The Nations of Canada: Recent Episodes
Greg Koabel
The institution of slavery finds itself under assault in the courts of British North America, but when Black Loyalists get a chance to leave the largely hostile colonies, many seize the opportunity.
Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe attempts to recreate England in the wilderness around the Great Lakes.
As loyalists establish themselves in the Upper St. Lawrence and Great Lakes, the British government takes the opportunity to totally re-organize the colony of Quebec.
Newfoundland emerges from the wars of the 18th century a fully fledged colonial society, complete with its own religious, class, and ethnic divisions.
The independent fur traders of Montreal get organized, and beat the Hudson's Bay Company at their own game.
So many loyalists pour into the St. John valley, that the British decide to carve out a new colony on the continental side of the Bay of Fundy - New Brunswick.
Thousands of loyalists descend on Nova Scotia, turning one sleepy corner of the colony, overnight, into the largest urban centre in British North America.
Tasked with implementing the peace in North America, Guy Carleton scrambles to find new homes for tens of thousands of loyalist exiles.
The conflict south of the Great Lakes turns into a prolonged guerilla war, with devastating consequences for both European settlers and the Iroquois Confederacy.
Parallel civil wars within the Iroquois Confederacy and the European settlers of the Mohawk Valley lay the seeds for the latest nation of Canada.
Episode 91: The Undiscovered Country
Russian, Spanish, and British explorers converge on a blank spot on the map in the Northern Pacific.
With American rebels occupying Montreal, the fate of British Canada rests on governor Carleton's ability to hold the capital of Quebec.
With insurrection exploding across North America, governor Carleton scrambles to mobilize Canada's military resources. But Canadian habitants and indigenous warriors alike are unenthusiastic about joining this civil war within the British world.
Canada experiences the first in a long line of constitutional experiments, as the parliament at Westminster creates special recognition of French property customs and Catholic toleration in Canada's corner of the Empire.
With their long-time French rivals neutralized by war, the Hudson's Bay Company looks forward to the uncontested exploitation of their monopoly. Instead, the Company faces its gravest threat yet.
In the newly conquered colony of Quebec, colonial officials struggle to integrate a French Catholic population into the Protestant British Empire.
Delayed for more than fifty years by the presence of the Acadians, then war, British settlers finally arrive in Nova Scotia.
The Western and Ohio nations (having been excluded from the peace signed in Europe), reminds Britain that the war was more than just an Anglo-French affair.
Three British armies finish the job James Wolfe began on the Plains of Abraham, and in the process, lay the groundwork for British Canada.
Thanks to a new crop of energetic young officers, the British finally score a victory in North America.
A new French general arrives in North America seeking glory, but is disturbed to find that his Canadian and indigenous allies have a very different definition of honour.
After 40 years of failed negotiation and accommodation the colonial government of Nova Scotia solves its Acadian problem through mass deportations.
Britain sends an army across the Atlantic to confront the French interlopers in the Ohio Country. It does not go well.
For the first time in more than 60 years the Hudson's Bay Company sends an employee (Anthony Henday) inland, where he discovers the full extent of the Company's supply chains, and a rapidly changing social and political world.
The British construct a new naval base in Nova Scotia (Halifax), but quickly discover that old territorial disputes with the Mi'kmaq and French alive and well.
As Britain and France formalize their new peace in Europe, the seeds of a new conflict are planted on the North American frontier.
A new war erupts between Britain and France, and the question of Acadian loyalties takes on a violent urgency.
Despite continued instability in the government at Annapolis Royal (or perhaps because of it) Acadian society enjoys a golden age of peace and prosperity.
The Hudson's Bay Company is forced out of its complacency by French competition in the interior, and anti-monopolist agitators back in Britain.
As Canada emerges as a distinct society from that of France, Canadians also begin to carve out a distinct colonial economy - at times, in opposition to policy-makers at Versailles.
