Download or read book Journey through the Wilderness written by Paul McNicholls and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2019-12-19 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring of 1870 an Anglo-Canadian military force embarked on a 1,200 mile journey, half of which would be through the wilderness, bound for the Red River Settlement, the site of present day Winnipeg. At the time the settlement was part of the vast Hudson's Bay Company controlled territories which Canada was in the process of purchasing. Today Canada is the second largest country in the world, but at the time it was a recent creation made up of three British North American colonies. The British government of the day, focussed on financial retrenchment and anchored on anti-imperialist values, would have happily severed its ties with its North American colonies. The dynamic American republic, resurgent after the cataclysm of the Civil War, aspired to take control of all of the British North American territories, including Canada and the Hudson's Bay Company lands. Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald knew that for his new country to survive and prosper it would have to expand across the continent and incorporate the Hudson's Bay Company's lands, and ultimately the colony of British Columbia on the Pacific Ocean as well. The HBC was in decline and wanted to give up the responsibility for its vast territories. Macdonald would have preferred Britain to take on this responsibility until Canada was ready, but Westminster was unwilling. Ready or not, Canada would have to act or risk the United States getting in ahead of them. In all of this, the interests of the indigenous people received scant consideration, and this included the residents of the Red River Settlement. The population here, about 14,000 strong, was mostly comprised of the descendants of the Kildonan Scots, farmers who had arrived under the auspices Lord Selkirk earlier in the century, the mixed race descendants of English speaking HBC workers and First Nations women, and the mixed race descendants of French speaking North West Company workers and First Nations women. The latter group, known as the Métis, had long before the time of Canada's pending takeover developed a distinct cultural identity, referring to themselves as "A New Nation". In 1869 the Métis were nervous of the pending Canadian takeover. They feared their property rights, the most tenuous in the community, would not be respected. They also worried that their culture would be overwhelmed by an influx of English speaking settlers. Their concerns were reinforced when Canadian surveyors and road builders arrived in the community. The Canadians behaved exactly as the Métis had feared prompting the beginning of an opposition with demands for guarantees. The man who rose to lead the Métis opposition was Louis Riel, and while his demands were just, during the winter of 1869/70, supported by the organized military power of the buffalo hunt, he rode roughshod over the views of the other communities in residence at Red River. These included not only the Kildonan Scots and English-speaking mixed race people, but also Métis opponents and the much smaller and troublesome Canadian Party. Prime Minister Macdonald had been lax in acting to accommodate the interests of the Red River residents, but there was in fact little interest in Canada for the events unfolding there. Matters were transformed when Riel approved the execution of a member of the Canadian Party in March of 1870. Much of English speaking Canada found its voice and demanded a vigorous response. Macdonald, under considerable pressure, wanted a military expedition dispatched and he was adamant that the British should lead it. Even after a deal was completed, resulting in the creation of the new province of Manitoba, he remained firm in his belief that a force should be sent to assume control. Despite having already announced the withdrawal of its Canadian garrison, the British government reluctantly agreed to commit imperial troops to the venture. The completion of the deal between Canada and the Red River settlement was in fact a precondition of British involvement in the affair. It was also critical that the British troops get to the settlement and back again before the winter set in. Colonel Garnet Wolseley was chosen to lead the expedition, and as such, though in many respects an obscure and minor operation, it is an important subject of study given that it was his first independent command and he would rise to become Commander in Chief of the British Army. It demonstrated an attention to detail that would be fundamental to his rise up through the army hierarchy and utilized a transportation technique that he would attempt to replicate in his more famous Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884/1885. It also introduced a number of the personalities who would later become firmly entrenched as members of the Wolseley Ring. There was no good route from Canada to the Red River Settlement. The expedition, comprised of British regulars and Canadian militia, travelled first by steamer to Thunder Bay on Lake Superior and then by an incomplete road to Shebandowan Lake. The state of the road would become one of the major talking points of the whole affair. From Shebandowan Lake they went by row boat utilizing the old North West Company's canoe highway, carrying all the supplies they would need for the journey. They suffered the challenges of having to cross 47 portages, run multiple river rapids, and weather significant storms on some of the larger lakes of the interior. It rained, frequently torrentially, for roughly half of the days between their arrival at Thunder Bay and their reaching of Fort Garry at the Red River Settlement. On the days it didn't rain, they were feasted upon by the billions of insects resident in the woods of the Canadian Shield. Many historians have written on the events of the troubles at Red River in 1869/70, but the expedition itself is usually treated as a footnote and given a few lines or at most a paragraph. The author has found only one relatively recent account (published in the 1980s) that dealt with the expedition in detail and he has frequently, though respectfully, disagreed with many of the assertions and conclusions found therein. Consequently, it has been found necessary to go to the expeditionary force documents and first hand accounts of the men who took part, to properly understand exactly what the Red River Expedition was about and what the men who made up the force actually went through. By doing this author believes he has come up with a lively and original recounting of this little known story in British Imperial and Canadian history.

