Unit 1: 1867-1885: Expansion and Settler Colonialism

Question 1

1 July 1867

Answer 1

The first Dominion Day; founding of Confederation

Question 2

What caused Confederation?

Answer 2

Political Deadlock
Non-functional government; deadlock between English vs. French, but more importantly Protestant vs. Catholic. Any time a contentious issue came up, the government was deadlocked and the governments would fall

Perceived Threats from the US
Retreat of US, went back to the American Revolution in 1770’s, the War of 1812, and the Fenian raids. Fear of American annexationist is important, especially to John A Macdonald.

External Pressure from British and Britain’s Changing Imperial Policies
British is at its height as empire by 1840’s-50’s; they are unrivaled and unchecked as a global empire. Britain wants to lessen obligations and doesn’t want to send troops to Canada, so begins pushing Canada to Confederation.

Nation-Building
Age of nationalism, nation-building; building a nation state (examples: Civil War in US, wars of Italian unification, German unification).

Question 3

Fenian Raids

Answer 3

Angry Irish Catholics in Northern army began conducting raids against the British (through Canada)

• The raids exaggerate fear that north is on verge of invading Canada
• Fear that Canada won’t be able to stop an invasion
• The threat (whether it was real) was real to Macdonald; he used it and that fear was driving force for Confederation

Question 4

What caused Confederation?

Political Deadlock in Canada

Answer 4

• Non-functional government
• Deadlock between English vs. French, but more importantly Protestant vs. Catholic
• Religion/culture were even more important than language
• English vs. French conflict goes back to founding of Canada/Quebec
• As a way to get out of deadlock, Confederation expanded the government to get rid of that deadlock
• The seats were evenly split between language and religion
• Any time a contentious issue came up, the government was deadlocked and the governments would fall

Question 5

What caused Confederation?

Perceived Threat from US

Answer 5

• Retreat of US, went back to the American Revolution in 1770’s, the War of 1812, and the Fenian raids
• Fear of American annexationist is important, especially to John A Macdonald
• The age of nationalism ends the Western war
• What comes after this war?
• Britain (and Canada through the British empire) unofficially supported the south
• Civil War was all about slavery; yet British supported the south
• British had made slavery illegal
• BUT the US was threat to British hegemony
  The idea of this fledgling nation breaking up after CW felt good with the British
• Would have been less of a threat to Canada if US broke out
• South was also helpful to cotton trade, and therefore more useful to the British than the North’s manufacturing staple
• British gave money to Confederate ships
• Note: ships are moving from wooden vessels to iron shpis
• Supplied money to ships like the Alabama, which dealt lots of damage
• Issue for the North
• Canada allows Confederate agents sanctuary
• St. Alban’s Raid; Southern Confederate agents came to NY, raided, and got sanctuary in Canada
• These issues upset the North
• It was fine in the beginning, when south could win
• Afterwards, North won, they had to deal with that
• NOTE: Civil War saw industrialized modern army (iron ships, gatling guns, etc.)

Question 6

What caused Confederation?

External Pressure from British and Britain’s Changing Imperial Policies

Answer 6

• British is at its height as empire by 1840’s-50’s; they are unrivaled and unchecked as a global empire
• When an empire is unchecked, they shift to “informal empire”; they hold the empire together, but don’t use their army, and instead use their economy and control the world culturally
• When you the army must be used, it is a sign that the Empire is in trouble
• Britain wants to lessen obligations and doesn’t want to send troops to Canada
• Britain would like to see US break up; if it doesn’t, it needs to have good relationship with US
• Going forward, Britain wants to improve relationships with US

Consider: reasons aren’t “warm” nationalist narratives
Events happen in 1867 out of necessity

Question 7

What caused Confederation?

Nation-Building

Answer 7

• Age of nationalism, nation-building; building the nation state
• Examples: Civil War in US, wars of Italian unification & German unification

In Atlantic or global context, Canada part of larger trend
How did Canadians respond to Confederation?

