. Secondly, he ended mercantilism: he ended the monopoly that the companies had and implemented the Royal Government in 1663. Lastly, he made Jean Talon intendant of the colony and he was in charge of the colony's population and economy growth. So now, in New France, the governor, intendant and bishop made the rules -
Catholicism
The Catholic religion was extremely powerful in both France and New France, you did what the church wanted or you were excommunicated. It was bad to be excommunicated because you were shunned by the catholic religion so you were for-bided to do trade or business with anyone going to church, you got kicked off your land and you were basically alone. Everyone strongly believed in the church values and rules so no one ever questioned them or went against them. Religion was central in people's lives -
Religion in New France
In New France, the clergy was everywhere. Priests were in charge of parishes and had the most land in the world and they also worked as missionaries to convert the natives. Nuns worked and were in charge of hospitals and schools. Religion ran the schools, which was a good thing for the churches because they wanted to be part of the education so they can teach the children their way, the religious way. Church also controlled some of the tax because they would charge "tithe" as well as charities -
Ideas of the Church
The church made the rules on how to behave and on what was morally acceptable. The church spread their ideas by controlling the education of the colony's future, the children. They were the teachers and controlled the content. For example, Marguerite Bourgeois established first school and obviously emphasized the catholic religion in the students education. Also, the church believed all paintings and sculptures should be somewhat religious, so they also controlled freedom of expression. -
Life in New France
Settlers (habitants) had happy lives but worked very hard. Every family member worked everyday but they did different jobs: they farmed, made clothes, fixed tools and prepared for the winter. New France was never developing so the settlers had to be self sufficient and work hard, but, they still got along with the rich people cause the rich accepted the poor. However, in France, the rich didn't accept the poor. -
Independent Spirit in New France
The Canadians were extremely independent & had a sense of freedom for many reasons, the primary reason being the distance from France made the King exercise less control. This made the Canadians feel free & like they didn't have to respond to anyone because the King of France couldn't do anything about it since they were so far. There were no police, so they did what they want. Another reason is that the contact with Aboriginals developed their senses of freedom since they also were so free. -
The Canadiens
Almost everyone in New France was very autonomous, because that was the only way they could survive. By 1760, a distinct group of people grew who were called the Canadiens. They worked hard and lived tough lives but remained spirited through it all. -
Social Classes in New France: Nobility and Middle Class
The top of the social class was the nobility and the elite, essentially the governor and the bishop. However, the bishop was forced to leave because the English didn't want someone with high power in religion staying. They are wealthy and don't work for money because they were born into the wealth.Then there were the bourgeoisie and middle class, who also had a good amount of money but they were self-made, which meant they worked hard for it. -
Social Classes in New France: Peasants
When the British took over New France, the peasants stayed because New France was their native land and they didn't know anything about France. Therefore, they wanted to stay, but in the end they had to become British subjects. They were poor but worked extremely hard as farmers to get the little food and clothes they had. -
Influence of the Catholic Church
After 1837 the bishops became more powerful and the cures became the most important person in the parish. Church was in charge of everything the government is now in charge of, like registering births, marriages and deaths. They controlled education, for example they even opened Laval University in 1852, and the only the brightest boys were sent to became priests and bishops. Everything taught to the kids was religion-based. -
Role of Women Before WW1
Women had an extremely hard life because they got married very young and had many children. They were forced into marriages to settle feuds and debts as well as make political alliances. They were forced to do as their husbands commanded. The only escape was to be a nun, other than that you had to get married and have a crazy amount of children -
Role of Women During WW1
During WW1, things opened up for women because they were the people who worked in factors due to the men leaving to fight the war. Women got the worst jobs in the factories and got paid the least. They had very few rights and little education. They only voted in the federal election in 1917, as their husbands vote, and officially voted in 1918. Women rarely went to university either, but when they did they were only allowed to go in certain programs like nursing and teaching. -
Role of Women During WW2
WW2 pushed the feminist movement even more than WW1 due to men leaving for war the second time. Once again, women worked in the factors, did the worst jobs, and got paid the least, but their right to vote in the federal election had been established for a long time. -
Denunciation by Artists and Intellectuals
Artists who didn't agree with the ways of the Catholic church developed a new style of art that represented real life and distanced itself from religion imposed by the Church. For example, le Refus Global was against the grip the Catholic church had on artwork. Many intellectuals also didn't agree with the grip the Catholic church had on other aspects of society like education and writing, so they protested, wanting the State to control those aspects -
Feminism in the 1960's
In 1960, the feminist movement took off. Women now had the freedom and were encouraged to complete university and get a career. The birth control pill was a gift to women because now they were more in control of their lives considering they weren't forced to have a family. Now, people were denunciating the role of the church in the oppression and inequality of women. Feminist magazines were claiming for women to have the same rights as men, like "Les fée ont soif" -
The Oka Crisis
In the summer of 1990, Mohawk warriors established road blocks on the borders of their reserves in Oka to stop a golf course from expanding on their territory. The natives militarily organized themselves and the Canadian Forces were called in to handle the situation. It lasted 78 days, when the stand-off came to an end non-violently, but the issues remained. The Charlottetown Accord was created to try and deal with the Native issues -
Liberalism
Liberalism is a philosophy promoting the freedom of an individual, which was the worst thing for the church because now people were learning how to read, so they got ideas (usually against church) and wrote about them. It also developed parliamentary systems of government and the freedom for people to attempt anything they want, with respect of the laws. For example, people could now design buildings and make artwork that wasn't religious. You made your own choices in life. -
Ultramontanism
Ultramontanism is a party in the Roman Catholic Church that advocates the complete obedience to the Catholic religion and absolute authority of the pope. The church seeks to increase the influence they have on people's everyday lives, socially, politically, culturally, etc. People who voted for this believed the church should have control of every aspect in life. Basically, it was like being a Catholic extremist -
