The Rise and Fall of New France [History notes]

Resource used: Canada: A North American Nation, Pages 162-179

King George’s War (War of Austrian Succession)

• Erupted in 1739 over succession to the Austrian throne, sparked renewed hostilities in North America
  
• French tried to regain Nova Scotia, New Englanders successfully captured Louisbourg in the spring of 1745, an “impregnable fortress”
  
  • They ignored European military conventions and treated the townspeople abysmally
    
• A year later, a massive French squadron tried to retake Louisbourg and regain Newfoundland and Nova Scotia failed because of ugly gale, death of commander and infectious diseases among the crew
  
• Little fighting on Canadian frontier
  
  • Northern British colonies tried to organize Mohawk attack on Montreal, but other tribes in the Iroquois Confederacy preferred to maintain their neutrality and trade with both sides
    
  • Canadians retaliated with attack on New York, destroyed Saratoga and laid waste to numerous frontier settlements in Massachusetts
    
  • Defection of western Native allies of New France in 1747 because of interruptions in trade, cutbacks in French tributes and military spending in interior
    
    • French avoided complete disaster by diplomatically arranging an inter-tribal defensive alliance known as the Three Fires Confederacy
      
• Settled by treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle (1748)
  
  • English returned Louisbourg to the French in return for English overseas territories that the French captured (Holland, trading station of Madras in India)
    
  • New Englanders were outraged that the British failed to consider the strategic importance of Louisbourg on their northern flank
    
  • “Most New Englanders were angry that Britain was sacrificing the safety of the New England colonies for the sake of European considerations”
    

The British in Nova Scotia

• British tried to relieve the fear of the American colonists, so they started building a fortified naval base at Chebucto Bay (Halifax) in 1749 to counteract the threat posed by Louisbourg
  
• British authorities encouraged Protestant colonization in Nova Scotia to counteract the presence of an Acadian Catholic majority in Nova Scotia
  
  • Nova Scotia’s population now consisted of British, Acadian, German and Micmac communities
    
• Cavalier treatment of Micmacs by lieutenant-governor Edward Cornwallis (who considered them ‘rebellious subjects’) led to a complete breakdown in British-Micmac relations
  
  • Thus, Micmacs attacked fishermen, raided tow ships, burned a sawmill, and captured a detachment of British soldiers
    
  • Cornwallis threatened to bring in troops ‘to root them out entirely’ and offered prizes for capturing a Micmac, but the Micmac declared war on the British in Sept 1749 with help from French missionaries
    
    • The war continued until 1752, when a temporary peace was reached at Halifax
      
    • But Le Loutre returned from France with promises of material support, so the Micmacs resumed their raids
      
    • A peace plan proposed by Le Loutre to create an independent Micmac hunting and fishing reserve were dismissed by British authorities

Strengthening New France – La Galissonière’s Plan

• After the peace of 1748, the French set out to strengthen New France and secure their claims in areas threatened by British expansion
  
• Comte de La Galissonnière (interim governor in 1747) embarked on a strategic plan
  
  • Extended and built up France’s fortifications in Ohio and Mississippi valleys as far south as Louisiana, strengthened the forts in the Lake Champlain area, sent a detachment to Saint John river to prevent British penetration northwards through the Gaspé peninsula
    
    • Basically: establish a line of defensive forts, maintain good relations with interior tribes, attempt to increase colony’s lagging population
      
• He also urged that Acadians be resettled in French Atlantic possessions, encouraged immigration, encouraged farmers to practice soil fertilization, proper livestock breeding, weed control, stimulate production at royal shipyards and the Saint Maurice iron works
  
• All these measures were conceived within the atmosphere of impending threat that followed the uneasy peace of 1748
  

Deportation of the Acadians

• The most adverse and controversial consequence of the war of 1744-48 was the deportation of the Acadians by British authorities in Nova Scotia. Throughout the imperial conflicts, the Acadians attempt to be “the neutral French”
  
• French policy to Acadians after 1713 was one of salutary neglect, British policy was one of indecision
  
  • For 40 years, the British tried to make Acadians take the oath of allegiance to the Crown
    
  • Caught in a precarious position between two rival empires, Acadians still attempted to convince each party of their desire for independent cultural survival
    
• 1755: British lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Colonel Charles Lawrence, forced some Acadians to take the oath of allegiance, but they resisted, so he imprisoned them, then deported them to various British colonies
  
  • The secret plan was to seize the Acadian men and boys and confiscate their boats, thereby preventing the women and children from fleeing with the livestock
    
• Between 1755-1763, ¾ of Nova Scotia’s Acadian population, or 10000 people, were deported
  
  • Efforts were made to send members of the same community to different colonies in an attempt to force assimilation on the deportees
    
• Settlers from New England moved in on the abandoned farmlands
  
• It was a desperate act that greatly aroused the French, filled the Canadians and Native peoples with fear should the British turn on them, and even disturbed some British imperial authorities
  
• The expulsion of the Acadians in 1755 left them a divided people, scattered in exiled groups from the shores of the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and as far as the ports of England and France
  
• Colonel Charles Lawrence, the governor responsible for their deportation
  
• When the Acadians suddenly arrived in other British colonies, they were treated as refugees, and suffered discrimination
  
• Following the peace of 1763, significant numbers of Acadians migrated from their temporary domicile in the Anglo-American Atlantic and French ports to French-speaking areas of South Louisiana, some Acadians in the South became known as “Cajuns”
  
• Deportations continued until 1764, a year after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763
  