• Canada West (ON) pushing the most for Confederation
• The whole point of expansion was to give the English/Protestants more power
• Confederation is the first step to expansion
• By going west, Canada would get new colonies/territories that will be English and Protestant
• By getting this, the English will be able to assimilate the French in Quebec
• Consider: Royal Proclamation of 1763 aimed to get rid of French law, landholding system, language, culture
• After the American Revolution; this did not happen
  Quebec Act 1774 reverses Royal proclamation; allows Quebec to survive
• Act of Union results in political deadlock … and here we are in 1867
• NOTE: 1867 saves Quebec
• Puts the idea away of assimilation
• The only way you get Quebec on board is by giving them a provincial government which controls issues of local and cultural concern
• Quebec has the power to protect and control its culture
  Confederation is important for Quebec because it signifies a new era of English-French relations

Question 8

How do the Maritimes respond to Confederation?

Answer 8

Maritimes feel like they have been dragged into Confederation…

PEI
PEI bails on the whole plan; pulls out after Quebec Conference

Nova Scotia/New Brunswick
NS/NB come in through manipulation
- They know if they ask the people, Confederation won’t happen
They are pushed to join by: (1) Political Manipulation and (2) Pressure from Britain

Question 9

Which provinces join Confederation?

Answer 9

Four provincies: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick

• Confederation happens despite forces preventing; it is on tenuous ground.
• The scheme is based on nation-building.
• Macdonald shares it, Brown shares it (lib-tory); even some of Quebec shares it

Question 10

Why does John A. Macdonald push to the West quickly after Confederation?

Answer 10

• If they do not move west quickly, the US will get there first
• There are already posts in Rupert’s land, on the Pacific, and Red River has trade links that go north-south
• The US is already building rail line across the continent

Question 11

Settler Colonialism

Answer 11

Eastern Ontarians moving to the Prairies

• Land Dispossession; displacement of people from their land
• Prairie and Plains First Nations are being displaced by the new “Canadian” society of settlers, who then resettle the land and resources, and restrict First Nations access to that land and to those resources
• Emphasis on land: the idea that a white, settler population moves into an area, takes the land, and dispossessed the people on that land in order to take it
• That makes Settler Colonialism distinct
• Colonial aspect of Canada moving westward
  Important concept from Indigenous standpoint

“Colonialism” is a political term.

Question 12

Demographics of Canada in 1867:

Answer 12

Total Population: 3.5 million

1% First Nations (30 000)

• Most of the First Nations population lived in Rupert’s land
• Foreign relations are actually still controlled by British, not Canada
• Royal Proclamation still comes up in cases with FN relations
• Created Proclamation line; indicated that British cannot take FN land without FN people “extinguishing title” (important legal point in terms of landholding), which means treaty; you must negotiate with those people and sign a treaty
• First Nations people deal with the Crown; through Governor General
• After Confederation, that is transferred to the federal government

33% French

60% British (25% Irish, 16% Scottish, 15% English, 5% Welsh)

8% Other (Majority German, 65 000 Black)

Question 13

What happens when waves of immigration occur?

Answer 13

nativism arises

Question 14

What are the three waves of immigration?

Answer 14

1st Wave of Immigration: The Loyalists

2nd Wave of Immigration: 1820s-1840s Huge British Immigration
- Waves of industrialization, end of Napoleonic war, and unemployment in Britain

3rd Wave of Immigration: Scottish and Irish

• Scottish fleeing highland clearances and Irish fleeing famine
• They bring some diseases like cholera
• Compound effects of industrialization

Question 15

Expansion and Resistance

Answer 15

Expansions happens way too fast, which causes major, serious dislocations which almost lead the enterprise to break up (remember, this all came out of fears of US expansions).

British knew they had a problem with Rupert’s Land, and feared wars with First Nations (like US had with their westward expansions). There was little that the British could do in a First Nations war in such a huge space.

Land owned by Hudson’s Bay Company. HBC controlled everything; they could make their own rules.
British are worried about moral protection of First Nations, who are seen as a dying race. Early social scientists are predicting the end of First Nations people.

