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Nov 20, 1500
First Occupants
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Nov 22, 1500
Algonquians Leadership
The Natives had no official leadership. The Algonquian's society was a Patriarchy. The Father played the leadership role, as well as the decision making. -
Nov 22, 1500
Iroquoians Leadership
The Natives had no official leadership. Their society was Matriarchy. The leadership and decision making was the responsibility of women . -
French Regime
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Power Relations between Amerindians and the Colonial Administrators
The French were allied with the Algonquians while the English were allied with the Iroquois. The only exception was the Hurons who were basically Iroquois but they allied with the French. Iroquois took out most of the Hurons and almost wiped them out completely. The Iroquois had guns with the British but the Algonquians with the French did not. -
Peace Treaty
With the Hurons gone the French's allies are minimal. Therefore they bring in the coureurs des bois to travel deep into the forest, live with the Natives for almost a year and they traded with the Amerindians. This wasn't as good as an ally with the Natives thus the French and the Natives agreed to sign the peace treat which stop the war for 16 years. -
Power Relations between the Church and the State
The Clergy was everywhere there were priests in parishes and priests work as missionaries. They had nuns working in hospital and education. The King had Divine Right of kings, only in New France the King was viewed as better than God on Earth. The companies that had a monopoly were destroying it therefore the King ended the monopoly and put into place the Royal Government in 1663. This government was enforced under the Minister of Marine who was in charge of all the colonies. -
Royal Government
The King and the Minister of Marine would stay in France and never visit the colonies. The Sovereign Council ran New France directly. The council was made up of these people:
-Governor: He was the highest ranker, he was the commander of the army and he dealt with external affairs. He was the only person that held veto power other than the King.
-Intendant: He was the most influential for the people. He controlled the budget, justice, seigniorial system, set up industries and collected taxes. -
Royal Government Continued
-Bishop: He was appointed by the Pope. He administered the parishes, priests, hospital, schools and charities.
-Captain of Militia: He was not on the council but he still had power. He dealt with issues on seigneuries, he was considered Chief of Police. He was also in charge of the Militia army. -
Power Relations between the Colony and the Mother Country
The decisions that the Mother Country made for the colonies were hard to carry out in the colonies because the King was so far away. The people felt a disconnect. There was an absolute monarchy and the King would name the administrators of the colony and can he can still reverse any decisions they make. -
Life in New France
The settlers lived happy lives but it was always hard work. They did all their agriculture in the summer to prepare for winter. The settlers became self-dependent, they did all the work in order to survive. Life was different in New France because in France there were few wealthy people and a massive amounts of poor people. They were very independent because there was a great from France and the King had less control over people so far away in the colonies. -
British Regime
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Articles of Capitulation
After the British took over New France the British put a set of rules into place:
1. The French Militia army was allowed to return home and they would sell their property to the British.
2. The French professional military would retire and move back to France. If there was any executions or killings they were sent back to France to be carried out. -
Articles of Capitulation Continued
- The people could practice the catholic religion but the Bishops had to leave. The Bishops had too much control but they couldn't get rid of the religion because there was too many French people and it would create too many problems.
- Anyone who stayed in New France were now British Subjects.
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Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Year War. After the was all the territory that belonged to New France is given to the King of England. With the exception of two small islands, St.Pierre and Miquelon which was the French fishing islands. After the war, New France was hostile for the French Canadians because the British were cocky after their win and they wanted to assimilate the French. When the King was sure he had the colony under control he decided to put a constitution into place. -
Royal Proclamation
The constitution consisted of these points:
1. It gives the colony a new name; The Province of Quebec.
2. It decreases the borders to only around the St-Lawrence River Valley. The rest of the territory was known as Indian Territory.
3. They made a civilian government to run to new colony, therefore no more Royal Government. The King appointed a Governor who then appointed members of an Executive Council to advise him. -
Royal Proclamation Continued
- English criminal and civil laws were applied.
- The seigneurial system was replaced by townships.
- No more Bishops were allowed, the French religious leaders were out. The English were Protestant.
- No Roman Catholics (French) were allowed to be in power. Everyone who was in power was English.
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James Murray
-He allowed the a new Bishop, Monseigneur Briand.
-He allowed the French civil laws in the lower courts.
-He did not call an elected assembly because it would favour the English Merchants.