A base for a profitable fishery, a training ground for the sailors of the Royal Navy...Newfoundland would have been the perfect imperial possession. That is, if it weren't for the inconvenient existence of Newfoundlanders.
Having secured Nova Scotia through the Treaty of Utrecht, the British discover that the Mi'kmaq, who possess the majority of the territory, see no reason to respect an agreement they did not participate in.
The French, British, and Iroquois jockey for position in the new political and economic order of the pays d'en haut.
Now the unchallenged masters of the north, the Hudson's Bay Company slides into a comfortable complacency.
In the post-Utrecht Maritimes, both the British and the French construct new colonies, once again leaving Acadians stuck in the middle.
From Acadia to the pays d'en haut, actors on the ground scramble to translate the Treaty of Utrecht into reality as it crossed the Atlantic.
While Canada is protected by geography and Iroquois neutrality, Acadia becomes the target of American fury.
As enslaved labour becomes more common in New France, owners call on the Crown to explicitly enshrine in law their right to own human property.
The French experiment with a settlement in the heart of the pays d'en haut, but soo find that the politics of the upper country work very different from the inside.
After a brief pause, war once again breaks out between the English and French, re-opening a thriving war captive economy on the New England frontier.
As diplomats in Europe left the job half-done, indigenous and Canadian leaders gather at Montreal to establish a peace (and a new diplomatic system) that will persist for a generation.
As the fur trade enters a crisis, the French are forced to recognize that the institution has diplomatic and political dimensions beyond its failing economics.
The war in North America concludes, but not before the devastation of communities from Newfoundland to the Great Lakes.
The Hudson's Bay Company sends young Henry Kelsey into the unknown interior of North America, to find out how their business actually works.
Governor Frontenac makes his triumphant return to New France, and celebrates by delivering a pithy one-liner to an invading army of English Americans.
A new governor of New France makes a new set of mistakes, escalating the conflict with the Iroquois Confederacy.
Desperate for a victory, the new governor of New France sends a group of French marines and Canadian backwoodsmen to the English trading posts on Hudson Bay.
The new governor of New France attempts to solve the colony's Iroquois problem by marching an army into the wilderness beyond the St. Lawrence.
Competition with the Iroquois Confederacy forces the French to develop new forms of economic and diplomatic power in the pays d'en haut.
Large scale peace-time migrations produce new hybrid communities on the St. Lawrence. Iroquois, Wendat, and Algonquin identities overlap, and new Christian adaptations emerge.
A devastating war between English settlers and their Abenaki neighbours to the north creates a new geo-political environment for both Canada and Acadia.
The intendant of New France, Jean Talon, conducts and audit and finds that the colony lacks a crucial ingredient - women.
Missionaries follow fur traders into the pays d'en haut west of New France, and find new societies emerging out of the chaos and migrations of the 1650s.
Two of New France's premier fur traders leave the colony in frustration, and seek English backers for a rival operation in the far north.
After a generation of war, the Iroquois Confederation and the French allied nations find themselves more integrated than ever before.
Catching up on developments in the Maritime region - from a haven for English Catholics in Newfoundland, to life for Acadians under English rule.
The relationship between aristocrat and peasant shifts as it crosses the Atlantic, creating a new category - the habitant.
King Louis XIV determines that in order to preserve Canada, he'll have to step in and administer the colony directly.
A distinct French Canadian religious identity begins to emerge out of the apocalyptical atmosphere on the St. Lawrence.
1654-1660
Ottawa traders and French backwoodsmen combine to bring the old Wendat fur network back to life.
1635-1654
Multiple Frenchmen vie for control over Acadia, drawing on support from Quebec, Paris, and Boston.
1650-4
After seeking protection outside Quebec, refugees from the Wendat Confederacy remain vulnerable. But divisions within the Iroquois Confederacy present a diplomatic opportunity.