There is no long term plan; they set up reserves to contain them and assimilate them as the British make plans to transfer Rupert’s Land from HBC.

By getting Confederation to happen, British has someone to give Rupert’s Land. There are already negotiations behind doors before Confederation happens.

1870: Acquisition of Rupert’s Land
Only a few years after Confederation, the deal happens, because it’s done behind closed doors

1869: They set in motion the real estate deal
Rupert’s Land is to be treated as a colony of Canada; Canada will become the imperial body with Rupert’s Land as his colony.

Macdonald plans to divide it into provinces; but he can’t do that until people live there (besides First Nations)

Question 16

Macdonald’s National Policy (5)

Answer 16

1. Get Rupert’s Land
2. Sign Treaties (By 1867, 123 treaties have already been signed (usually small affairs)
3. Immigration (get people to come to Canada)
4. Build a railway (the new symbol of industrial modernity and progress
   British have one, US is building one. All the Confederation fathers have hands in railway profits; interests in railway companies that will benefit them)
5. Put up economic tariffs (set up economic policy)

Question 17

Taking the West & The Metis

Answer 17

Canada moved quickly to take the West because they felt threatened that the US was expanding, and wanted to make the country a nation sea-to-sea.

The West was going to be a colonial hinterland for Canada. It would be a colony for Canada, and it could replace Britain.

These negotiations are in Ottawa before 1867.This is a problem because there is no talk with the people of the West.

Majority of the population was FNs still actively participating in the fur trade, as well as the mixed blood populations (metis) who had been formed as a result of the fur trade.

Largest population was in Red River, the centre of the fur trade.
1821 saw the union of the NWC and HBC, and the HBC
Population of 10-12 000, and 80 percent are Metis

So when the HBC gives Rupert’s Land to Canada in London, England, no consultation is done with the Metis.

Question 18

William McDougall

Answer 18

appointed governor of Rupert’s Land and Northwestern Territory, 1869

He treks from Ontario to Red River (Winnipeg) and he is barred from entering by the Metis, and so the transfer could not legally occur since McDougall could not pronounce it there.

Question 19

Red River Resistance of 1870

Answer 19

William McDougall is appointed governor of Rupert’s Land and Northwestern Territory in 1869. He treks from Ontario to Red River (Winnipeg) and he is barred from entering by the Metis, and so the transfer could not legally occur since McDougall could not pronounce it there.

The Metis set up a provisional council and appoint Louis Riel as the head of their government.

Red River is not only controlled by the Metis…
There are two real types of Metis: (1) French Catholic and (2) British Protestants

There were cultural differences… the French Catholic Metis are more inclined to follow the fur trade, buffalo hunters, less prone to practice settled agriculture, more nomadic, resilient to change and the majority group
BUT they are presented by British Protestant Metis, HBC and Ontario settlers beginning to arrive

Expansionists: Ontario settlers beginning to arrive in the West

British Protestant Canadian Party despite French Catholic Metis, thinking they are rebels and traders for not allowing McDougall to enter

Question 20

Louis Riel as the head of their government

Answer 20

Appointed head of the Red River provisional council

A Metis fur-trading son who was sent out of Red River to Quebec be educated. Trained as a Catholic lawyer and he fell in love with a Quebec woman, but his family did not allow him to marry her since she is not of FNs blood, and he returned to Red River.

Question 21

Canada’s Response to the Red River Resistance

Answer 21

John A. MacDonald does not know what to do since there are no troops…

• His fear is American annexationists
• So he thinks, will this spur the American government?
• Canadian government is raising militia force to take on Metis - but how do they get there without railways and not going through the US?
• This is a lesson for John A., that he needs the railway to be built
• He must negotiate with the Metis in the meantime that the militia is being raised