Because of these rules the English strongly apposed James Murray's policies and they demanded a new Governor from the King. Therefore the King brought in Guy Carleton. -
Difficulties of the First Governors (James Murray)
James Murray's job was to assimilate the French as much as possible but he found that the Royal Proclamation was unworkable. 99% of the population was French and Catholic while only 1% was English and Protestant. Assimilation was impossible, so he bent the rules to have peace (the rules were bent in favor of the French because they had the majority). The English people hated James Murray because he wasn't supporting the English. He tried to do the right thing but neither population was happy. -
Guy Carleton
After being sent to New France after James Murray, he had the same observations about the composition of the population thus he kept the same tolerant policies that Murray had in place. He had a different reason to keep the tolerance, he wanted the French's loyalty because the Americans were beginning to demand their independence. He wanted to keep the French happy and prevent them from revolting. He also wanted their loyalty because of the potential war coming with the Americans. -
Quebec Act
The goal of this agreement was to get the French people's loyalty. They enlarged the are of Quebec. They denied an elected assembly which would only benefit the English merchants. There was an appointed council of minimum 17 members. French civil laws, tithe and seigniorial system are back in place. The Test Oath was put into place, everyone was to swear their loyalty to the King. The religious factor was gone, you were able to be Catholic if you swore your allegiance to the King. -
Loyalists
After the 13 Colonies declared their independence and became the United States of American all the people loyal to the British Empire moved to Canada. There was 6,000 loyalists who came to Quebec and this caused the composition of the population to go from 1% English to 10% English in Quebec. They settled in Townships and they gave their settlements English names. But they were used to English laws and having elected assemblies. Thus the Loyalists started writing petitions to London for change. -
The Constitutional Act
The Province of Quebec was split into two pieces that were named Lower Canada and Upper Canada.
-Lower Canada: Almost entirely French, they had 160 000 people with 10% English. French had influence in Lower Canada. The French kept their Catholic religion, civil laws and the French could work in administration.
-Upper Canada: Entirely English, they had 20 000 people. The English had influence here. The English were Protestant, using the township system and had English civil laws. -
Representative Governement
This government made it look like the people had a say in decision but it was all a false system. This government consisted of:
-The King and the British Parliament that never left the Mother Country.
Both Canada's had:
-Governor who was appointed by the parliament. He was the only person that had veto power. He was in charge of administration and he called the assemblies into session. (both Canadas had the same governor)
-Lieutenant Governor he advised the Governor. -
Representative Government Continued
Both Canada's had:
-Executive Council: They were appointed by the Governor and their job was to advise him because they were directly in the colony while the Governor wasn't.
-Legislative Council: They were appointed by the Governor. Their job was to approve or reject laws from the assembly. They were typically English/French merchants.
-Legislative Assembly: They were elected by the people every 4 years. They had the power to make laws on taxes and budgets. They were typically poor farmers. -
The Rebellions
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Cause of Conflicts in Lower Canada
The Constitutional Act had established a Representative Government but the people that were elected didn't have real power and people started to realize this. By the 1830s two different groups had formed:
-British Party: They were controlled by the councils, they spent money on public works. They were wealthy British people.
-Parti Patriote: They were controlled by the assembly, they had power over taxes. They were lower class French people. The British Party had power over the Patriotes. -
92 Resolutions
Louis Joseph Papineau was the leader of the Patriotes. He wrote 92 Resolutions, which was a list of the assemblies demands. They were all things that would benefit the French. One of their biggest demands was a Responsible Government. This document was sent to the British Government to be read and taken into account. However Lord John Russell from London ignored the document and sent back 10 Resolutions that had nothing to do with the Patriotes demands. This was taken as an insult. -
Rebellions in Lower Canada
The rebellions in Lower Canada were lead by Louis Joseph Papineau. The French won two battles one in St-Charles and
St-Denis. However in St-Eustache the rebellion was put to an end when the British won. The Patriotes were supported by the clergy but they didn't have enough support outside of Montreal, there were poorly organized and poorly equipment. Thus they failed. -
Lord Durham
Lord Durham was sent to Lower and Upper Canada to investigate what happened to trigger the rebellions. Durham observed and sent London his recommendations:
-Britain should increase English immigration in order to get rid of the French or just make them the minority.
-The two Canada's should be united because the English would have to majority.
-Responsible Government should be granted to eliminate the veto power.