Download or read book The Red River Rebellion written by J. M. Bumsted and published by Watson & Dwyer Publishing, Limited. This book was released on 1996 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Peel s Bibliography of the Canadian Prairies to 1953 written by Ernest Boyce Ingles and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 948 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Prairie Provinces cover Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Download or read book Promise of Eden written by Doug Owram and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the last half of the nineteenth century, numbers of Canadians began to regard the West as a land of ideal opportuniy for large-scale agricultural settlement. This belief, in turn, led Canada to insist on ownership of the region and on immediate development. Underlying the expansionist movement was the assumption that the West was to be a hinterland to central Canada, both in its economic relationship and in its cultural development. But settlers who accepted the extravagant promises of expanionism found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the assumption of easstern dominance with their own perception of the needs of the West and of Canada. Doug Owram analyses the various phases of this development, examining in particular the writings - historical, scientific, journalistic, and promotional - that illuminate one of the most significant movements in the history of nineteenth-century Canada.

Download or read book History of the Catholic Church in Western Canada written by Adrien Gabriel Morice and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Prairie West Historical Readings written by R. Douglas Francis and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 1992 with total page 776 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of 35 readings on Canadian prairie history includes overview interpretation and current research on topics such as the fur trade, native peoples, ethnic groups, status of women, urban and rural society, the Great Depression and literature and art.

Download or read book Narrative and Critical History of America written by Justin Winsor and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Later History of British Spanish and Portuguese America written by Justin Winsor and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The latter history of British Spanish and Portuguese America 1889 written by Justin Winsor and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Narrative and Critical History of America The later history of British Spanish and Portuguese America c1889 written by Justin Winsor and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Narrative and Critical History of America The later history of British Spanish and Portuguese America 1889 written by Justin Winsor and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Hudson Bay Company written by George Edward Ellis and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Law Life and Government at Red River Volume 1 written by Dale Gibson and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inhabited by a diverse population of First Nations peoples, Métis, Scots, Upper and Lower Canadians, and Americans, and dominated by the commercial and governmental activities of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Red River – now Winnipeg – was a challenging settlement to oversee. This illuminating account presents the story of the unique legal and governmental system that attempted to do so and the mixed success it encountered, culminating in the 1869–70 Red River Rebellion and confederation with Canada in 1870. In Law, Life, and Government at Red River, Dale Gibson provides rich, revealing glimpses into the community, and its complex relations with the Hudson’s Bay: the colony’s owner, and primary employer. Volume 1 details the history of the settlement’s establishment, development, and ambivalent relationship with the legal and undemocratic, but gradually, grudgingly, slightly, more representitive, governmental institutions forming in the area, and the legal system’s evolving engagement with the Aboriginal population. A vivid look into early settler life, Law, Life, and Government at Red River offers insights into the political, commercial, and legal circumstances that unfolded during western expansion.

Download or read book Index and Dictionary of Canadian History written by Lawrence Johnstone Burpee and published by Morang. This book was released on 1911 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analytical index to the entire series of twenty volumes, p. vii.

Download or read book The Makers of Canada Vol I XXIII written by and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Makers of Canada written by and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Makers of Canada Index and dictionary of Canadian history written by and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: