In what way was Canada different than the 13 colonies at the start?
Apart from loyalists who moved to Canada, how did Canada change after the revolution?
I got the impression from a National Archives exhibit, that England began treating Canada differently as a direct result of the revolution.
Well, Canada was a lot less populated than the colonies that made up the US at the eve of the American Revolution. The whole of Canada had a population of about 90,000, as opposed to 117,000 in just New Jersey. Further, most of the Canadians were French speakers, because, remember, most of Canada was a French colony until the Seven Years War.
In 1774, Parliament passed the Quebec Act, which, among other things, allowed Catholics to hold public office, kept the French civil code, and allowed French to be used for government business. So, at that point, there was a lot of loyalty to the crown, and fear of the colonies to the south…that they would take away their rights and privilages. So, there wasn’t much support for the American Revolution in Canada.
Canada saw a big influx of settlers from the United States. Wikipedia suggests 46,000 some United Empire Loyalists (as they were called) ended up in Canada (with nearly the same number returning to Britain or settling in the Caribbean).
Quebec was invited to the second Continental Congress, along with Nova Scotia and St. John’s Island. They declined, since they were mostly happy with the Quebec Act, as noted. Nova Scotia had just undergone the Acadian Expulsion a few years earlier, and the British Crown was in the process of bestowing land grants in the region to court favorites. That, coupled with the fact that the maritime colonies were small at that time, left them not terribly inclined to revolt, either.
Thanks for the info. One thing that didn’t dawn on me was that the provinces existed at that time… or did they? My War of 1812 memory is that York (now Toronto) was the capital of Upper Canada. How does that fit in with the provinces?
While not inclined to revolt, one of the questions I was trying to focus in on was whether Canada indirectly benefited in its treatment by England by some of the changes that came about after the revolution.
Upper Canada and Lower Canada were founded in 1791, so that was 15-16 years after the revolution. Before that, both of them were the ‘Province’ (or Colony) of Quebec. I’m not sure whether Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or PEI were independent province/colonies at the time of the Revolution or not.
They were. The colonies with Governors at the time of the American revolution were St. John’s Island (the future PEI), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Quebec.
There was also Rupert’s Land, which was owned by the Hudson Bay Company, and was under corporate government.
As I understand it the American Revolution prompted Britain to make some political reforms to forestall future unrest in the Empire, so Canada indirectly benefited from the revolution.
And after the Revolution, America kept options open for Canada.
The Articles of Confederation included a provision allowing Canada to joint the US anytime it chose to do so. Any other area, like the future western states, had to petition Congress to approve them joining. But Canada was pre-approved.
It’s also worth noting that the American Revolution also included one military campaign that directly affected Canada: The Invasion of Canada in 1775. At least part of the planning for this seemed to have been based on incorrect assumptions of majority sympathy for independence by the Canadian commons.
Not New Brunswick. That area was part of Nova Scotia during the war. It was not organized into a separate colony until an influx of Loyalist refugees from New England settled it after the war.
Sorry, you’re right. Not New Brunswick.
I was looking around, and I found a map of North America at the time, in case anyone is curious as to borders at the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:British_colonies_1763-76.jpg
Good question. The way American history is taught in elementary and high school, the British North American colonies are treated as is the colonies that make up Canada were somehow different than the colonies that eventually became the original 13 states. It seems as if they were a different world of sorts, with no revolutionary tenancies of their own, no economic ties to the 13 colonies, and so on.
In many ways they were a different world. The thirteen colonies were almost rabidly anti-Catholic while Quebec was Catholic. Nova Scotia had just been resettled by people directly from England (after the expulsion of the Acadians) and had not yet developed a separate identity from England in the manner of the colonies to the South. Among the European-descended people, the Francophones had been at war with the thirteen colonies just twelve years previous to fighting in 1775. There was trade along the seacoast, but there was not an extensive exchange of people and culture.
Does your figure include only the Province of Quebec (which was the former French colony of “Canada”) or does it also include the Provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, all of which are now part of Canada but weren’t at the time?
A few Canadians did fight for the Americans during the Revolutionary War, some settling in the US at the end. But yes, most Canadians were “neutral”, in the sense that they didn’t wish for the revolution to be crushed, but they didn’t want to join it either.
The invasion of Canada in 1775 failed, but the Americans were planning new invasions of Canada as late as 1780 or 1781. None of these plans came to anything.
Y’hear that? You guys can come over any time you want to. 
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Huh? Even Mary-land? I thought that was completely Catholic.
Interesting.
Was there ever any serious popular movement to take up this option on the Canadian side? Was it something that was seriously considered at the time of the Confederation talks?
Maryland was founded (in part) as a Catholic refuge. But the famous Act of Toleration, which granted freedom of religion to Catholics within Maryland was actually repealed in 1689.
Maryland was never completely Catholic. The Toleration Act gave Catholics rights but–as you noted–that didn’t last. Charles Carroll of Carrollton (Maryland) was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.
In a token effort to return to the thread topic, let me mention New Maryland, New Brunswick–settled by Loyalists after the Revolution.