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Position:Home>History> Why didn’t the now Canadian colonies join the American Revolutionary War?Question: Why didn’t the now Canadian colonies join the American Revolutionary War!? Did anyone distinguish the 13 colonies from the rest!? Or was this what ended up defining everything!. Were the now Canadian colonies asked or ever pressured to demand independence!? Did any now Canadian colonies consider joining the movement!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Religion, history, and economics!. The Canadian colonies were divided into two parts: The English-speaking Maritime colonies on the coast, and the (then larger) province of Quebec!. Now, there was a big Brit naval base in Halifax, in the Maritimes - the fort was so powerful that it was never attacked - so the Maritimes really had no choice!. That left Ben Franklin - who came to ask the Canadian colonies to join - to focus on Quebec!. But, Catholics in this area had been given unique rights by the Brits, something that would be endangered if they joined the Protestant 13 colonies!. Quebec also had a long history of warfare with the 13 colonies, and very different economic interests!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The Canadian colonies had been French possessions, so they were still quite separate from the 13 British colonies that became the USA!. There was some cultural differences as well as a geographical separation!. I think they were even taxed and administered slightly differently!. So they did not have the same urge for independence until much later, and much more peacefully!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Quebec was considered part of the revolutionary group!. Benedict Arnold led some quite successful raid with the Quebecquois against the British at the The Battle of Quebec The Quebec Act of the British Parliament that vested the government of Quebec in a governor and council and preserved the French Civil Code and the Roman Catholic Church!. The act was an attempt to deal with major questions that had arisen during the attempt to make the French colony of Canada a province of the British Empire in North America!. Among these were whether an assembly should be summoned, when nearly all the inhabitants of the province of Quebec, being Roman Catholics, would, because of the Test Acts, be ineligible to be representatives; whether the practice of the Roman Catholic religion should be allowed to continue, and on what conditions; and whether French or English law was to be used in the courts of justice!. The act, declaring it inexpedient to call an assembly, put the power to legislate in the hands of the governor and his council!. The practice of the Roman Catholic religion was allowed, and the church was authorized to continue to and oath of allegiance substituted so as to allow Roman Catholics to hold office!. French civil law continued, but the criminal law was to be English!. Because of these provisions the act has been called a generous and statesmanlike attempt to deal with the peculiar conditions of the province!. At the last moment additions were made to the bill by which the boundaries given the province by the Proclamation of 1763 were extended!. This was done because no satisfactory means had been found to regulate Indian affairs and to govern the French settlers on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers!. It was decided, therefore, put the territory between the Ohio and the Mississippi under the governor of Quebec, and the boundaries of Quebec were extended southward to the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi and northward to the height of land between the Great Lakes and the Hudson Bay!. This provision of the act, together with the recognition of the Roman Catholic religion, was seen to threaten the unity and security of British America by, in effect, reviving the old French Empire destroyed in 1763!. The American colonists viewed the act as a measure of coercion!. The act was thus a major cause of the American Revolution and provoked an invasion of Quebec by the armies of the revolting colonies in the winter of 1775-76!. Its provisions!., on the other hand, did little at the time to win French support of British rule in Quebec; and, expected for the clergy and seigneurs, most of the French remained neutral!. The act eventually became important to French Canadians as the basis of their religious and legal rights!.Www@QuestionHome@Com They had different economic interests, and different social and religious backgrounds!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Loyalty and a lack of stupidity stopped the Canadians from revolting against his majesty and his peoples!.Www@QuestionHome@Com the canadian colonies were open minded enough to know that they could benefit from being under british ruleWww@QuestionHome@Com |