Britons

1
Britons Canadians in the West

• Intro
• Imperialism Colonialism
• The Fur Trade as Imperialism?
• The Fur Trade British Imperialism after 1780s
• From Imperialism to Colonialism

2
Additional Books for Assignment 1

• Errington , Elizabeth Jane. Emigrant Worlds and
  Transatlantic Communities Migration to Upper
  Canada in the First Half of the Nineteenth
  Century. Montréal McGill-Queen's University
  Press, 2007.
• Dunlap, Thomas. Nature and the English Diaspora
  Environment and History in the United States,
  Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Cambridge,
  U.K. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• Weaver, John C. The Great Land Rush and the
  Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900. Montréal
  McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003.

3
Imperialism Colonialism

• imperialism a territorially structured
  relationship of unequal power
• colonialism the rule of one group of people over
  a subordinate group, often involving colonization
  (resettlement)
• Informal empire -- a situation where formal rule
  does not exist but substantial (economic)
  influence or domination exists

4
The Fur Trade as Imperialism

• Can we think of the fur trade as a form of
  imperialism?
• No? -- the state is not involved
• Informal empire?

5
First Nations of British Columbia
6
Northwest Coast Peoples

• Northwest Coast
• Hierarchical
• Longhouses
• Complex art
• Salmon, oolichan, whales
• Haida, Nuuchahnulth, Coast Salish

7
Peoples of the Cordillera

• Peoples of the Cordillera
• Hunter-gatherers
• Small, egalitarian communities
• Trade
• Nlha7kapmx, Tsilhqotin, Kootenai

8
Peoples of the Interior

• Chipewyan
• Cree
• Ojibwa
• Assiniboine
• Blackfoot Confederacy

9
Partners in Furs?

• Cree Assiniboine as middlemen
• Musket -- from 14 to 50 MB
• Kettle -- 8 to 20 MB
• Before 1760 -- 70 of trade at York Factory with
  middlemen

10
Partners in Furs?

• Power in the Trading Relationship
• Who was in charge?
• Were Native people exploited?
• Were Native people dependent?
• Was this Imperialism?
• Unequal power?
• Domination?

11
Empire of Trade

• Conquest leads to attempts to more fully
  integrate the fur trade into the wider British
  World
• 1779-83 North West Company
• Mackenzie -- From Canada, by land, 1793
• Fort George on the Columbia River, 1811
• Anglo-American Convention the Oregon Country,
  1818

12
Canadians in the Fur Trade

• Canadian Imperialism?
• HBC - NWC rivalry
• 1800
• HBC sold 38,000 in furs
• NWC sold 144,000
• Violence breaks out over western fur trade,
  1800-20

13
A New People

• Métis
• Marriage a la facon du pays (country marriages)
• French- and Cree- speaking, Catholic
• Buffalo hunt
• Pemmican

14
Red River

• Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl Selkirk
• Takes over HBC, 1809
• 300,000 acres around forks of Red and Assiniboine
  Rivers -- Assiniboia, 1811
• Governor Miles MacDonnell
• 1821 -- merger of HBC NWC
• exclusive right to trade in all of BNA, excluding
  Canadas

15
Seven Oaks Incident

• Pemmican War
• Cuthbert Grant
• Battle of Seven Oaks
• Who is the legal authority in the west?
• What is the status of the children of the fur
  trade?
• Who will win in the battle between the HBC the
  NWC?
• Merger, 1821

16
The New Trade and First Nations

• Did the changes in the fur trade after 1780
  change the relationship between FN Europeans?
• Factors cutting into Cree Assiniboine
  importance
• New inland posts
• Buffalo trade
• Horses
• Rise of the Métis
• But C. A. become provisioners (pemmican)
• Blackfoot become rich powerful
• Ojiwbe -- dependency
• smallpox epidemic on plains, 1837-38

17
Contact Conflict Debate

• Did the fur trade in the far west constitute
  imperial domination?
• Fisher -- no -- FN remained in control cultures
• Cole Harris, James Gibson -- yes -- unequal
  power relationship

18
Re-Organizing the Fur Trade

• New Caledonia
• Columbia Department
• Fort Vancouver
• Fort Langley
• expanded trade salmon, farm products,timber
• Chinook jargon
• James Douglas Amelia

19
Fur Trade Posts in the Cordillera
20
Resettlement

• Oregon Trail, 1843
• Fort Victoria, 1843
• Treaty of Oregon, 1846

21
Conclusion

• By 1860s informal empire had become colonialism
  in BC -- Red River, a Métis settlement, more
  ambiguous

22
Discuss

• What flaws were evident in using administrative
  policy from London in BC?
• In what ways did the HBC affect settlement
  patterns on Vancouver Island?
• How did the reaction of the independents to the
  society they entered cause tensions in the
  colony?