Question 22

Thomas Scott

Answer 22

• Went out to Red River as part of the survey party, to resurvey and re-divide the land according to the British system
• Red River was, in a way, based on the Seigneurial system
• British Survey system: townships
• He was thrown in jail by Rial and his government for plotting against the Red River
• In the early winter of 1870, they Metis are forming Lists of Rights to negotiate.
• They go through 4 drafts of these lists of what they want, negotiating their way into Canada
• The Metis ask for:
  (1) Provincial Status
  (2) Language Protection
  (3) Catholic Schools
• Thomas Scott is still in jail
• In the words of Louis Riel, the Metis decide to “make an example of Thomas Scott” and so they put him on trial for treason for threatening to kill Louis Riel, and he is found guilty, sentenced to death and he is executed by a firing squad
• He becomes a martyr for British Protestants
• By killing Thomas Scott, they have killed an Ontario Protestant

Question 23

How does Canada respond to the death of Thomas Scott

Answer 23

There are riots in places like London calling for the head of Louis Riel
French-Catholic vs. English-Protestant
- The more Ontario screams out, the more Quebec becomes defensive
- This becomes a political problem in Canada, and a problem for the Conservative party of John A. MacDonald
- 1870: Red River Expedition: Ontarians begin to head out West on foot to take on Red River…

Question 24

Manitoba Act of 1870

Answer 24

• Manitoba entering Confederation
• A deal is made in Ottawa which shows that John A. feels pressured, because he creates a 5th province when he does not want to, since he does not feel it is ready yet
• “Postage stamp province” because of how small it is, it is the area around Winnipeg

Manitoba Act: Manitoba is a bilingual province that has guarantees for “denominational” schools (Catholic schools), and the Metis are given a massive land grant for them and their future generations.

Note: One of the major actions of the BNA Act is education. Education is controlled by provinces because it is seen as a cultural issue…EXCEPT Quebec. Quebec is a special case, because there was a fear that the powerful Anglo-minority will lose their rights because French will pass their Bills. And so, Quebec has to have Catholic and Protestant schools.

• Promises had been made in the Manitoba Act

Question 25

Banishing Louis Riel

Answer 25

• By the Spring, the Red River Expedition arrives in Red River and heads right for Louis Riel who flees, and he is on the run, and thus, so are the Metis since their leader is gone
• They take control of the Red River settlement and do horrible things to the Metis people
• Riel flees to America, and he is banished for 5 years from Canada
• Canada makes him one of the 4 members of parliament though he is absentee
• He goes down to Montana, gets married, becomes a school teacher, and lives there until 1885

Question 26

What happens to Red River after Louis Riel leaves?

Answer 26

• Red River becomes overwhelmingly British and Protestant, and so how are these British Protestants going to feel about the Manitoba Act?
• The Metis feel they have won
• They pack up and leave and go to present-day Prince Albert (Saskatchewan) where they establish a base where they can continue to carry out their lifestyle for another 15 years…
• Until the British surveyors come again looking to expand further into the West (and that is when the Metis call for Riel again)
• This leads to the 1885 NorthWest Rebellion

Question 27

Thoughts turn to the far Pacific Coast…

Answer 27

• BC has small areas of white people surrounded with large, dense populations of FNs. It has much larger populations, especially of FNs.
• While the government is turning towards the Pacific Coast, the British also have an interest in bringing the area into Confederation, and the American threat is much more apparent
• Negotiations begin with the colonial government, who was very much influenced by the HBC (the HBC has bases there, even though the HBC had no claim over the land and Pacific Coast)
• All of the land that is not provinces (Rupert’s Land) will be called the NorthWest Territories
• 123 treaties signed up until 1867, and now big treaties are being signed to clear the Plains of any First Nations title so that they are not a factor anymore
• The 123 treaties that are signed up until 1867 are large treaties

Question 28

The Numbered Treaties (Treaties 1-7)

Answer 28

Extinguished title of FNs to the Prairie West (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta)
Most are signed in the same year that they are numbered (e.g. Treaty 1 = 1871)
They deal with the Plains First Nations (e.g. Cree, Blackfoot, Ojibwe/Anishinaabe, Assiniboine)
These groups are in a terrible condition by the 1870s, because American Buffalo hunters have rifles and are wiping them out
They are starving and sick (from contact, as well)
The diseases that hit the Huron and Wendat in the 15-1600s are now hitting the Plains people in the 1870s
Despite their sick, diseased conditions and the famine, the chiefs are amazing at the deals that they end up making
The chiefs want treaty
They know what treaty means, and that it will rid their ways of life, but they know that their job is to protect their people and their people are dying, and so they must sign treaty
As the treaties are being made, more is being added through negotiations
They want sanctuary, food, medicine, education
Negotiations are made from 1870-1877

Question 29

Do the Fns want treaties? Why or why not?

