It's about Rivers

Why are there two countries in North America rather than one? The easy answer is to blame the European empires that set up here starting 500 years ago.



In the north was New France, below that New England, then New Amsterdam and other English colonies, and finally another bit of New France before New Spain in the south. New France extended inland and built forts down the Mississippi, boxing in the English seaboard colonies.



When Britain finally took Québec and the French inland empire, her Thirteen Colonies no longer needed to be defended against a hostile power. Removal of this threat enabled them to assert themselves on a growing list of colonial grievances.



New England and the other eastern colonies became independent in the revolution of 1776-81. New France, now British North America and swelled by refugees from the United States, went on to become independent in an evolution that took 149 years.



The US emerged in the first revolution of modern times. Ninety years later Canada emerged as the first modern state to be born without revolution or civil war. In the south, Texas split from Mexico to become part of the United States. In the arctic, most of the European powers ceded their North American claims to Canada.



That’s the simple answer: we have two countries on this continent because of different colonizers, their interaction and how they divided the land between them.



There’s another answer that goes further. It focuses on the land itself and the First Nations who already lived here, which explains why different colonizers spread and developed as they did. In 1608 the French moved from their first settlement on the Bay of Fundy to the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River. This gave them access to the Great Lakes and the interior of the continent: north to the Arctic, south to the Gulf of Mexico and west to the Rockies.

French penetration inland was largely in search of furs. This was a trade shared with First Nations with whom they intermarried. From this came the Métis people who became a buffer between the aboriginals and the next wave of Europeans.



The English remained on or near the Atlantic coast. Their one major river, the Hudson, did not lead inland nearly as far as the Saint Lawrence. When the English colonists eventually did penetrate inland, it was as settlers in search of lands and homes. This brought them into competition and conflict with First Nations who were there first.



This was the reason for Britain’s closure of “Indian Lands” to settlement: one of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence. It was also the reason that London administered these lands from Québec rather than from the older New World colonies.



In taking over New France, Britain adopted French policy towards the aboriginals: an approach that had worked to maintain peace in the territories. The east-west network of streams and trails traveled by French and Scottish voyageurs formed a line that thwarted the newly independent United States from expanding north.

In time transcontinental railways paralleled and extended the voyageur routes securing Canada from sea to sea.