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Canada was of course founded as a French colony in the 16th century. The original French colony was centered on the fur trade, but in the 18th century, the French and English struggled over control of North America.
Montréal was founded by a clerical order called "Les Messieurs de Saint-Sulpice , the only owner of the island, who sent Maisonneuve to found Montréal in 1642. We are not far from Paraguay's Jesuit City of God after the model edicted by St Augustine. The same community sent some members in Northern Ontario at Sault-Ste-Marie (The Soo) . They were killed by Indians around 1660. There is a film on this, "Black Robe". French Canada is best known for the fur trade. In Quebec there were also farmers. The economy was run on the "Système seigneurial". A noble landowner recruited Frenchmen to work his land in Canada. The tenants were "censitaires". They paid each year one tenth of their production to the noble and one tent (la dime) to the priest. The French population in 1760 was only 60,000. France claimed, however claimed a huge area as Canada or (Nouvelle France). The immense French claim included the St-Lawrence and Mississipi Rivers, from Québec to New-Orleans.
The French loss of Quebec in the French and Indian War (7 Years War) sealed the future of Canada and in fact North America as an English-speaking cultural area.
After the English victory, French Canadians appear to have lost contact with France. The English Government presumably persued this as a matter of policy, but here we have few details. I believe that after the English victory, significant French migration to Canada ceased. Some French Canadians migrated to America, the origins of Louisiana Cajuns and French culture in New Orleans. Of course in an era without modern communications and with the Royal Navy's control of the seas, isolating French Canadians was more feasible than in our modern world.
Canadians during the American Revolution remained loyal to the British. I am not sure precisely why this was. The American colonists attempted to entice the Canadians to join the Revolution and there were two failed American invasions of Canada. The most serious was led by Bendeict Arnold. Canada at the time had only recently been added to the British Empire and their had not been time for a established local government to develop. I do not believe that the French Canadian population played a significant role here.
At the time of Confederation (1867) , there were 3.25 million people settled in the provinces that comprised Canada. Over the next three decades hundreds of thousands more arrived. Few of these immigrants came from France or learned French as their new language. Most settled in Anglo-Canada. This imigration over time significantly diluted the French propotion of Canada's population.
Much of the population of Québec was rural. Gradually the population of Québec became increasingly urban in the 20th century following trends in the rest of Canada and the United States. The rural population was very Catholic and socially very conservative. This changed significantly in the 1960s. A Canadian reader writes, "I beginning in my childhood had many experiences in rural Québec. I lived in Montreal, but weoften traveled into thecountryside to visit family and friends. My wife who lived in Beauce south of Québec grew up on a farm. After 1960, there was something like "a quiet revolution" in rural Québec which significantly changed social attitudes. Good or not? For some, living in the 1940s and 50s was a kind of dark age. After 40 years, I think what I refer to as the Americanization of Québec leads to the [?adverse prediction]. Instead of being Canadians, people became more oriented toward independance like a lot of other countries in the world. It is a big debate in Canada still now. Those who made the quiet revolution in the 1960s are not so anxious to blame Church Institutions. I think Québec became a success story without bloody wars and guerilla like in South America, But many think that we sold our soul to devil when we became part of the wider North American consumer society."
The Catholic share of the population, however, was not diluted as significantly as the French population because of the large number of Irish immigrants. This meant that there is a portion of the population that was not Protestant and not favorably disposed toward the English. Despite the Irish resentment toward England, the Irish were strongly indluenced by English culture in many ways. The Irish largely, for example, adopted English fashion trends.
The leadership in Canada, however, continued to be dominated by English, Protestant Canadians. The French in Canada were thus relegated a second-class role and until after World War II were generally descriminated against, in large measure explaining current Quebec demands for independence. The French in Quebec maintained their cultural and linguistic identity, but the mid-20th century there were realtively limited contacts with France. Here General DeGualle's endorsement of a "free Quebec" was an example of growing ties with France.
We are just beginning to explore the impact of these cultural differences on clothing trends. One would think that the French Canadians would have been more influenced by France than English-Canadians. We note, however, relatively little reflection of French clothing styles among the admittedly limited number of French Canadian images archived by HBC. We have noted some clearly English influences in the clothes worn Canadian boys. Here there seems to a class factor. The more affluent the family, the more prominent the English influence. HBC has noted a very significant American influence in Canada. Here climate and mass market retailers like Sears and Montgomery Ward may have been influential, especially in western Canada and even rural areas of eastern Canada. We note quite a number of late 19th and early 19th century images in which the boys, both French and English Canadians, seemed to be wearing American rather than English styled fashions. The French Canadians boys photographed about 1910 are a good example of this. A Candain reader writes, "I would agree with what you are saying. British influence was more with the wealthier Canadians. American fashions have been dominant simply because of the close proximity of the United States. I noted an increasing influence of American here fashions after the 1950s."
Some noted photographers have left us some wonder images of French Canada, especially images from Québec. Omer Beaudoin created beautiful images of farm children in rural Québec. Michel Coron took fascinating photographs of chool children in Québec.
French Canadians of course speak French. They have a destinctive accent, but are easily understood in France. (Just as Americans are in Britain.) As with the English spoken in America and Britain, there are differences between the French spoken in France and Canada.
HBC has discussed this issue with a small number of Canadians. We note that English Canadians in general have no knowledge of differeing dress tends among French Canadians or seem to think thaere are no differences, rather like French Cadians do not exist. French Canadians, on the other hand, have mentioned some differences.
For many people, in writing French Canadian, they just think of Quebecquers. Québec is not the only part of Canada where there are French speakers, although it is true that most French speakers are located in Quebec. Acadians living in New Brunswick are also French speaking, althiugh there are significanbt cultural differenbces among Acadians and Quebecquers
A French Canadian reader writes, "You have to realize that Québec is also something else than Canada. We were close to independance in the 1995 referendum. The real problem is the geopolitical importance of
Québec with the United States to the south. Without Québec, Canada will be vanishing. and the other province will become new American states, except Ontario and Québec. Anyway, it already beginning in British Columbia and Alberta which are already more American than
Canadian in terms of trade. Just in terms of petroleum: Alberta is the biggest seller of petroleum in the world to the United States. Albertans are
not willing to see Ottawa controlling their natural ressources. They would
prefer to keep all the money for them without any perequation with poorer
provinces like Newfoundland. "
Westley, Margaret W. Remembrance of Grandeur: Montreal's Anglo-protestant
Elite. l900-l950. Translated into French by Dominique Clift & Louis Royer with the title:
Grandeur and déclin: l'élite anglo-protestante de Montréal, 1900-1950 (Montréal: Editions Libre Expression. 1990).
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