Social Studies - Chapters 7/8 Review

Chapter 7

Legacies of Historical Globalization of Canada

Canada was not the focus of imperial competition in the 1500s because Canada was just a remote, northern outpost. The Carribean and South American colonies had gold and other resources that were more valued. Thus, the effects of historical globalization were felt later in Canada.
Throughout the 1500s, ships from Britain, France, Portugal had been sailing the waters off Canada’s Atlantic coast in search of fish. As such, some Europeans were already familiar with these areas.
Contact with First Nations at this time was usually friendly and benefited both sides. The First Nations were eager to obtain metals: axes, cooking pots and traded food and animal pelts for them.

Colonization in Canada

In the later 1500s, the beaver pelt hat became fashionable in Europe. This began the fur trade and the period of historical globalization in Canada. The focus became finding better ways of collecting better furs.
The First Nations of Eastern Canada assisted the fur trade by not only trapping, but also transporting the pelts to European outposts.
The area north of the Great Lakes became the focus of the fur trade as the region gave furs that were especially desirable for their high quality. The Huron Advantage.
France and Britain would then establish companies similar to the British East India Company. Investors were persuaded to provide money needed to organize ships, trade goods and move large quantities of pelts, in promise for high profits.
In 1627, France granted a Royal Charter to the Hundred Associates -- the company of New France. This gave the company a 15 year fur trade monopoly, while the company was required to attract 4000 new settlers and convert/assimilate First Nations to Catholics.

First Peoples and European Settlers

The settlers who arrived in New France found the environment to be harsh and forbidding. The First Peoples helped them adapt by teaching these settlers how to avoid scurvy, hunt, travel with canoes, snowshoe and use toboggans. The concept of hierarchy vs equality.
Europeans viewed social status as land ownership and wealth, while the First Nations believed in ability and equal access to the bounty and scarcity of nature.
With this view, First Nations used oral treaties, passed down by the word of mouth to solve territorial disputes and conflicts, while the Europeans used written, legally binding treaties. In the 1700s, Britain began to negotiate written treaties with First Nations.

The Destruction of the Beothuk

The Beothuk drove away Europeans when they set up fish drying racks, and as such, Europeans began hunting and killing the Beothuk, driving them inland.
Malnourishment and disease were reasons why the Beothuk who were driven inland were not able to survive.
By 1829, Shawnadithit, a young woman from the Beothuk died from tuberculosis. Her death marked the complete destruction of the Beothuk people and culture.
In the early years of European settlement, newcomers were vastly outnumbered. First peoples could have easily driven them out, but the Europeans built fortified villages which were defended fiercely with advanced European weapons. Among First Nations, territorial conflicts made united action difficult to organize and disease weakened FNs.

The Govenor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay

Henry Hudson, an English explorer, had mapped the shores of the Hudson Bay by the year 1610.
Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Medard Chouart Des Groseilliers showed the British in 1665 that the Hudson Bay could provide direct access to the heart of America, this being of great importance to the Fur Trade.
In 1670, the British Government granted a royal charter to the Governor and Company of Adventures of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay -- the Hudson’s Bay Company. This charter granted exclusive rights on all the land whose rivers drained into the Hudson Bay -- approximately 7 million km square. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, plus parts of Nunavut, Ontario and Quebec.
The HBC named this land “Rupert’s Land” -- named after Prince Rupert who helped with the formation of the HBC.
The Hudson’s Bay Company built forts along the shore of Hudson’s Bay. Every summer, the Cree would arrive at these posts in canoes loaded with pelts. Boats carried the furs to British ships, where they were exchanged for trade goods. The company had a monopoly, so there was no need to venture inland for purchase. Simply put, low cost, high profits.
As trade flourished, the Cree became skilled go-betweens. They started exchanging trade goods, which were supplied by the company, for furs gathered inland by First Nations.
New France established the Northwest Company in 1783 to compete and break up the HBC monopoly. They did this by incentivizing traders; these men knew the trade routes as well as how to survive on the land and languages and cultures of the First Peoples. This system forced HBC to start sending representatives further inland.
Competition led to overtrapping and the beaver population becoming more scarce. Higher costs and lower supplies sparked increasing violence between traders for the two companies, as well as their First Nation allies. Finally, in 1821, the companies merged.
Metis trade Pierre-Guillaume Sayer was tried and convicted of illegal trading. The jury believed that the Metis should be able to trade freely. Sayer was set free, an action that effectively ended the HBC monopoly in the southern part of Rupert’s Land.