At first these ideas were rejected by the British Parliament until 1840. -
Act of Union
This was the 4th constitution. This constitution consisted of the creation of the Province of Canada with Canada West (English) and Canada East (French ). The Governor still had veto power while both Canada's had 42 members of its assembly. Both Canada's had to equally pay for Canada's debt. However, Canada West owed 10X more than Canada East but they were stuck with paying their debts. -
Responsible Government
The Legislative Assembly was made up mostly of English people and it is very important to have the majority of the Legislative Assembly. In the Responsible Government the Governor still has veto power but he does not use it and this is the difference between Representative Government and Responsible Government. Lord Elgin was the first Governor not to use his power of veto. -
The Structure of Responsible Government
The people would elect the Legislative Assembly (Parliament). The Prime minister would form the Cabinet (Executive Council) who made the laws that had to be approved by the assembly. The Governor and the Legislative council were still appointed but did not intervene even though they were pressured to do so (rich English merchants). -
Politics
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The Charlottetown Conference
The government is now responsible but no party could win a majority government. The original provinces were running themselves separately. But they agreed they should come together to form a country. The party leaders agreed a merger was necessary, meetings were needed to discuss such things:
The Charlottetown Conference: The leaders of Canada East and West met with the leaders of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. They left this meeting all agreeing to a merger. The formation of a country. -
The Quebec Conference
The same members that met the last time but they added Newfoundland. They all agreed on 72 Resolutions that would make the merger possible:
Each province will have its own government but the country will have one main government. There will be 24 seats for each province. The Assembly is elected by the population. They also wanted to build a railroad to link all the colonies. Newfoundland and PEI soon withdrew from the merger. The assembly of the two Canada's voted yes for the merger but barely. -
The London Conference
The leaders of the 4 colonies made arrangements to be released from the British Empire in order to become a new self-governing colony. Under the British North America Act the Dominion of Canada was created with the capital of Ottawa. They finally passed this on July 1st 1867. There are four provinces in the Dominion of Canada; Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. However, with the country having a federal government they needed to sort out who was going to be in charge of what. -
Contemporary Period
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The Influence of the Church
Church still runs a large part of people’s everyday life. After 1837 the bishops became more and more powerful, the cures became the most important person in the parish.
-Church was still in charge of registering births, marriages, deaths.
-Controlled education, orphanages, shelters, charities, religious festivals.
-Protestant Universities: McGill(1821), Bishops(1843) These schools were meant to teach people the religious path. People would hope to become the next bishop. -
Maurice Duplessis
Duplessis was a traditionalist who was a huge supporter of the Church and agriculture. He did not like the unions because he believe the state should not intervene in either the social or economic sectors. He encouraged everyone to have a rural lifestyle. He held Quebec back from the rest of the world that was moving forward. However he was respected in Quebec because he believed Quebec could be independent. He would even refuse federal payments to show that Quebec could be independent. -
The Quiet Revolution
Began with the electoral defeat of the Union Nationale by Jean Lesage and the Liberal Party. This revolution was known as the rapid and far-reaching process to catch Quebec's society up to the rest of the world. HydroQuebec became government owned and they expanded Trans Canada and it became the Montreal Metro. In order to catch up education, they made public school free until the age of 16. -
Power Relations Between Feminist Movements and the State
-1893: Foundation of the National Council of Women; actions of the suffragettes. (their struggles to obtain equal rights)
-1961: electing the first woman to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec (Marie-Claire Kirland-Casgrain).
-1965: Foundation of the Federation des Femmes du Quebec (creation of maternity leave, decriminalization of abortion, equality of men and women);
-1996: law on the equality of pay checks. This law guarantees equal payment between men and women. -
French Nationalism
The French got so angry that English were the majority that they created extreme ways to get rid of the English. For example in 1970 the FLQ was a French terrorist group that kidnapped English people and planted bombs in the mailboxes of English communities. In 1961 Bill 22 was passed, stating that the official language in Quebec is French. Later in 1977, Bill 101 was passed making the French language the priority. French dominates over English. -
French Nationalism Continued
The French wanted Quebec to separate from Canada because of their cultural differences and oppressive struggle since the English took over the French. Now they see themselves as Quebecois not Canadian, and they believe they belong to an independent nation. In 1980 Rene Levesque believes strongly in this and he holds a referendum. 60% voted against while 40% voted for. To unify Canada Pierre Elliot Trudeau in 1982 he creates the Constitution Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
