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1、Social Studies 10Canada: A Peoples HistoryBattle for a ContinentCompanion ReadingsI.Rumblings of War - IntroductionA period of a little more than two decades in the mid-18th century changed the destiny of North America. England and France battled each other in the Seven Years War, a conflict that be
2、gan as a clash between les Canadiens and land-hungry American settlers in the Ohio Valley and became a world war that engulfed the continent. Fortress Louisbourg, symbol of the French empire, was the target of 27,000 soldiers and sailors in the greatest naval invasion in North Americas history. In 1
3、759, General James Wolfe led the assault against Quebec but the citadel withstood a devastating siege and bombardment. With winter soon arriving, Wolfe forced the commander of the French troops, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, into one last desperate encounter. The battle for North America unfolded on an
4、abandoned farmers field, the Plains of Abraham, just outside the citys walls. When war ended in 1763, 70,000 French colonists came under British rule, setting in motion the ever-evolving French-English dynamic in Canada.A. Clashes in the Ohio ValleyIn the mid-eighteenth century, France controlled th
5、e largest part of the North American continent.In the mid 1700s, native people in the Ohio Valley feared that settlers from the American colonies would drive them off their land. A Catholic, French-speaking society of 55,000 was centred in the cities of Quebec and Montreal, in the fortress of Louisb
6、ourg, and spread thinly through villages along the St. Lawrence and in small forts that advanced their territory into the interior. France also controlled the west. It was a frail empire that ran from Detroit to Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi River.The much more populous English colonies,
7、 from Halifax to Savannah, were hemmed in by the French and the Allegheny Mountains, a source of great frustration and bitterness to the English settlers.The Indians lived uneasily among both groups two hundred nations that were increasingly resentful of the English presence. Many were allied with t
8、he French, though it was a fragile alliance.And the Indians themselves were fractured along traditional battlelines.In the 14 colonies of British America, economies were booming and the population was doubling in size every decade. There was only one direction to expand over the mountains to the wes
9、t into the Indian homelands and the land claimed by the French as Canada. Thousands of settlers from the American colonies streamed into the richest part of the interior the Ohio Valley, where clashes broke out in the summer of 1754. The Indians saw a dark intent behind the tide. A Delaware chief wr
10、ote .We have great reason to believe you intend to drive us away and settle the country or else why do you come and fight in the Land God has given us.The fears of the natives were well founded.Soon, fueled by the Pennsylvania Gazette and its publishers vision for the future, politicians, merchants
11、and speculators all wanted a part of the Ohio Valley. Benjamin Franklin, convinced of the colonies destiny, intended to see their one million people grow to cover the continent with one language and one religion: unified, English and Protestant.Franklin wrote: This Million doubling, supposed but onc
12、e in 25 years, will in another Century be more than the People of England, and the greatest Number of Englishmen will be on this Side of the Water.The French and the Indians considered the American settlers invaders and burned many out of their homes on the Canadian frontier.Three thousand settlers
13、were killed or captured, thousands more driven away.With the fighting over expansion and the burnings in the Ohio Valley, North America was becoming a regular and bloody battleground, a prelude to what would become Europes most monumental confrontation, the Seven Years War (1756-63).B. French and En
14、glish Sever Diplomatic TiesThe illusion of a formal peace between the English and French was maintained despite the frequent, venomous skirmishes on the Canadian frontier.In 1756, England declared war with France and their North American colonies became a battleground. But on July 8, 1755, England f
15、inally severed its diplomatic ties with France and the following year it would declare war.In North America, the tension between the colonies of these European empires escalated. Benjamin Franklin determined there could be no future for English America, until the French were eliminated.The French wi
16、ll. set the Indians to harass our frontiers, kill and scalp our people, and drive in the advanced settlers; and so, preventing our obtaining more subsistence by cultivating of new lands, they discourage our marriages, and keep our people from increasing; thus (if the expression may be allowed) killi
