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| Source: en.wikipedia.org /wiki /French colonization of the Americas# /media /File:Nouvelle-France_map-en.svg |
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Canada
1583 Newfoundland Island in the far north claimed by Sir Humphrey Gilbert for Queen Elizabeth I. 1605 Acadia. Port Royal, settled by France, became the French capital of Acadia on the south-east side of the St Lawrence River. Click here for its demographics. Acadia was an area that today includes Nova Scotia as its eastern peninsula, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to its north, and the modern US state of Maine south to the Kennebec River. It became the first of five colonies of New France, the other four becoming1621 British arrive in Nova Scotia in the far east laying claim to Acadia. However they made little permanent settlement. 1662 French build Fort Plaisance on Newfoundland Island and declare the town of Plaisance their capital. 1668 British begin building trading posts on Hudson's Bay. 1672 French arrive in Hudson's Bay shortly afterwards, endeavouring to drive out the British. 1691 British claim all of Maine as York County Massachusetts. 1710 British capture Port Royal, make it a part of Nova Scotia, rename it as Annapolis Royal (after Queen Anne). Samuel Vetch named 1st Governor of Nova Scotia. 1713 The major Treaty of Utrecht in Europe insisted the French cede Acadia to the British, and recognize British control of the Hudson Bay Territory and Newfoundland. Plaisance now became the new British settlement of Placentia. All of its 200 French residents were deported south to Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) where the French began construction of the town of Louisbourg.
- Hudson's Bay, in the north
- Plaisance on Newfoundland Island, as mentioned at the top,
- Louisiana, in the south, and of course
- Canada, its most developed colony — made up of Quebec in 1608, and Montreal, then Trois-Rivieres between the two settlements. Quebec and Montreal became significant French settlements, click those links to see their population history.
The Île Royale colony included a second island to its west, Île Saint-Jean, which after 1798 became Prince Edward Island. 1749 British build a fort at Halifax in Nova Scotia, 100 miles east of Annapolis Royal, and declare it to be their new capital. 1755 Open war breaks out between Britain and France. The British occupy the area in Acadia today known as New Brunswick and until 1784 it was part of Nova Scotia. Over the 8 years (1755 to 1763) the British establish a policy of deporting all of its French residents to France or to Great Britain, to New England or to the other American colonies, causing much resentment and anger. 1758 British forces captured Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, allowing them to blockade the entrance to the St Lawrence River. This proved decisive in the war. In 1759, the British besieged Quebec by sea, and an army under General James Wolfe defeated the French under General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September. The garrison in Quebec surrendered on 18 September 1759, and after an attack on Montreal which had refused to acknowledge the fall of Canada, by the next year New France had been conquered by the British. The last French governor-general of New France, Pierre François de Rigaud, surrendered to British Major General Jeffrey Amherst on 8 September 1760.
Louisiana
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France formally ceded New France to the British in the Treaty of Paris, signed 10 February 1763. The treaty included all of Louisiana east of the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico, note, they had secretly ceded its western side to Spain in 1762. The French settlers on the west bank of the river now honored the King of Spain as their ruler, while those on the east bank either pledged their loyalty to King George III of England or gave up their lands and crossed the river. A famous example was Auguste Chouteau, who founded the city of St Louis on the west bank in 1764.
Louisiana itself was thus acquired temporarily by Spain, but shortly after it returned to France under Napoleon in 1803, who then sold it holus-bolus to the USA.
