Conflicts with the Americans
The fall of Quebec in 1759 to the British marked the end of the French rule in Canada and cementing of British Rule in Canada. Though the British did have a presence in Canada before then with some of their maritime colonies and Prince Rupert Land, it wasn’t until the Fall of Quebec that they had a large presence in Canada. However it would not be long after that numerous conflicts would erupt both in North America and across the ocean in France.
Invasion of Quebec
When the American War for Independence began, quite a number of Americans had figured that the Canadian colonies would join them. In particular, Congress was hoping that Quebec would join with their rebellion, and while men joined the rebels to form 2nd Canadian Regiment(also called Congress' Own or Hazen's Regiment), Quebec itself refused to join. To that end the Continental Army would march in 1775 to take the region.
While the Americans would try to spread their propaganda about joining their cause, various catholic priests were able to counter that the British had been good to them and moreover it was the Quebec Act that had given the people of Quebec what they had asked for. An act that had been derided within the Thirteen colonies as one of the so called ‘intolerable acts’.
The Invasion of Quebec would be the first major military initiative taken by the newly formed Continental Army during the American war of Independence. Two forces were sent to the region, one under the command Richard Montgomery that left from Fort Ticonderoga and captured Montreal and the other under Benedict Arnold who traveled from Maine through the wilderness to Quebec City where both forces would link up to try and take the city.
The battle of Quebec City was a disastrous defeat for the Continental Army. Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded, while the cities defenders suffered few casualties. The siege it self would boost the Loyalist cause, which was further helped by how the Americans handled the city of Montreal when they had taken it.
The British would send several thousand troops, including general John Burgoyne and various Hessian allies to reinforce these colonies. In may of 1776 General Carleton would launch a counter-offensive, driving the smallpox infected and disorganized Continental Army back to Fort Ticonderoga. Though Arnold was able to harry and harass the British to prevent them from mounting an attack on Fort Ticonderoga.
This invasion would mark the end of the Americans attempt to gain control of the Canadian colonies during their war for independence militarily. Though they would still try and seek to gain control, including trying to get Quebec during the treaty of Paris though that attempt would ultimately fail. It would however make America believe that the Canadian colonies should be part of the United states.
United Empire Loyalists
When the British signed the treaty of Paris ending the American war of Independence, it would signal a shift for Canada. Thousands of loyalists that fought for Britain in the war or supported the war would immigrate to Canada fleeing the persecutions that they faced for backing the British.
Most of these loyalist would settle in lower Quebec and the Nova Scotia. The influx of such a vast number of refugees and immigrants would lead to the creation of the colony of New Brunswick. New Brunswick was split off from Nova Scotia and named in Honor of King George who ruled Brunswick.
The size of the immigrants also impacted the language of Canada. Before the influx French was the dominant language in both Upper and Lower Canada that would not be the case after the war. The influx of the loyalists made English more common in Upper Canada would become Ontario.
Of more darker note, is the fact that slavery was still legal in the colonies and thus loyalists from what is now the southern United States brought their slaves with them to Canada. Most of the slaves would be brought to the colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Though it should be pointed out, that more blacks that went to the Canadian colonies were free men, quite a number accepted freedom from the British in exchange for military service in the war. So it was not just slavery that brought Africans to the Canadian colonies. Still Slavery would become an issue within the colonies and abolition movements started up in earnest.
Several colonial acts would be passed against slavery, the most famous being the Act Against Slavery that Upper Canada. That act in particular would help to lead to the end of the slave trade in 1805 and the full abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834.
Napoleonic wars
The colonies that would make up Canada were not part of the battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, however that did not mean they were not impacted. The foremost was economic as the British needed Canadian lumber for their navy. Thus the Napoleonic wars greatly stimulated the economy of the Canadian colonies principally in the timber industry particularly in New Brunswick, there also was growth in the grain trade.
While some might assume that Napoleon would be popular in the french colonies, that was not the case. The people nostalgic for France in Canada were nostalgic for the Bourbons and the Ancien Regime. They were horrified at the execution of the king and the revolutionaries treatment of the catholic church. When Napoleonic wars began, the French Canadians wholeheartedly supported the war against Napoleon. Anti-Napoleon songs, poems and plays appeared in Quebec. French Canadians contributed to voluntary public subscriptions to financially support England when she was threatened with invasion, and Montreal would build their own Column of Trafalgar in 1809, decades before the one in London. French Canadians feared that if Napoleon beat the British he would pillage Canada and then do what he had done with the Acadians in Louisiana – sell them to the United States.
This all would help increase the power of the Catholic Church in Quebec as well as strengthen the ties between the French Canadians and the British. The economic impact of the wars would further help improve the standing of the Canadian colonies in the eyes of the British.
The War of 1812
While the Napoleonic wars had a smaller impact, the War of 1812 would have a massive impact on the Canadian colonies. Tension had been growing between the British and Americans ever since the War of Independence which saw the Americans leave the empire.
“The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching; & will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, & the final expulsion of England from the American continent.” - Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson’s words echoed the sentiment in America that Canada would join part of America. He figured that the Americans would be able to beat the British in part due to the Napoleonic Wars but also because America beat them before in the American war for Independence. There was also the assumption that the people of British North America would gladly welcome the Americans as liberators.
This would prove to be untrue in part due to the actions of the Americans when they invaded the colonies. The Americans would burn and loot communities along the frontier. It was the Americans that sacked York. It was the Americans that burned Newark and sent its inhabitants out into the blistering cold of Winter. All these actions helped convince the people of the colonies particular in Upper Canada that they were not Americans.
The British Army would come in from Europe who were trained from fighting in the Napoleonic wars and they would help support local bands of militiamen and frontiersmen. Moreover the British would work with a number of indigenous tribes who were willing to fight with the British against the Americans, notably the Shawnee and their leader Tecumseh.
These attacks would result in retaliation by the British who decided in 1814 to attack the United States itself. The British army would burn the city of Buffalo, and more famously, they would burn the White House. However the British army would be forced to retreat from their invasion into America.
The British would meet in Ghent to sign a treaty that affirmed the status quo ante bellum. The Americans came wanting to finish what they started in their Independence war and annex Canada into the United States, and thanks to the combined forces of the British Army and the Canadian Militia and Frontiersmen their invasion had failed. The failure of the Americans to take the Canadian Colonies would help to foster a shared identity between the colonist and an identity that was different from the Americans.
The Indigenous first nations though would fare far worse. As the peace treaty was more of a ceasefire, their dream of a confederacy would never come to reality, and their lands would be overtaken by the Americans. Despite their help and bravery in holding back the Americans, the British did not press their cause and the Americans were in no mood to discuss it.