17、ng thousands of our children before they are born.Citing the need to protect the English colonies, Franklin published a call to arms.The French would have to be driven out of North America.The safety and security of all the English colonies in North America, their very Being as English Colonies, mak
18、e such measure absolutely necessary, and that without any Loss of Time.C. Acadian ExpulsionThe first victims of the move to drive out the French were not even in Canada but a peaceful population of Acadians in Nova Scotia who refused to swear an oath to the English King.In the late summer and autumn
19、 of 1755, 7000 Acadians were expelled from Nova Scotia. The New England forces (comprised of American colonists) burnt the Acadian settlements and shipped thousands into exile.Massachussetts Governor William Shirley, whom the Acadians feared would take some of the land for English settlers, consider
20、ed it just the first blow against Canada.It is happy for us that we have now a fair opportunity offered of ridding the Province of its dangerous neighbours.it would be wounding the Serpent in the head.In that one short summer in 1755 the battle for the continent had begun. Acadia was left devastated
21、 and burning, the Ohio Valley was a killing ground and Quebec City was preparing for war.D. The Governor General and the GovernorQuebec City was the centre of Frances operations in North America and in 1756, it became a wartime city, filled with soldiers and refugees.Canada had been rooted here for
22、150 years with many families into their fifth generation.For some, France was a dim memory in stories told by grandfathers. But this was about to change. When Europe erupted into war, France and Britain brought their fight for world dominance to the farthest reaches of their empires, including Canad
23、a.In April 1756, before Britains official declaration of war in May, France sent Louis-Joseph, the Marquis de Montcalm to Quebec to command all the forces in North America. Montcalm, at forty-four, was a career soldier from a distinguished French family. He had begun his military training at the age
24、 of nine and had a good military record, but little money.I believed I must accept an honourable commission, but it would also be a sensitive one, because it must also secure my sons fortune. An important goal for a father, but it was a commission I never asked for nor desired.Montcalm was short, im
25、patient, determined and vain the physical and temperamental opposite to Canadas Governor Pierre de Rigaud, the Marquis de Vaudreuil. Vaudreuil was the first Canadian-born governor of the colony. At fifty-seven, the colonial aristocrat was a big man who favoured directness. He was ambitious and confi
26、dent that he could handle whatever might come. He didnt think an imported French general was the person to lead the North American troops.War in this country is very different from the wars in Europe.the Canadians and Indians would not march with the same confidence under the order of a commander of
27、 the troops from France as they would under the officers of this colony, wrote Vaudreuil.The Governor and the General quickly came to detest each other and wrote regularly to France, each informing his superior of the others perceived shortcomings.Monsieur de Montcalm is so quick-tempered that he go
28、es to the length of striking the Canadians, Vaudreuil wrote to the Minister of the Marine.How can he restrain his officers when he cannot restrain himself?Vaudreuil, in turn, was described as a timid man and one who neither knows how to make a resolution or to keep one once made.Montcalm believed th
29、at war was the business of Europeans and had no taste for the guerrilla tactics of the New World that Vaudreuil subscribed to.The European strategy was to deliver a single well-timed volley that devastated the enemy line. Battles tended to be brief and casualties were high. War came with a set of ma
30、nners, although civilized warfare was far more destructive than the Indian guerrilla tactics, which inflicted a more specific cruelty on a much smaller number of the enemy.Montcalm also wasted no time in showing his opinion of most Canadian officers: .Langy excellent, Marin brave but stupid; the res
31、t are not worth mentioning.II.Louis-Antoine de Bougainvilles Journal - IntroductionLouis-Antoine de Bougainville, General Montcalms aide-de-camp, was diminutive, overweight, asthmatic and possessed a good military mind.As he had already written two books on mathematics and was a keen observer, his j
32、ournal is one of the most perceptive records of the war.Though he held onto his European prejudices, Bougainville immersed himself in the local culture. He admired the courage of the Indians, though he questioned their cruelty. He was a pragmatist. He knew the French needed the Indians skills, espec
