The Riel Rebellion and Canadian-American Relations

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (s1) ◽  
pp. s159-s177
Author(s):  
Alvin C. Gluek, Jr.

The Riel Rebellion presents an interesting case in Canadian-American history. For relations between the two nations, already strained by the Civil War, Fenian movements within the United States, and the American rejection of reciprocity, took a turn for the worse in 1869–70 when Canada was suddenly confronted with the insurrection in Rupert’s Land. Beguiled by the evasive dream of becoming a continental republic, Americans had long coveted the lands of their northern neighbour. That the new Dominion of Canada could survive – indeed, could dare to envision its own transcontinental glory – was inconceivable to many Americans. In their own self-interest, they exaggerated the signs of disaffection within the Dominion. And when the Metis of Rupert’s Land forcibly rejected political union with Canada, and certain citizens of British Columbia petitioned President Grant for admission into the United States, it seemed that all British North America was breaking up and that its separate members would soon become a part of the American family to which they “naturally” belonged.

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Balthazar

This paper's objective is to bring forth some elements which confirm the following hypothesis : Canada is consigned to continentalism, namely to economic and cultural integration with the United States though this fact is shrouded in a Canadian nationalism of sorts. The continentalist mentality is rooted in the history of British North America, inhabited mostly by refugees from America who have remained inherently "Yankees" in spite of their anti-americanism. The Confederation itself is based on a sort of complicity with the United States. More recently there were talks of a "North American nationality", and continentalism both cultural and economic has come to be seen as a 'force of nature" which the governments, at the most, put into a chanelling process. Still, it is possible for Canadian nationalism to exist provided it does not go beyond the threshold whence it would run headlong into the continental mentality. Canada has defined itself through an international or non-national perspective far too long for today's nationalism not to remain weak and poorly established. But the Americans whose "manifest destiny" has succeeded in spreading over Canada without even their having tried to hoist their flag there find it to their advantage to maintain some form of Canadian sovereignty. Canada as a "friendly nation" can be of use to Washington. That is why there are almost as many advocates for Canada's independence in the United States as there are north of the border. Canadian nationalism can thus further the interests of some Canadian elites without seriously prejudicing continental integration which can very well afford not to be set up into formalized structures.


1967 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. J. Bassett ◽  
C. W. Crompton

Results from 17 pollen collecting stations in British Columbia indicate that air-borne pollen of ragweeds and their relatives, the principal causative agents of hay fever in North America, is practically absent throughout the province. Coniferous trees and shrubs such as pines, spruces, firs, cedars, Douglas fir, hemlocks and junipers produce the greater part of the air-borne pollen from March to early July. Pollen from alders, poplars, willows and birches is also prevalent in some areas in the early spring. The peak periods of grass pollen near the United States–Canadian border occur mainly in June and the early part of July, while further north they are about a month later. Of the four types of plantain pollen identified from the different collecting stations, English plantain was the most common, especially in the southwesterly part of the province. Pollen from the lambs’-quarters and amaranth families and wormwoods occurs mainly in the late summer and early fall and is more abundant in the dry interior than along the coast.


1968 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Officer ◽  
Lawrence B. Smith

The Reciprocity Treaty between the British North American Provinces (Canada) and the United States was ratified in February 1855 and terminated in March 1866. It provided for free trade in all natural products, free access for United States fisheries to the Atlantic coastal waters of British North America, and access to the St. Lawrence River for American vessels under the same tolls as native vessels.


Itinerario ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-32
Author(s):  
Bertrand Van Ruymbeke

Historians have traditionally paid relatively little attention to the French migrations to America. Although in the early modern period France was a demographic giant, had a deep – yet not enough recognized – maritime tradition, had many colonies in the Americas from the Gulf of Saint-Lawrence to the Amazon, and suffered from a tumultuous political history comparatively few of its people migrated to British North America and the United States. France has therefore and to some extent understandably enjoyed minimal visibility in the American ethnic landscape. There is, however, a long tradition of French migrations to America, beginning with the Huguenots at the end of the seventeenth century. At times these influxes were important in terms of number and influence, indeed in 1690 and in 1790 French was spoken in the streets of Charleston and of Philadelphia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-53
Author(s):  
Ted Binnema

The importance of decisions regarding the allocation of jurisdiction over Indigenous affairs in federal states can only be understood well when studied transnationally and comparatively. Historians of Canada appear never to have considered the significance of the fact that the British North America Act (1867) gave the Canadian federal government exclusive jurisdiction over Indian affairs, even though that stipulation is unique among the constitutional documents of comparable federal states (the United States and Australia). This article explains that the constitutional provisions in Canada, the United States, and Australia are a product of the previous history of indigenous-state relations in each location, but also profoundly affected subsequent developments in each of those countries. Despite stark differences, the similar and parallel developments also hint at trends that influenced all three countries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (157) ◽  
pp. 43-65
Author(s):  
Shane Lynn

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.


1992 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Leech ◽  
Marilyn Steiner

Metaltella simoni (Keyserling, 1878), an amaurobiid spider species precinctive to Argentina and Uruguay, and probably southern Brazil, is well established in the southeastern coastal regions of the United States (Leech 1972: 107). It was brought to North America by commercial and trade activities, hence the apparent distribution disjunction. The first Nearctic record is 23–30 July 1944, from Harahan, Louisiana (Leech 1972: 107).


1983 ◽  
Vol 115 (11) ◽  
pp. 1545-1546 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.J. Kangasniemi ◽  
D. R. Oliver

Eurasian water milfoil, Myriophyllum spicatum Linnaeus, was introduced into eastern North America late in the nineteenth century. It has spread and developed into a major aquatic weed in many areas of the United states and Canada (Aiken et al. 1979; Reed 1977). In British Columbia, it was first observed in the Vernon Arm of Okanagan Lake in 1970 and had spread to all major 1,akes in the Okanagan Valley by 1976 (Newroth 1979).


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