Invasions, Uprisings, other Decisive Events

Canada and the US share a continent originally inhabited by First Nations. We share a European heritage and parentage as part of a planetary community.

When these elements interact, there have been wars, invasions and other upheavals. In the next two postings we’re going to look at seven tsunamis that have touched our continent.

These have affected us both, often in different ways. Canada does not trace its political beginnings to a conflict like the American Resolution. However, our parallel and at times divergent paths can be traced to many of the same events.

1756-63

The Seven Years War was fought among the empires of Europe, and it was a turning point for North America. The fall of New France meant that (1) Québec and later Canada would mature under British, not French rule and (2) the Thirteen Colonies were freed from the threat of French invasion, and the need of British forces to protect them. This led to ...

1776-81

The US Revolution laid the basis of two countries in North America: one of former British colonies that became independent; the other, of former French colonies that had become British and chose to remain that way. Refugees from the Revolution fled north to live under the Crown, giving Canada its first major English speaking population.

1812-14

The War of 1812 was fought mainly against Napoleon in Europe. A sideshow in North America solidified the results of the US Revolution. Canada and the US were both invaded by troops from the other’s territory. Land changed hands temporarily. Both sides held the line. Two countries were confirmed and hostilities between them diminished.

mid/late1800’s

The wars of American expansion were fought mainly in the south, where Mexico lost from California to Texas in 1846-48, and the Mid/West American settlers displaced First Nations. The Doctrine of Manifest Destiny that fueled this expansion, also forced Canada to expand west to the Pacific to hold the line against American incursions northward.

The North West Mounted Police (RCMP) was created to clear the Canadian plains of free trade in whisky from the US. Sitting Bull brought his Lakota tribes to Canada in a famine after their victory at Bighorn.

Canadian expansion westward led to two Métis uprisings led by Louis Riel: in Manitoba in 1870, and in Northern Saskatchewan 15 years later. The second included some First Nations but stopped short of an all out Indian war. Before his execution for treason, Riel said, “My people will sleep for 100 years, and then they will awaken.”

Riel rebellions and execution divided Canadians on a number of fault lines. In addition to tension between newcomers and those already on the land, it heightened racial, religious, linguistic and geographic tensions. Riel was a French speaking Catholic half-breed; the troops sent against him were English speaking and protest, many of them Orangemen.

When later English speaking settlers overturned the language rights Riel had won in the founding of the first French speaking régime in the west (the Province of Manitoba), many francophones concluded there was no Canadian home for them outside Québec. This added to the Fortress Québec mentality and the later rise of separatism.

While Canada's faultlines developed over language and religion. those in the United States had a different basis. Tomorrow we'll see how the American Civil War and subsequent events have shaped us both.