33、ially as trackers. They see in the tracks the number that have passed, whether they are Indians or Europeans, if the tracks are fresh or old, if they are of healthy or of sick people, dragging feet or hurrying ones, marks of sticks used as supports. It is rarely that they are deceived or mistaken. T
34、hey follow their prey for one hundred, two hundred, six hundred leagues with a constancy and a sureness which never loses courage or leads them astray.Bougainville even attended council with the Nipissings, Algonquins and Iroquois.When each chief stood up and sang a war song, Bougainville was implor
35、ed to do the same. He adopted the listing cadence of the Indians music and repeated the phrase, Trample the English underfoot until he was tired. The next night he was adopted by the Iroquois in a tribal ceremony and given the name Garionatsioga, which meant Great Angry Sky. Behold me then, he wrote
36、 in his journal, an Iroquois war chief!Despite this status, Bougainville thought the natives were a necessary evil. Their alliance with the French was always freighted with difficulty and doubt.There were dozens of Indian nations and in Bougainvilles eyes they formed a frustrating bureaucracy. Decis
37、ions to wage war involved lengthy, and to the French mind, unnecessary meetings and consultations. The Indians also presented logistical problems. The crops had failed and food was scarce; feeding several thousand more men was a burden and Bougainville marvelled at the natives extraordinary appetite
38、s. Occasionally, the natives killed French settlers as well. Bougainville feared that their ferocity would be contagious, that the Europeans would lose something of themselves in this association. This country is dangerous for discipline, he wrote. Pray God that it alone suffers from it.A. War Begin
39、s: Attacks on British Forts and SettlementsIn May 1756 Britain declared war on France.Frances General in North America, the Marquis de Montcalm, was ready. He moved into the wilderness with massive siege guns, transforming the brutal border war into a European battlefield.In the first battles of the
40、 war, Montcalm took the British forts of Oswego on Lake Ontario and Fort William Henry on Lake Champlain using traditional tactics. At Fort Carillon he defeated Major-General James Abercrombys force of close to 16,000 with an army of 3,600 men, a stunning tactical rout.By contrast, Governor Marquis
41、de Vaudreuil assigned sorties conducted by Canadians and Indians that were designed to destroy the enemys morale. They attacked a settlement of German immigrants in the Mohawk Valley who wished to be neutral. Three hundred raiders descended on the community of German Flats.They burned down 60 dwelli
42、ngs and granaries, killed 50 people and took 32 scalps. One hundred and fifty people, mostly women and children were taken prisoner.Vaudreuil and Montcalm would never agree on how to conduct the war. Vaudreuils war was a war of attrition. But Montcalm hated the guerrilla tactics.It is no longer the
43、time, he said, when a few scalps, or the burning of a few houses is any advantage or even an object. Petty means, petty ideas, petty councils about details are now dangerous and a waste of materiel and time.There was also the worry that the Canadian style of war might catch on; that the Europeans wo
44、uld abandon the gentlemans pretense that marked warfare and embrace the brutality of the new landscape.Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, Montcalms aide-de-camp, noted this worry in the journal he kept of his experience in Canada. It is an abominable way to make war, he wrote of the Indian raids, the re
45、taliation is frightening, and the air one breathes here is contagious of making one accustomed to callousness.III.Fortress LouisbourgA. Friction Before the WarIn 1758, the first step in Englands plan to concentrate its war effort in North America was to capture Louisbourg, the French fortress that g
46、uarded the entrance to the St.During the mid-1700s, the fortress of Louisbourg guarded the gateway to New France on the Atlantic coast.The fortress of Louisbourg was defended by a garrison of 2500 men, 400 militia and 10 ships at the time of the Seven Years War.Lawrence River. It sat on le Royale (n
47、ow Cape Breton Island), a fortified town that had become a detested symbol. It was the centre of the French fishing industry, a key military site and a training base for the French navy.The French presence in Louisbourg was a source of great friction between the rival countries before the War. Frenc
48、h privateers used Louisbourg as a base to plunder New England ships. In 1744 the French captured a New England fishing outpost at Canso, Nova Scotia. A year later, fed up with these attacks, a New England force attacked Louisbourg. It was a motley collection of boats and citizens aided by a British naval force from the Carribean. After a seven-week siege, the French surrendered their fortress and its people were deported to France.But in the 1748 Treaty of Aix La Chapelle, Louisbou
