The Making of a Timber Colony: British North America, the Navy Board, and Global Resource Extraction in the Age of Napoleon

Itinerario ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 466-488
Author(s):  
Martin Crevier
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Brazilian Coast ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Lower Canada ◽  
British North America ◽  
Ecological Relationships ◽  
The North ◽  
Naval Stores ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
British State

AbstractThis article recounts the worldwide search for timber undertaken by the Navy Board, the administrative body under the authority of the Admiralty responsible for the supply of naval stores and the construction and repair of ships during the Napoleonic Wars. The closure of the Baltic by France and its European allies is considered the main factor in making British North America a timber colony. Yet the process through which the forests of the Laurentian Plateau and the North Appalachians came to fuel the dockyards of England and Scotland is taken for granted. To acquire this commodity, through merchants, diplomats, and commissioned agents, the power of the British state reached globally, reshaped ecological relationships, and integrated new landscapes to the Imperial economy. Many alternatives to the Baltic were indeed considered and tentatively exploited. Only a mixture of contingency, political factors, and environmental constraints forced the Board to contract in Lower Canada and New Brunswick rather than in areas such as the Western Cape, the Brazilian coast, or Bombay's hinterland.

Anadromous Sturgeons: Habitats, Threats, and Management

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Temperature Adaptation ◽  
Atlantic Sturgeon ◽  
The North ◽  
European Sturgeon ◽  
The Baltic

<em>Abstract.</em> - Sea sturgeons are closely related anadromous fishes inhabiting both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. They are classified in two species: the European sturgeon <em>Acipenser sturio</em> in Europe and the Atlantic sturgeon <em>A. oxyrinchus</em> in North America. The Atlantic sturgeon is further separated into two subspecies: Atlantic sturgeon (North American East Coast populations) <em>A. o. oxyrinchus</em> and Gulf sturgeon <em>A. o. desotoi. </em>Most recent studies of morphology and genetics support these classifications. Furthermore, they produced evidence for a trans-Atlantic colonization event during the early Middle Ages. Atlantic sturgeon colonized Baltic waters, founding a self-reproducing population before they became extinct due to anthropogenic reasons. Today, populations of Atlantic sturgeon are found along the Atlantic Coast from the St. Johns River, Florida to the St. Lawrence River, Quebec, whereas only one relict spawning population of European sturgeon still exists in the Gironde River, France. The evidence of a population of Atlantic sturgeon in Baltic waters requires a detailed comparison of both sea sturgeon species, describing differences and similarities, which may influence the ongoing restoration projects in Europe as well as concerning conservation efforts in North America. This article reviews similarities and differences in the fields of genetics, morphology, and ecological adaptation of European sturgeon and Atlantic sturgeon, concluding that, besides morphological and genetic differences, a wider range of spawning temperatures in Atlantic sturgeon is evident. This wider temperature adaptation may be a selective advantage under fast-changing climatic conditions, possibly the mechanism that enabled the species shift in the Baltic Sea during the Middle Ages.

Friends of Ireland: early O’Connellism in Lower Canada

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (157) ◽  
pp. 43-65
Author(s):  
Shane Lynn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
Lower Canada ◽  
British North America ◽  
Reciprocal Interactions ◽  
Irish America ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
British North American

AbstractIn September 1828, societies of the ‘Friends of Ireland’ were founded throughout the United States and British North America for the purpose of raising funds and disseminating propaganda in support of the O’Connellite campaign for Catholic emancipation. In March 1831, the societies were briefly revived to agitate for repeal of the Union. The first Irish diasporic social movement to appear in Britain’s overseas empire, the British North American Friends of Ireland enjoyed greatest support in French-speaking Lower Canada, where for a time sympathetic local patriotes perceived a common cause with their new Irish neighbours. This article explores the transatlantic reciprocal interactions, cross-ethnic alliances and regional distinctions which characterised early O’Connellism in Lower Canada. It follows its initial successes to its virtual collapse in the early 1830s, as an increasingly polarised Lower Canada slid towards rebellion. Comparisons are employed with similar agitation elsewhere in British North America, in the United States, and in Ireland. It is argued that instrumentalist explanations for Irish diasporic nationalism, typically drawn from studies of post-famine Irish-America, do not convincingly account for the appearance and form of O’Connellite nationalism in British North America.