• After deporting the French-speaking Acadians, demands now arose in Anglo-American colonies for the complete removal of the French from North America
  

The Seven Years’ War

• Wealthy Virginians caused a series of events that sparked the so-called “French and Indian War” in North America
  
• Ohio land company sought to promote settlement on territory traditionally claimed by the French
  
• To confirm their territorial claims in the Ohio valley, the British government sent clear instructions to all Anglo-American colonial governments in the summer of 1753: henceforth any encroachment by a foreign power was to be halted, by force if necessary
  
• French were determined to keep Ohio valley, authorized expedition into Ohio valley
  

The Outbreak of Hostilities

• Governor Duquesne (1752-1755) was determined to drive Americans out of the Ohio region
  

The Albany Plan of Union

• The success of the French convinced the Anglo-American colonies that their principal weakness was their lack of unity
  
• In June 1754, representatives from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the New England colonies, Iroquois Six Nations met at Albany to draft a plan of union
  
• Iroquois eventually declined and left the meeting
  
• At the Albany Congress, a plan of union was still drawn up, but it eventually fell apart because colonial assemblies feared it would infringe on their right to manage their own affairs
  
• Despite this, military strategy was planned in common
  

The French “North American” Strategy

• Britain and her colonies prepared for their campaign on New France’s defence line, while the French developed a strategy under the direction of Governor Vaudreuil (1755-1760)
  
  • Called for the strengthening of the Canadian militia with 3600 French regulars, launch of surprise guerilla raids at various points along the American frontier, which was quite different from the usual European-type disciplined formation fighting
    
• It worked well in early engagements
  
• For Britain and the Anglo-American colonies, the prospects at the end of 1755 looked bleak, but all of this occurred before the war was officially declared in Europe
  

The Official War

• Britain’s fortunes began to improve when the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) commenced in Europe
  
• William Pitt became British Prime Minister in autumn of 1756, and pursued a more aggressive strategy in the North American war
  
  • Sent at least 23000 British regulars and the Royal Navy
    
• Troops, Acadian refugees and Native warriors needed a lot of food, which put a severe strain on the economy in New France
  
  • Food shortages were rendered more acute by corp failures
    
  • Inflation rose dramatically
    
  • Typhus epidemic
    
  • On the western plains, the Cree launched attacks and destroyed 6/8 posts in the region
    

The Fall of Louisbourg

• Turning point of the war came in 1758
  
• Louisbourg resisted for 48 days, which saved Canadian from invasion by sea
  
• It eventually fell because of a blockade by the Royal Navy and attacks from land
  
• Quarrel between Vaudreuil and French General Montcalm
  
  • Montcalm wanted a concentration of French troops along the inner defences of the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, Canadian militiamen incorporated into the regular army
    
  • Vaudreuil wanted to strengthen outer defence lines and keep up the guerilla warfare in the Ohio valley
    
  • However, Montcalm was eventually placed in charge of all French forces in North America, which made the colonials insignificant in choices affecting their future
    

The Sieges of Quebec

• During 1759, the British gradually closed in on the St. Lawrence valley settlements, eventually captured river entrance
  
• Put Quebec under siege, tried to attack Montreal but failed
  
• General James Wolfe’s army intimidated French by laying waste to the countryside along the St. Lawrence south shore, he threatened to see “their habitations destroyed, their sacred temples exposed to an exasperated soldiery, their harvest utterly ruined” if they answered the call to militia duty
  
• Quebec fell almost by accident
  
  • On Sept 13, 1759, Wolfe managed to land 4500 men at Anse au Foulon and scale the steep cliff leading to the Plains of Abraham, and scattered the French regulars and militiamen in 15 minutes
    
  • Sent the French troops running into the city
    
  • British negotiated a capitulation which allowed Vaudreuil and the French army to retreat to Montreal with full honours of war
    
  • Royal Navy sailed off to England, leaving a garrison to fend for themselves
    
• Capture of Quebec in 1759 did not mean the fall of New France
  
• In April 1760, the Marquis de Lévis and the French army took of the offensive, forced British to retreat back to Quebec
  
• A few weeks later the Royal Navy reappeared with an invasion force and forced the French to retreat back to Montreal
  

The Capitulation of Montreal

• Final capitulation came in Sept 1760, with 3 separate British forces converging on Montreal
  
• To avoid further bloodshed, Governor Vaudreuil surrendered the whole of New France to General Jeffrey Amhersta
  
• Articles of Capitulation of Sept 8, 1760 were not unconditional
  
  • Binding on the British occupation force and afforded the Canadians and their Native allies a number of important guarantees, which the Treaty of Paris (1763) would later confirm
    
  • British were forced to agree not to punish Canadian militiamen, free exercise of Roman Catholicism, continuation of the rights and privileges of the clergy and seigneurs, guarantee of the rights enjoyed by the Native people under the French
    
  • These were signs that the British might retain some parts of French culture
    

The Aftermath of Conquest

• Capitulation of New France was followed by a period of military occupation and martial law until the Treaty of Paris in Feb 1763
  
• Military rule was not terminated until 1764, when James Murray was named civilian governor to the new British colony of Quebec
  
• French and Canadians searched for explanations for the loss of Canada, with colonials blaming the French for abandoning them until late in the war, that Montcalm and his officers were incompetent, that the Grande Societé surrounding Intendant François Bigot bred corruption and social decay in the years of war with Britain
  
• Bigot and his associates were later tried and imprisoned in France for corruption
  
• In negotiating the definitive treaty of peace in 1762, French diplomats had sacrificed Canada for the small island of Guadeloupe