1763 The French colony of New France was renamed the Province of Quebec. Its population at the time was 70 thousand. The downriver section of the St Lawrence River became known as Quebec District, and the upriver section, which included the city of Montreal and much of Ontario, as Montreal District. 1774 The British Parliament passed the Quebec Act that allowed Quebec to restore the use of French customary law (Coutume de Paris) in private matters alongside the English common law system, and allowed the Catholic Church to collect tithes. 1784 New Brunswick was formed, becoming a separate province from Nova Scotia. Its name was in honour of King George III, with the House of Hanover rulers of the Duchy of Brunswick in Germany, and King George's elder sister married to its Prince. 1791 The Province of Quebec was now divided into two having had a considerable influx of English-speaking Loyalists following America's War of Independence. On the northern side of the Ottawa River, the Constitutional Act of 1791 set up the French-speaking Province of Lower Canada (Quebec and Montreal). And under a newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor, on its southern and western side it set up an English-speaking Province of Upper Canada (Ontario). Each province had its own elected legislative assembly, with Upper Canada naming its capital the new city of York (modern day Toronto), situated on Lake Ontario's northwestern shore. In 1806-1807, a population census of the four provinces, plus Prince Edward Island and the colony of Newfoundland was 457 thousand. In 1809 the coastal area of Labrador became part of Newfoundland. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the town's capture and plunder by US forces. The surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. American soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation. The sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington (800 kms south of Toronto) by British troops later in the war. York was incorporated as the City of Toronto on March 6, 1834, reverting to its original native name. Toronto's population of only 9,000 included escaped African American slaves, some of whom were brought by the Loyalists, including Mohawk leader Joseph Brant. Torontonians integrated people of colour into their society. Reformist politician William Lyon Mackenzie became the first Mayor of Toronto and led the unsuccessful Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 against the British colonial government. 1841 Province of Canada: The Act of Union 1840, passed 23 July 1840, by the British Parliament and proclaimed by the Crown on 10 February 1841, merged the provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada back once again into a single province, abolishing their separate parliaments and establishing one parliament with two houses, a Legislative Council as the upper chamber and the Legislative Assembly as the lower chamber. At the time, Upper Canada was near bankruptcy because it lacked stable tax revenues, and needed the resources of the more populous Lower Canada to fund its internal transportation improvements. And secondly, unification was an attempt to reduce the French vote by giving each of the former provinces the same number of parliamentary seats, despite the larger population of Lower Canada. The new government was to be led by an appointed Governor General accountable to the British Crown and the Queen's Ministers. Responsible government (i.e. one primarily accountable to its parliament) was achieved with the second LaFontaine-Baldwin ministry in 1849. The location of the capital city of the Province of Canada changed six times in its 26-year history between 1841 and 1867. The first capital was in Kingston in eastern Ontario (1841–1844). The capital moved to Montreal (1844–1849) until rioters, spurred by a series of incendiary articles published in The Gazette, protested against theRebellion Losses Bill and burned down Montreal's parliament buildings. It then moved to Toronto (1849–1852). It moved to Quebec from 1852 to 1856, then Toronto for one year (1858) before returning to Quebec from 1859 to 1866. In 1857, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa on the south of the Ottawa River to become the permanent capital of the Province of Canada, initiating construction of Canada's first parliament buildings, on Parliament Hill. The first stage of this construction was completed in 1865, just in time to host the final session of the last parliament of the Province of Canada before Confederation.
https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki /Canadian_Confederation
1867 Canadian Confederation (French: Confédération canadienne) was the process by which the British provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into one Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. Upon confederation, the province of Canada was again divided into the two provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Along with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the new federation thus comprised four provinces. Its population census then was 3½ million. In 1895 it became 5 million, in 1929 10 million, in 1966 20 million, in 1998 30 million, and today 38 million. Over the years since Confederation, Canada has seen numerous territorial changes and expansions, resulting in the current union of ten provinces and three territories. The tenth and last province to become part of Canada was the Dominion of Newfoundland in 1949 (renamed as Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001).
Population Census in 1770: 2 million. In 1780: 3 million. In 1790: 4 million. Fighting broke out on April 19 1775 (after the famous Paul Revere midnight ride) when 700 British troops were sent to confiscate militia ordnance stored at Concord Massachusetts. Independence was declared July 4 1776. Most fighting occurred 1775-1778, then a stalemate with many US desertions (1779-1780) then victory again in October 1781 with Cornwallis's defeat at Yorktown, Virginia, after France Spain and India also went to war against England. The Americans skirted these allies, recognizing that more favorable terms would be found in London. They negotiated directly with Prime Minister the Earl of Shelburne, who hoped to make Britain a valuable trading partner of America at the expense of France. To this end, Shelburne offered to cede all the land east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida, and south of Quebec, while also allowing American fishermen access to the rich Newfoundland fishery. According to one historian, Shelburne was hoping to facilitate the growth of the American population, creating lucrative markets that Britain could exploit at no administrative cost to London. As Vergennes commented, "the English buy peace rather than make it". Preliminary peace articles were signed in Paris on 30 November 1782, while preliminaries between Britain, Spain, France, and the Netherlands continued until September 1783. The war formally concluded on September 3, 1783. The last British troops departed New York City on November 25, 1783, marking the end of British rule in the new United States. Early Government Until 1800, the government met in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Design and construction of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. took place between 1792 and 1800, along with the President's building, which had an exterior of Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. At the closure of John Adams's Presidency in 1800 and before the commencement of Thomas Jefferson in 1801, Congress moved into the new Capitol building, with that building also used for Sunday religious services for several decades. First reference to the President's building as the "White House" was apparently made in 1811, but during the 1800s it was referred to formally as the President's House or Executive Mansion. President Theodore Roosevelt established "The White House" as its formal name in 1901. War broke out again between Britain and America in 1812, lasting 3 years. Two major causes
- The use of British "press-gangs" to impress American sailors into the British Navy, by insisting they were still British subjects, and "fair game". In one such incident in May 1811, a sailing-master from Maine had been impressed just off New Jersey. Fifteen days later, in the "
Little Belt affair ", a US ship harassed and fired on a British sloop, killing 11 of its men and wounding 21.- The British in North America saw the Indian tribes as valuable allies and a buffer to their Canadian colonies, so they were providing arms and ammunition to the Indians, and harassing the US settlers.
