The Beginnings of Resettlement in British Columbia

1
The Beginnings of Resettlement in British Columbia

• Intro
• Paternalism Liberalism
• The Gold Rush
• Industry, Land, Society

2
Colony of Vancouver Island

• Fort Victoria 1843
• Colony of Vancouver Island 1849
• HBC given proprietorial control of VI
• James Douglas, Governor
• Douglas Treaties, 1850-54
• Colonization Wakefield scheme
• By 1855 550 people in Victoria, most ex-HBC
  another 150 at Nanaimo
• VI Legislature Established, 1856
• 43 voters (own 20 acres) in colony
• To run had to own 300 acres or equiv. value in
  other property only in one riding was there
  more than one person to run for office

3
Garry Oak Meadow, Victoria
4
Hudsons Bay Company Forts in BC
5
Liberalism

• mercantilism vs. free trade
• paternalism vs. liberalism
• Autonomous individuals
• Freedom or liberty to pursue their own goals
• Theoretically equal, though in practice the
  liberal individual was white and male

6
The Rush for Gold

• Gold Rush starts 1858
• 30,000 people in 1858
• Victoria from 300 to 6,000, stabilizes at 3,000
• 200 new buildings in six weeks
• Nov 1858, Colony of British Columbia
• New Westminster
• Colonies merge 1866
• Barkerville - 10,000 people in 1863
• The Nlha7apmx the Gold Rush

7
Victoria, Wharf St, 1865
8
New People

• New People
• Americans
• Chinese (6 7,000 )
• Europeans
• Population just over 9,000 in 1870
• Chinese - about 1,500 in 1870)
• Native people - about 70 of the provinces
  population -- absolute numbers had declined by
  somewhere between a 1/3 and 1/2
• gender imbalance - 1 white woman to 3 men through
  1890s

9
Liberals and Canadians

• British vs. Canadians
• Liberal reformers
• John Robson
• Amor de Cosmos (William Smith)
• Victoria British Colonist
• Family-Company-Compact
• Question of Confederation, 1867-71
• BC -- Legislative Council, 1/3 appointed, 1863
• Colonies merge, 1866
• Joins Confederation, 1871

10
Land Industrialization

• New Uses of Land
• Native Reserves
• towns
• industrial work camps
• Countryside
• Farming export resettlement
• Mining coal on Vancouver Island
• Lumber
• Stamp Mill
• Fishing
• Salmon
• Canning

11
First Nations and the Industrial Economy

• Farming, fishing, canning, logging
• Seasonal round
• potlatch

Cannery Workers, Alert Bay, 1900-10
12
Kwakwakawakw Potlatch, 1898
13
Conclusion

• Settler colonialism
• Replaces society of the fur trade
• Replaces landscape of the fur trade with
  industrial world

14
Readings

• This weeks readings examine the transition from
  fur trade society to a society shaped by
  liberalism and industrial capitalism
• In what ways did key aspects of fur trade society
  (Native-white relations, especially) survive? In
  what ways did they shift?
• How did industrial capitalism mark society in BC?
  
• How and why was gender so important?