Legacies of Historical Globalization in Canada

The competition between France and Britain resulted in the Seven Years War. This was the first truly global war because it drew in other European peoples and spread to colonies across North America, West Africa, Cuba, the Philippines and India. The British became the dominant colonial power in North America.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued by King George III and defined how Britain’s new North American territories, including Quebec, would be governed. It offered land grants to former British soldiers and limited settlement in eastern North America by reserving a large part of the interior continent for First Nations, particularly the nations of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy that traditionally inhabited the territory.
The Proclamation was a leading cause to the American Revolution, but also recognized First Nations title. It also brought European settlers to Canada and reserved land.

Legacies of Early British Rule

Competition from the Northwest Company forced the HBC to setup trading posts and canoe routes at key inland locations into the interior of Rupert’s Land. David Thompson mapped the Canadian west.
The European settlement of Canada’s west begun at the Red River Colony. Thomas Douglas, an HBC partner was granted 300,000 kilometres in modern-day Manitoba, Minnesota and North Dakota to solidify the company’s control, food and resources. This settlement did not take into account the Metis.
This action led to tensions, leading to violence, division and largely unsuccessful Metis uprisings in 1869-70 and 1885. This included the Red River Resistance and Northwest Rebellion.
Canada became a destination for thousands of European migrants because people were fleeing unemployment from industrialization. More than 750,000 immigrants arrived in Canada between 1790 and 1845.
European mercantilism affected Canada because it mandated the use of British ships to transport raw maters and manufactured goods. Some believed this helped protect and foster Canada’s early identity, while others believe it stifled development. French colonial rule made it illegal for Canadian

entrepreneurs to establish hat factories in the colony.

Historical Globalization affecting Canadian’s Indigenous Peoples

When Europeans arrived, half a million Indigenous people lived on the content, usually in small bands and runged over large territories. Their relationship to the land defined cultural traditions and worldview.
Europeans, meanwhile, tended to settle in dense areas and land ownership was of importance. In Eastern Canada, the British negotiated treaties to help them do this peacefully and this strategy continued to the west.
European settlement led to the depopulation of the First Nation’s traditional lands because the Europeans took the best land for themselves and pushed the First Nations into unproductive spaces. Their traditional relationship with the land and resources was damaged and bands migrated to lands occupied by other First Nations.
The Canadian government developed assimilation policies shortly after Confederation to ensure that the First Nations would give up territory peacefully. Assimilation began with grassroots generations.
In the 1870s, the buffalo population was declining and fur bearing animals became scarce. Many people depopulated by disease, so many First Nation groups entered into treaties with the Canadian government.
The numbered treaties were the Canadian government’s first “Cash for Land” approach. 1871-1877 was the first seven treaties, while 1899-1921 introduced four more.
The First Nations got annual payments and other benefits from the Canadian government, such as farm animals and tools, but they had to live on reserves. Highly productive land became Crown Land and confined the First Nations to smaller, less productive areas.
Promises that were made orally by government negotiators were often not included in the written versions of the treaty. The First Nations believed they were getting a gift for sharing the land, not a payment for surrendering it.
The Indian Act was first passed in 1876 and was a government tool to encourage assimilation among “Indians”. Remains in place today with many provisions changed. Until the 20th century, many were strictly controlled by government officials.
The Indian Act defined who was and who was not “Indian”; registered under the act and entitled to benefits. It banned traditional practices and those on reserves were not permitted to vote.
A “status Indian” is someone who is registered under the provisions of the act and is therefore entitled to specific benefits. This was a way to control and restrict lives.
Residential schools were schools were First Nations children gathered to live, work and study. Another assimilation tool set up by the Feds as the Indian Act made them responsible to educate First Nations. School age children were taken from families and the responsibility to run them was shared between the government and Christian churches. Families had no voice.
Legacies of the Residential School system were schools far away from homes, poorly trained teachers, children punished for celebrating culture, children cut off from their way of life, children who returned as strangers and intergenerational trauma.