Answer 29

“Clearing the Plains” sparked the controversy with John A. Macdonald; it argues in part that Canada committed cultural genocide against First Nations
- In the same way that the Beaver had been wiped out, Buffalo had been wiped out from overhunting
- The repeated rifle made the Buffalo easily sloughterable
- There was an increasing demand for their hides, for Buffalo robes and Machine Belts so the US began to hunt Buffalo and slaughter them in massive numbers, use them for their hides and leave the rest of them (as we moved into Industrialization)
This caused First Nations who relied on the Buffalo to starve
- Due to contact and disease, many First Nations groups are wiped out
- As we move west, the process of contact and its implications continue on and the groups in the Plains, British Columbia and eventually the North Arctic are affected late into the 1920s
- And so First Nations populations become desperate for treaty, because they have AGENCY
- They negotiate surprisingly hard and well for what they want
- They recognize that their culture and lifestyle is gone and cannot be saved, and so they must pursue treaty
- John A. Macdonald recognizes this, and he wants to assimilate First Nations into the English lifestyle

Question 30

The Numbered Treaties

Treaty 1 & 2: 1871 & 1872

Answer 30

Deals with Manitoba

The next treaties move towards the West

Question 31

The Numbered Treaties

Treaty 5: 1875

Answer 31

Health

The federal government deals with the dire straights of the First Nations population who is sick and dying. This is added onto all of the treaties that come before and after.

Question 32

Important Inför about Treaties

Answer 32

Treaties are only signed when they are necessary. Treaties are lucrative and so they are not signed on the pacific Coast (British Columbia) which still poses issues for the government today (e.g. Trans Mountain Pipeline).

Question 33

The Numbered Treaties

Treaty 6 & 7: 1876 & 1877

Answer 33

FNs receive: limited reserve land, monetary compensation and allowance for tools. right to hun on specific land, residential schools when desired by FNs, additional assistance for medicine and famine relief

Canada obtains: land rights, protection for land, restricted alcohol use on reserves, control of healthcare and medicine

Question 34

1876: Indian Act

What is it and what does it do?

Answer 34

• Federal Government passes an important piece of legislation
• Important because it is one bill passed by the Canadian government that deals with all First Nations across Canada
• Most racist piece of legislation ever passed in Canadian history

What does it do? It tries to do everything

• Defines an “Indian”:
• Anyone who wants to be an Indian, dresses like one, tries to be one, etc.
• Anytime the Canadian government wants to do something with the First Nations population, it changes the Act
• It changes the definition of an “Indian” (one eighth, one sixth, one quarter blood)
• Imposes a political structure onto all First Nations “tribes” across Canada (male chief, certain number of band members that will meet every 3 years)
• Makes all First Nations people one, takes away their diversity

Question 35

Election of 1872

Answer 35

Back to Ottawa

• Coming out of Confederation, John A. Macdonald and the Conservative party is strong (united, organized)
• The Liberals were divided by the French and English sanctions of the party who could not get along
• This allowed the Conservatives to gain and solidify power without much opposition
• Conservatives hold power easily in first federal election in 1872, and John A. Macdonald and Conservatives hold office

But a problem arises…

The Pacific Scandal rocks the Canadian government and conservative party of John A. by 1873.
Scandal is over the building of the railway: John A. Macdonald has promised it within 10 years, and so there is not time to lose. First thing he must do is find a company to take on the railway contract Incredibly lucrative contract that is handed out which offers bonuses and incentives to take on the contract.