Conquest of 1760

The Conquest (French La Conquête) is the term used in reference to the acquisition of parts of New France by Britain during the French and Indian War, otherwise referred to as part of the Seven Years' War. The conquest was undertaken by the British as a campaign in 1758, with the acquisition of Canada made official in the Treaty of Paris that concluded the Seven Years' War.

Overview

The British campaign to conquer Canada began in 1758 starting with the capture of the port of Louisburg, part of a surrounding colony, which was followed by the significant victory at Quebec in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September of 1759.[1] Despite the British defeat in the significantly-bloodier Battle of Sainte-Foy at Quebec the following year in April of 1760, the campaign was completed with the surrender of Montreal in 1760 and the possession of the lands taken by the British during The Conquest were secured during the Treaty of Paris in 1763 at the conclusion of the war. Under the Treaty, Canada was ceded to the British in exchange for the return of Guadeloupe (which had rich sugar resources)[2] and the right to retain the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland (access to the lucrative Atlantic fisheries).[3] This has traditionally been interpreted by scholars as an indication of diverging ideologies concerning empire, with the British focusing further on land holding and colonization whereas the French focused more on mercantile interests, although some recent scholarship questions or tries to complicate this idea.[4]

Surrender

On 8 September 1760, Governor General Pierre, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, surrendered the French colony known as Canada. Britain assured the 60,000 to 70,000 Francophone inhabitants[5] freedom from deportation and from confiscation of property, freedom of religion, the right to migrate to France, and equal treatment in the fur trade (backbone of the local economy).[6] The Treaty of Paris made the northern portion of New France (including Canada and some additional lands to the south and west) officially a British colony.[6] The Quebec Act of 1774 confirmed the previous agreement.

Sources

Notes

  1. ↑ Phillip Buckner and John G. Reid, ed. Revisiting 1759: The Conquest of Canada in Historical Perspective,( Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), vii, 1.
  2. ↑ Helen Dewar, "Canada or Guadeloupe? : French and British Perceptions of Empire, 1760-63," Canadian Historical Review 91 (2010), 637,641. doi: 10.3138/chr.91.4.637
  3. ↑ Phillip Buckner and John G. Reid, ed. Revisiting 1759: The Conquest of Canada in Historical Perspective,( Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), 7.
  4. ↑ Helen Dewar, "Canada or Guadeloupe? : French and British Perceptions of Empire, 1760-63," Canadian Historical Review 91 (2010), 638-40.
  5. ↑ Miquelon, Dale. "Conquest", in The Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1988), Volume 1, p. 491
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Miquelon, p.491.

References