1649-1650
After 200 years, the Wendat Confederacy suddenly collapses, upending the geo-political landscape of the Great Lakes region
1647-8
When peace talks break down, Iroquois warriors strike into the heart of Huronia, threatening the very existence of the Laurentian coalition.
1644-1646
In the face of a common Iroquois military threat, both New France and the Wendat Confederacy undergo dramatic social and political change.
1644-1646
With Iroquois warriors closing off the fur trade, governor Montmagny is forced to contemplate abandoning his indigenous allies.
1640-1643
Devastated by war and disease, Algonquins on the Ottawa and St. Lawrence attempt to construct a new community by re-shaping European religion for the Canadian context.
1637-8
The Jesuits construct their own mission settlement within the Wendat Confederacy, re-shaping the social and political landscape of Huronia.
1637
Fueled by the destructive force of European diseases, the geo-political stability of the Great Lakes region breaks down, opening a period of sustained warfare.
1637
Multiple waves of European infectious diseases sweep through the Great Lakes region, radically altering the societies there.
1634
In re-establishing a mission within the Wendat Confederacy, the Jesuits find themselves at the centre of a complex diplomatic network.
1633-5
The French reclaim Quebec, and Richelieu gets a clean slate to implement his vision of New France as far more than just a fur market.
1627-1632
When war breaks out in Europe, English and Scottish entrepreneurs see an opportunity in a suddenly vulnerable French Canada.
1627
War in Europe casts the presence of the English and Scottish in Atlantic Canada in a new light.
1624
New leadership in France once again re-invents Canada as an imperial project, with missionaries among the Wendat Confederacy acting as the agents of a trans-Atlantic empire.
1613-1624
A rival Indigenous/European alliance emerges to the south of the St. Lawrence, and threatens to divert the inland fur trade away from New France.
1616-1622
After almost 20 years of turmoil, Champlain's project finally achieves a degree of stability in both Canada and France.
1616-1620
As the St. Lawrence fur trade (and interactions with the French) become common features of Wendat life, the Confederacy adapts itself to new economic, cultural, and social realities.
1615-1616
Champlain spends a year among the Wendat, and comes to realize that he still has a lot to learn about indigenous politics and diplomacy.
1610-1613
An uneasy partnership between settlers and missionaries attempts to revive France's colonial presence in Acadia.
1612-1613
Champlain finally gets to see what lies beyond the great rapids. But up the Ottawa River, he finds that he doesn't know who he can trust.
1610-1611
After discovering a possible access point to the St. Lawrence trade network from the south, Henry Hudson searches for a way in from the north.
1610-1611
The chiefs of the Wendat Council travel to the St. Lawrence to formalize their alliance with the French, establishing a partnership that would define the next 40 years of Canadian history.
1609
The Dutch hire an English explorer, Henry Hudson, to discover a way around Russia to the Orient. Instead, he finds an alternate access point to the Canadian fur trade.
1608-1609
Champlain returns to the St. Lawrence, with one last chance to prove to the King that a Canadian colony is a viable proposition.
1604-1607
Frightened off by the winters on the St. Lawrence, French colonists seek out a more temperate home on the Atlantic coast.
1603
Having failed twice to establish a colony in Canada, France turns to Samuel de Champlain to scout out an ideal location for a settlement.
1598-1603
The French see an opportunity to settle a colony in Canada, but find that they have bitten off more than they can chew.
Europeans are suddenly drawn to Canadian fur. Meanwhile, the Upper St. Lawrence undergoes a cataclysmic change.
England takes its turn attempting to colonize Canada, choosing as its destination the inhospitable arctic.
While the French abandon their colonization effort on the St. Lawrence, Canada's Atlantic coast plays host to a meeting of cultures from either side of the Atlantic.
Jacques Cartier returns to Canada, this time intent on building the first permanent European settlement since the Norse period.
Seeking a passage to the orient, a French explorer investigates reports of open sea to the west of Newfoundland.
Agriculture comes to the Great Lakes region, sparking an economic, political, and social revolution.