Chapter 8

Rwanda - A Response to Historical Globalization

Two ethnic groups comprised the country known as Rwanda prior to the scramble for Africa: the Hutus and the Tutsis.
- Hutus - 85%
- Tutsis - 15%
The Tutsis held positions of power while the Hutus were labourers whose social status was considered to be lower than that of the Tutsis -- but both groups coexisted peacefully.
Germany claimed the region during the scramble for Africa and appointed themselves to key positions within the colony. The Germans believed the Tutsis were more European-like than the Hutus, but this was ultimately just a way to spark resentment.
Following Germany’s defeat in World War I, the Belgians took over the colony. They continued to give the Tutsis key positions and fostered greater divisions between them, requiring members of the two groups to carry Identity Cards.
When the Belgians left Rwanda in 1962, the Hutus formed a government. Tensions rose to levels of violence and death; as such many Tutsis left the country. This Hutu-formed Rwandan government started a campaign against Tutsis, as well as Hutus that sympathized with them. Tribalism through ethnocentrism.
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying the Rwandan President was shot down. Rwanda’s government and Hutu militants blamed the Tutsis. This began the Rwandan Genocide -- mass killings of people, especially a targeted group of people.
By July 19th, 1994, an estimated 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed.
Those fleeing the killings tried to find shelter in churches or the United Nations buildings, but these people rarely survived. Others fed to neighbouring countries.
The genocide ended mid-July after RPF forces captured Kigali, the capital city and established a multicultural government. About 2 million Hutus fled to neighbouring countries fearing Tutsi revenge, causing a second wave of genocide.
Romeo Dallaire and a small number of peacekeepers repeatedly warned UN officials of the rising tensions, but the UN refused to be involved at the time because it was an internal conflict. Peacekeepers were not to interfere and were only to act in self defence. The belief was that the UN’s mandate was to prevent conflict between countries, not within.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was a body to prosecute government leaders who were involved in the genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity. It was very inefficient, by June 2006, only 22 judgements were produced involving 28 people; of 130,000 total.
Gacaca courts were then established, meaning “justice on the grass”. These were community courts to try low level figures and ordinary people who were involved. The government elected the judges, were involved in the trials, sentencing and reconciliation. This was grassroots justice, necessary for the 600,000+ people who needed to be sentenced.
Coffee became an important resource for the new Rwanda because coffee exports made up 30% of their total exports by 2006. Women coffee farmers formed a cooperative and worked together to rebuild farms and communities, while all receiving higher profits.
The international community then provided support for Rwandans by aiding Rwandan woman who made up a majority of the population following the genocide.

How effectively have governments responded to the legacies of historical globalization?