Numerous calls came in the US Congress to drive the British completely out of North America. War was declared by the US in June 1812, though on many levels the US forces were quite unprepared, and ill-disciplined, and it resulted in early British victories. In 1813 American soldiers destroyed much of the garrison in the new British city of York (modern day Toronto) and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation. The sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington (800 kms south of Toronto) by British troops in August 1814. The British subsequently suffered a heavy defeat in New Orleans in January 1815. On many levels the war was felt to be a draw, and it ended with a Treaty ratified by both sides on 17 February 1815. The war did inspire the
Star Spangled Banner (at the time the flag was 15 stripes and 15 stars) in reference to the Battle of Baltimore that occurred in September 1814. The flag was changed in April 1818 to be 13 stripes and 20 stars, then adding a star as new states came on board. The Star Spangled Banner's tune, written in 1780, was the official song of the Anacreontic Society — an 18th-century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. Anacreon was a Greek Poet who lived about 500BC. In 1931 it became the American National Anthem, replacing other hopefuls
"Hail to the Chief" was made the personal anthem of the US President in an official directive by the Department of Defense in 1954.
It is based on the Boat Song in Sir Walter Scott's long narrative poem "The Lady of the Lake". There are six divisions or cantos in the poem, the Boat Song is in the second canto-The Island. The full poem was first published in 1810, then music for the Boat Song was added in London in 1812, taken from a Scottish Gaelic melody, and attributed to song writer and musician James Sanderson.
Association with the President first occurred in 1815 under the name "Wreaths for the Chieftain", when it was played to honor both George Washington, and the Treaty that ended the War of 1812. Been played, on and off, ever since.
Lyrics that were written by Albert Gamse (1901-1974) are set to James Sanderson's music, but they are rarely sung.
Hail to the Chief we have chosen for the nation,
Hail to the Chief! We salute him, one and all.
Back to the 1800s
Population Censuses: 1800 5 million, 1820 10 million, 1845 20 million,
1870 40 million, 1905 80 million, 1955 160 million, 2020 330 million.
https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki /List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union
1800: 16 States (mostly Crown Colonies)
1818: 21 States
Feb 1848: Treaty with Mexico
1850: 31 states with the admission of California
1858: First Overland Mail Express New York to California
1861: In October 1861, the overland telegraph built by the Western Union from St Joseph in Missouri to Sacramento in California, connected the existing network in the east to a small telegraph network running California to Nevada. It made obsolete the Pony Express, only opened 18 months. Even though messages sent over the network had to be relayed between various cities the near instantaneous speed of communication was a dramatic development.
On October 25 1861, Stephen J. Field, the Chief Justice of California, sent the first cross-country message on the new line to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC.
"In the temporary absence of the Governor of the State I am requested to send you the first message which will be transmitted over the wires of the telegraph Line which Connect the Pacific with the Atlantic States the People of California desire to Congratulate you upon the Completion of the great work.
They believe that it will be the means of strengthening the attachment which bind both the East & West to the Union & they desire in this the first message across the continent to express their loyalty to that Union & their determination to stand by the Government in this its day of trial They regard that Government with affection & will adhere to it under all fortunes"
Twenty years earlier in 1841, it took 110 days for the news of the death of President William Henry Harrison to reach Los Angeles, travelling by sea, around Cape Horn in a clipper ship. As a result of the completion of this line, the Pony Express was immediately obsolete, and it ceased operations two days later.