Anticlericalism
Anticlericalism is the opposite of ultramontanism, so these people are opposed to the influence of clergy/church on public affairs other than religion. It advocates the separation of church and state, which is what we have today. It promoted democratic ideas, like letting everyone have a say while church only took care of church business. For example, anticlericalism didn't want the church to be in charge of education, it was there job according to them. -
Imperialism
Imperialism is the policy that wanted to extend the authority of an empire/nation over their foreign country. It promoted the mother country having a lot of power of their colony. The colony would be influenced in many ways by their mother country, like architecturally. For example, Montreal is one of the few cities that has its architecture with French and English presence. Also, Canada's political system is greatly influenced by some British parliament things. Loyalistes were imperialistes -
Three Levels of Government
There are 3 levels of government: Federal, Provincial and Municipal. The Federal government runs Canada, the Provincial government runs Quebec and the Municipal governments run the cities. In the Federal government, there are 3 different branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch makes decisions about administration, legislative branch makes or amends laws and impose taxes and the judicial branch ensures laws are applied -
Positions in the Federal system
Head of State (Queen), Governor General, Parliament Senate (Upper House), House of Commons (Lower House), Ministers, Government, Prime Minister, Cabinet, Opposition, Minority Government, Speaker, Courts. -
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that focuses on investment and ownership of wealth of individuals or corporations. It includes production, distribution and exchange. Capitalist ideas, like private property, were diffused by the mainstream press owned by business men. You were free to create your own wealth because you are the owner of your business so if you fail its your problem. -
How the Government Functions: Constitutional Monarchy
Constitutional Monarchy means that the Queen and Governor General only have symbolic power. In Canada, after 1982, when Canada became officially independent, Canada didn't need the Queen's permission to make constitutional changes, so basically the Queen didn't have any power over Canada anymore. In Canada, the Queen was still represented by someone known as the Governor General. -
How the Government Functions: Parliamentary Democracy
In the parliamentary democracy, laws must be passed through the parliament, who's members are elected. The elected members must approve the laws so that they can be put forward, but, if the law doesn't get put finalized, it means the majority didn't have the same idea as you. If it was a majority government change is made and if its a minority government less change is made. The opposing side can ask for re-election. -
English-Canadian Nationlism
English Canadian nationalists liked the English way, like the language and politics, and wanted to support Britain but at the same time why wanted to run independently especially after the first world war -
Cooperatism
Cooperatism is groups who favoured equality and collaboration therefore they work together to succeed. The most popular co-op in Quebec is the Caisses populaires, but there are others such as the Catholic Union of Cultivators. Cooperatism is for the small groups to band together and be able to take over a business. Also, it gives the people a better chance of making profit and less chances of getting screwed over. This business strategy is mostly used for agriculture. -
Americanism
Americanism is the influence of American culture trends, For example it could be a dance, like the Charleston, music, like jazz, film, radio and television. Canada is extremely influenced by the American culture in most of its aspects. To counter American influence, the church spreads ideas of traditional Catholic culture through music, education and media. -
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is the new wave of liberalism. It advocates the removal of state in various aspects of society because the people want control of certain things. Its the opposite of socialism where the people want full intervention of state. -
Aboriginalism
Aboriginalism fights for the natives not to lose their traditional values, like writing, language, music, education, etc. This group claims for ancestral rights and recognition of aboriginal identity through culture -
Socialism
Socialism is a system of social organization that promotes the ownership and control of production and distribution of wealth and capital in the community as a whole. Socialistes question capitalism through labour movements, students movements and independent magazines because they believe wealth should be shared within a community. The community should also be able to decide whats best for itself and what needs to be done -
Nationalism
Nationalism is a devotion to one's own nation and its interests over any other nation. For example, Britain exercised imperialism over its colonies all over the world & built massive empires. They expected the people in these colonies to be imperialists, but in reality some of them were nationalists therefore they wanted to be independent and not follow Britain. After WW1, everyone thought Canada was its own country but really they ran independently but still needed some permission from England -
French-Canadian Nationalism
French Canadian Nationalists didn't want to support Britain and instead wanted to protect their French interests like their language, education and rights. At one point, there was a terrorist group known as the FLQ who imposed their nationalist views very violently. The Canadian government had to install the war measures act, which meant they got the entire power of Quebec, and used it to throw anyone in jail who was affiliated with the FLQ to stop the group. -
Laicism
Laicism is the nonclerical control of political and social institutions in a society. Laicism didn't want the church to have a say in any political or social affairs, but they believed people should still go to church and be influenced by the good values church gives us. -
Influence of the Protestant Religion
The Protestants were divided into different groups, like the Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, etc. They were still influential, but not as powerful and dominant as the catholic religion considering the catholic religion was the #1 religion in the world. Protestants developed their own schools like McGill University in 1821 and Bishops in 1843 -
Fascism
Fascism is the idea of having a dictator (one person) in control of an entire country. They would control the country using military force, scaring people and also propaganda in newspapers and other medias. There were huge dictators like Hitler and Mussolini, but there were also small-scale fascist ideas in Quebec. Adrian Arcand, journalist and head of the Christian National Socialist Party, was a fascist and spread his ideas in the newspapers -
Agriculturism
Agriculturism pushes to support farming. They wrote about ruralism, community and the parish life in novels like "Un homme et son péché" and created groups like "Le Cercle des Fermières" to spread their ideas. Agriculturism became important in the 1950's when Maurice Duplessis was the Prime Minister of Quebec because he strongly supported farming and liked farmers and the rural life style. He thought farmers were wholesome people who believed in god, so he gave them electricity and good roads