Wanted? Coming to the Canadas, 1798–1830

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-72
Author(s):  
Jane G.V. McGaughey
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
War Of 1812 ◽  
Upper Canada ◽  
Irish Immigrants ◽  
British North America ◽  
The North ◽  
Sectarian Conflict

This chapter explores themes of war, migration, gender, and sectarian conflict between 1798 and 1830. It questions how the 1798 Irish Rising factored into some emigrants’ motivations for coming to Canada in the decades that followed. The Rising also affected how these new arrivals were associated with presumptions of Irish aggression and disloyalty. Many United Empire Loyalists in Upper Canada expressed particular concerns about the violent tendencies of new Irish immigrants and the importation of Irish sectarian conflict to British North America. The chapter then examines the influence of James and Alexander Buchanan, brothers from the north of Ireland in the colonial establishment who decided which Irish immigrants would be most welcome in the Canadas. The chapter closes with the case studies of the Richards and Tackaberry families on their journeys from Co. Wexford to Upper Canada after the War of 1812.

scholarly journals Les réseaux négociants européens et les échanges entre la France et l'Europe du Nord (XVIIe-XIXe siècles)

2019 ◽  
pp. 155-181
Author(s):  
Pierrick Pourchasse
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
The North ◽  
Entire Data ◽  
Agricultural Potential ◽  
Naval Stores ◽  
The Baltic

France was a country that had great agricultural potential and natural resources that allowed it to not be dependent on external markets, especially raw materials from the North. French ports, however, maintained close relations with the Baltic countries where they marketed many products and obtained supplies of naval stores and, depending on the economic situation, cereals. This paper proposes to revisit the French trade with the Baltic over a period of two centuries by using the Sound Toll Accounts whose entire data is now available to the research community. As we will see, several evidences are to be reconsidered.

Elite associations: from local to transnational

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Bueltmann ◽  
Donald M. MacRaild
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Social Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Geographical Range ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
British North America ◽  
The North ◽  
Transnational Communication ◽  
Emotional Aspects

Chapter 2 explores, first, the development of elite English associations in North America, focusing on St George’s societies. These earliest English societies were more than gentlemen’s dining and drinking clubs, and extended beyond the cultural life of the colonial tavern where they often met. Their roles encompassed social, cultural, civic and also emotional aspects of immigrant community life. Critically, however, the idea of charity underpinned them and provided the basis for all their activities, with the societies established for the purpose of aiding fellow English migrants who were in distress. This associational anchor of benevolence continues to be a mainstay for the St George’s societies that are still active today. And it was one that spread with the St George’s tradition—first to the largest centres of the original Thirteen Colonies and then, in the 1830s, to British North America. All this was in tune with the patterns of English migration, as well as its overall volume, with a plethora of new societies being founded in the mid-nineteenth century to cater for the mass arrival of migrants. Hence, while the associations’ leaders were comprised of the migrant elite, the work of St George’s societies had wider resonances for it embraced the poorest and most unfortunate of their fellow countrymen and women. Importantly, charitable culture also signifies the extent to which the English formed an active diaspora: that is, one denoted both by the geographical range of its adherents, transnational communication between them, and persistent social action. Indeed, transnational integration and the quest for consistently was fostered by the North America St George’s Union, which was founded in the 1870s for the purpose of bringing closer together the St George’s societies of the United States and Canada.