The goals of the United Nations are to keep peace, security and friendly relations internationally, promote human rights, protect the environment, fight poverty and disease and help refugees.
The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was formed because many of the 370 million Indigenous peoples in the world are not represented in the UN. Therefore, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues was established by the UN in 2002 to discuss indigenous issues and persuade the General Assembly to pass the Declaration of Aboriginal Rights.
Beginning in the 1600s, South Africa was colonized by the Dutch, Portuguese, French and British. With each wave of colonization, Indigenous peoples lost more land and more rights. The Eurocentric beliefs of the time ensured that both the Indigenous peoples of the region and immigrants from India were treated as second class citizens.
In 1926, when South Africa became an independent dominion of the British Empire, blacks outnumbered whites 10-1, making the government pass laws to ensure that whites held onto political and economic control. Blacks were banned from voting.
Apartheid were laws that strictly segregated the population, beginning after World War I. Citizens were marked down as white, Asian, coloured or Black. Groups lived in separate areas and worked at racially designated jobs.
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, many groups struggled to end the apartheid. The government responded by banning protest organizations and locking up their leaders, including Nelson Mandela, who led the African National Congress.
On June 17, 1976, between 15000 and 20000 black high school students in the South African township of Soweto demonstrated to demand better education. At the time, 644 rands were spent per white student, while only 42 rands were spent per each black student.
- Police officers opened fire, students responded by throwing rocks and bottles and setting fire to buildings. The killings made global headlines and caused a storm of protests against the Apartheid.
Apartheid came to and end in South Africa when the government was pressured internationally and domestically. The SA government began to dismantle apartheid in 1986. Over the next 8 years, the country worked to gradually introduce fairness and equality.
The first universal elections in 1994 resulted in Nelson Mandela being elected president. He then established a Truth and Reconciliation commission to help confront the country’s violent past, bring together victims and reconcile.
- The commission’s chair was Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Like a court, anyone who wished to be heard could speak. People accused could request amnesty. The South African Government and Civil Service violated human rights, as did African liberation movements.
Nelson Mandela worked to end apartheid. In prison, he advocated for prisoners rights and fought abuse and injustice. In the 1950s, he organized protests against apartheid.
F.W. de Klerk was the former South African president and was committed to reform. He released political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela. Once out of prison, he worked with him to continue reform. In 1993, they shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

Legacies of Historical Globalization in Canada

Germany and Austria-Hungary were Canada’s enemies during World War I. People from Germany and Ukraine, which were part of Austria-Hungary at the time, were labelled “enemy aliens” and ordered to report regularly to police. Rights were restricted and franchise was withheld.
Japanese Canadians were interned during the Second World War as Japan joined the Axis forces in December 1941. Japanese Canadians became the target of suspicion and were moved way from the pacific coast into interment camps in BC and the Prairies. They were only allowed to take what they can carry, everything else was sold off to pay for their internment.
- Conditions were dire; 10+ families were in cramped huts. The Red Cross had to provide emergency rations. A settlement was reached in 1988, giving 21,000 dollars to each internee. The government apologized and established the Canadian Race Relations Foundation to help eliminate racism.
The Indian Act has been amended several times since it was introduced, but critics of the act continue to argue that the act ensures that First Nations do not receive equal treatment, that it limits First Nations right to self governance and determination, plus is still paternalistic.
The passing of the Constitution Act in 1982 recognized “existing Aboriginal and treaty rights”. It was a step forward because it opened the door to the settlement of land claims such as the one that established Nunavut.
The federal government established the 1991 Royal Commission on Aboriginals to investigate the Federal government’s relationship with First Nations, the Metis and Inuit. It tried to answer the question, “what are the foundations of a fair and honourable relationship between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people of Canada”.
The commission’s findings were that “the main policy direction, pursued for more than 150 years, first by colonial then Canadian governments has been wrong.”
- As a result, the Canadian government issued a statement of reconciliation (viewed as an apology) that acknowledged the harm done to First Nations, Metis and Inuit.
To try to deal with the shortcomings of the Indian Act, the Liberal Government of Jean Chrétien proposed the First Nations Government Bill in 2002. The purpose of the legislation was to eliminate the harmful elements of the Indian Act while maintaining the government’s financial and treaty obligations.
- The reaction to this legislation was negative; many First Nations disagreed saying that First Nations were shut out of drafting. The Assembly of First Nations boycotted consultations held because First Nation participation opportunities were so low. As such, the bill was withdrawn.
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