The American Response to Canada Since 1776

A Note on Terminology

A Note on Terminology The term "Canada" is used throughout this book even though the Dominion of Canada was established only in 1867. From 1608 to 1760, Canada was a French colony. Following the conquest by Britain in the Seven Years' War and the migration of English speaking settlers (most of them loyalists fleeing the American revolution) into the region west of the Ottawa River in the 1780s, the old French colony of Quebec was divided in 1791 into two separate coloniesUpper Canada (corresponding to modern southern Ontario) and Lower Canada (corresponding to modern Quebec). Between 1841 and 1867, Upper Canada and Lower Canada were rejoined to form the Union of the Canadas. These colonies along with the maritime British possessions of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island were collectively referred to by contemporaries as British North America. With the exception of Prince Edward Island, they came together to form the Canadian Confederation in 1867. By 1873, the new Confederation included Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Manitoba, and the vast northwest territories previously held by the Hudson's Bay Company. Canada now stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific and was the largest settlement colony in the Victorian empire. Newfoundland remained a distinct British colony until becoming a Province of Canada in 1949. Where it is necessary to make sense of the evidence, the specific entities in this array of colonies are singled out, but in general the usage "Canada" has been adopted to make for easier reading. 1 ...