8-2

THE SEARCH FOR A NATIONAL IDENTITY

I. UNDERSTANDING THE PAST

• A. The First Canadians• 1. Inuit and Native Americans whose ancestors migrated

to North America thousands of years ago• 2. developed stable societies and adapted to the

environment• 3. many live in Pacific coast villages and live off the land• 4. some are still nomadic (hunters and gatherers)• 5. when the Europeans began settling in these areas,

many natives were wiped out from disease and warfare

• B. Colonial Rivalries• 1. France and England competed with each other for the

areas in Canada that were a part of the fur trade• 2. between 1689 and 1763, they fought 4 wars in North

America• 3. the British defeated the French at the Battle of

Quebec in 1759 and France surrendered its empire in present-day Canada

• C. Ties to Britain• 1. Canada remained under British rule until 1867 when

the British created the “Dominion of Canada”• 2. this act gave Canada its own government, but all

foreign policy and military decisions were still made by Great Britain

• 3. Canada finally became an independent country in 1931

• 4. Even to today, however, Canada considered the British monarch their symbolic ruler

II. CONFLICT BETWEEN 2 CULTURES

• A. When France lost the war to Britain, about 70,000 French colonists lived in the area• B. Since then, the French-Canadian population

has grown to over ¼ of the country’s population• C. Most of these citizens live in Quebec• D. In 1774, the British passed laws to ensure that

French Canadians would be able to maintain their own language, laws, and culture• E. English and French are the official languages

of Canada (only 15% speak both languages)

• F. Quebecois (Quebec’s French-speaking citizens) consider themselves the guardians of French culture in Canada• G. In 1995, the Quebec government asked its

residents if they wanted to secede (withdraw) from Canada and become independent• H. They decided to stay by only a narrow margin

III. WELCOMING DIVERSITY, PROMOTING UNITY

• A. A Multicultural Society• 1. British descent – 40%• 2. French descent – 27%• 3. Native Canadian (including Inuit) – 1.5%• 4. Other European descent – 20%• 5. Other (mostly Asian) – 11.5%

• B. Uniting Canada’s Regions• 1. great sources of transportation and communication link all

of the different areas of Canada• 2. establishing a true national identity has been difficult to

achieve, because most people living in Canada consider themselves a part of their province, not necessarily as a Canadian