The British Settlement in North America : Case Study Canada from the Seven Years War to the American Revolution (1754-1776)

Abstract

The theme of the thesis concerns the history of Canada. It was discovered during the fifteenth century, and then seized by the French. After many attempts of settlements, it became a French dominion in North America. In fact, during more than two centuries the French established a strong colony and governed it with the help of the Roman Catholic Church. The model of government had the same patterns of the ones prevailed in feudal Europe of the fourteenth century, i.e. seigneralsystem and the omnipotent church both contributed largely to impoverish the population. Furthermore the lack of interest expressed by the French authority combined with the fact of bad weather conditions lead to whetted the British appetite vis-à-vis New France. The successive wars during the Eighteenth Century witnessed the British supremacy not only in America but all over the world as well. One of the Seven Years War outcomes was the losing of Canada by the French; some historians do not consider it as being a lose but an exchange. In Fact France preferred to keep her possessions in the Caribbean (sugar plantation) than to preserve her colony in North America. In exchange the British secured the thirteen colonies’ boundaries and by the way their presence in North America. It can be added that the British Conquest of Canada gave both the British and their allies ‘the Loyalists’ an opportunity to stay in North America after the Thirteen Colonies ‘Independence. Briefly speaking, within 20 years Great Britain reached its peak as a super power in terms of expansion and shortly after the Canada’s conquest, she knew a regression by losing the Thirteen Colonies.