Piracy in Colonial North America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark G. Hanna
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
New England ◽  
North American ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
British North America ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
British North American

Historians of colonial British North America have largely relegated piracy to the marginalia of the broad historical narrative from settlement to revolution. However, piracy and unregulated privateering played a pivotal role in the development of every English community along the eastern seaboard from the Carolinas to New England. Although many pirates originated in the British North American colonies and represented a diverse social spectrum, they were not supported and protected in these port communities by some underclass or proto-proletariat but by the highest echelons of colonial society, especially by colonial governors, merchants, and even ministers. Sea marauding in its multiple forms helped shape the economic, legal, political, religious, and cultural worlds of colonial America. The illicit market that brought longed-for bullion, slaves, and luxury goods integrated British North American communities with the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Pacific and Indian Oceans throughout the 17th century. Attempts to curb the support of sea marauding at the turn of the 18th century exposed sometimes violent divisions between local merchant interests and royal officials currying favor back in England, leading to debates over the protection of English liberties across the Atlantic. When the North American colonies finally closed their ports to English pirates during the years following the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), it sparked a brief yet dramatic turn of events where English marauders preyed upon the shipping belonging to their former “nests.” During the 18th century, colonial communities began to actively support a more regulated form of privateering against agreed upon enemies that would become a hallmark of patriot maritime warfare during the American Revolution.

scholarly journals Les douze circonscriptions électorales « privilégiées » du Québec

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 161-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Charles Bonenfant
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Ottawa River ◽  
British North America ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Eastern Townships

Article 80 of the British North America Act expressly disallows any modification of the boundaries of twelve of the electoral districts of the province of Québec (all located in the Eastern Townships and along the north shore of the Ottawa River) without the majority consent of the deputies representing these districts. In 1867 the districts were predominantly English-speaking but most now contain a French-speaking majority. The author traces the history of application of Article 80 from 1867 to the present, and by citing numerous boundary changes that have occurred shows that the Article has been more honoured in the breach than the observance. The author concludes that the Article is obsolete and antidemocratic. He then outlines some of the procedural difficulties involved in a possible repeal of the Article.

The rise of the sugar trade and sugar consumption in early British America, 1650–1720*

2020 ◽  
Vol 93 (262) ◽  
pp. 678-691
Author(s):  
Mimi Goodall
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Sugar Consumption ◽  
Economic Relationships ◽  
British North America ◽  
British America ◽  
The North ◽  
Commodity Money ◽  
Sugar Trade

Abstract This article draws on new archival sources to explore how sugar pervaded British North America much earlier that previous scholarly literature has suggested. Sugar arrived in North America with the very first colonists, and was widely available to a variety of consumers across the socio-economic spectrum. The product was foundational to the development of the North American economic world – in the creation of rum distilleries, grocers’ shops and through the use of commodity money. While sugar brought North American colonists closer to Britain through similar consumption patterns and a shared sense of taste, it also began to pull the two countries apart. By 1733, sugar had become a central source of tension between the colony and the metropole; it allowed colonists’ economic relationships to spread much further than Britain, and consequently, as America’s sweet tooth developed, its relationship with Britain began to decay.

Genetic Zoogeography of the Mysis relicta Species Group (Crustacea: Mysidacea) in Northern Europe and North America

1994 ◽  
Vol 51 (7) ◽  
pp. 1490-1505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Risto Väinölä ◽  
Bruce J. Riddoch ◽  
Robert D. Ward ◽  
Roger I. Jones
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Species Group ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Frequency Variation ◽  
Mysis Relicta ◽  
The North ◽  
Environmental Variations ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Independent Species

The zoogeography and systematics of the Mysis relicta species group were elucidated in an allozyme survey of populations across northern Europe and North America. The North American populations are here identified as an independent species (sp. IV), distinct from the three previously recognized European M. relicta group taxa (spp. I–III). The geographical pattern of gene frequency variation in North America supports a late-glacial colonization by separate eastern and western refugial stocks of sp. IV. In Europe, sp. III is known from a single subarctic lake, while both spp. I and II are widespread. They coexist in the Baltic Sea, but their lacustrine distributions are largely different. Species I accounts for most Fennoscandian populations and those in Poland and Germany whereas sp. II lives in Ireland, parts of southwestern Scandinavia, and Karelia. With the paleohydrographical reference, the distributions suggest that both species survived the last glaciation in proglacial lakes east of the Scandinavian Ice. Subsequent distributional differentiation was influenced by environmental variations; the dispersal of sp. II in southwestern Scandinavia was facilitated by a broader euryhalinity than that in sp. I and other stenohaline "glacial relief" crustaceans. The Irish populations may represent a distinct refugial stock within sp. II.

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