USA Louisiana purchased from France - Natives in USA moved to reserves French Canadian rebellion Justice Marshall’s judgement Canadian Union of Upper American Gold Rush and Lower Canada Canada Gold Rush - American Civil War Confederation of Canada - American Indian Wars - Red River Rebellion by Transcontinental railway the Metis in Canada Canada Indians Act Bison almost exterminated in America Transcontinental railway ‘End’ of American links east and west coasts frontier The landscapes of America changed drastically in the nineteenth century. The Europeans treated the land differently from the natives. Some of the migrants from Britain and France were younger sons who would not inherit their fathers’ property and therefore were eager to own land in America. Later, there were waves of immigrants from countries like Germany, Sweden and Italy who had lost their lands to big farmers, and wanted farms they could own.
People from Poland were happy to work in the prairie grasslands, which reminded them of the steppes of their homes, and were excited at being able to buy huge properties at very low prices. They cleared land and developed agriculture, introducing crops (rice and cotton) which could not grow in Europe and therefore could be sold there for profit. To protect their huge farms from wild animals – wolves and mountain lions – these were hunted to extinction. They felt totally secure only with the invention of barbed wire in .
The climate of the southern region was too hot for Europeans to work outdoors, and the experience of South American colonies had shown that the natives who had been enslaved had died in large numbers. Plantation owners therefore bought slaves in Africa. Protests by anti-slavery groups led to a ban on slave trade, but the Africans who were in the USA remained slaves, as did their children. The northern states of the USA, where the economy did not depend on plantations (and therefore on slavery), argued for ending slavery which they condemned as an inhuman practice.
In - , there was a war between the states that wanted to retain slavery and those supporting abolition. The latter won. Slavery was abolished, though it was only in the twentieth century that the African Americans were able to win the battle for civil liberties, and segregation between ‘whites’ and ‘non-whites’ in schools and public transport was ended. The Canadian government had a problem which was not to be solved for a long time, and which seemed more urgent than the question of the natives – in Canada had been won by the British after a war with France.
The French settlers repeatedly demanded autonomous political status. It was only in that this problem was solved by organising canada as a Confederation of autonomous states.