1869: The single transcontinental telegraph line was operated until 1869, when it was replaced by a multi-line telegraph constructed alongside the route of the Transcontinental Railroad
Railway Time click here for its background. First implemented in the UK in 1847 using telegraph technology to coordinate railroad activities, the USA followed 1853-1882 with four time zones Eastern Time (New York), Central Time (Chicago), Mountain Time (Denver Colorado) and Pacific Time (San Francisco).
1876: 38 states
1896: 45 States
1898: US-Spanish War in Cuba. The Philippines, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico annexed and became US Territories.
Oklahoma 1907 Became 46th state Northern Mexico 1850 New Mexico became territory of USA 1862 Arizona (southern part) became a separate territory. 1912 Both territories became 47th and 48th states Alaska 1732 Siberian explorers from Russia 1799 Named as Russian America with capital Sitka 1867 Sold to USA as a territory 1959 Became 49th state Hawaii 1874 Riots after king died no obvious heirs. US and UK intervene, appoint king. 1893 Monarchy overthrown after king died. Republic for 4 years 1898 Became a territory of the USA 1959 Became 50th state 2022: 50 States (and 50 stars on the flag) i.e. 48 mainland states + 2 other states (Alaska and Hawaii) = 50 Plus 14 territories – 5 that are permanently inhabited are Guam (in 1898), Puerto Rico (in 1898), American Samoa (in 1900), US Virgin Islands (in 1917), and Northern Mariana Islands (after WW2). Plus Washington in Federal District of Columbia. (D.C.) Regarding the word "Columbia", Massachusetts Chief Justice Samuel Sewall used the name Columbina (not Columbia) for the New World in 1697. The name Columbia for "America" first appeared in 1738, perhaps coined by Samuel Johnson, in a weekly English magazine that published the debates inside the British Parliament. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land in 1790 to form this federal district, which included the pre-existing settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria. Named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land originally ceded by Virginia. In 1871, it created a single municipal government for the remaining portion of the District.
Click here for List of Presidents of the United States starting in 1789
Some main ones:
- 1789-1797 George Washington First US President
- 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson Notorious for his bad spelling, Andrew Jackson famously stated in 1833 "It is a d--- poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word". Apparently became the inspiration behind that
universal English word "ok" - oll korrect, first seen in print (after his presidency) in 1839. Another English phrase "free enterprise", was apparently first seen in print following his1832 State of the Union speech .- 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War After the November 1860 election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln to the US presidency on a platform which opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories, the Confederacy was formed by seven secessionist slave-holding states – South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas – in the Lower South region of the United States, whose regional economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon the labor of African-American slaves. Before Lincoln took office in March, a new Confederate government was established in February 1861, which was considered illegal by the government of the United States. Rebel states volunteered militia units and the rebel government hastened to form the Confederate States Army from scratch practically overnight. Generals were Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson (who died however after a battle in May 1863). After the Civil War began, four additional slave states of the Upper South – Virginia (but not West Virginia), Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina – also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. The Confederacy later accepted Missouri and Kentucky as members, although neither officially declared secession. The War began with the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter on April 12 1861, a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. In early 1865, after four years of heavy fighting which led to over 620,000 military deaths, the Confederate army was devastated by casualties, disease and desertion. General Lee abandoned Richmond Virginia and retreated west. On April 9, his forces surrounded, he surrendered them to General Grant. The day after his surrender, Lee issued his Farewell Address to his army. Other Confederate armies followed suit. Lee was not arrested or punished, but he did lose some property as well as the right to vote. On April 14, Lincoln was shot, dying the next day. Confederate President Jefferson Davis expressed regret at his death, later saying that he believed Lincoln would have been less harsh with the South than his successor, Andrew Johnson, who issued a $100,000 reward for the capture of Davis and accused him of helping to plan the assassination. Davis met with his Confederate Cabinet for the last time on May 5 in Washington, Georgia, and officially dissolved the Confederate government. He was then captured on May 10, and imprisoned for two years on May 19. On June 19, a day declared a public holiday in 2021, the Union Army Major-General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Texas with his men marching through the town declaring "all slaves are free". Although the war lacked a formal end - nearly all Confederate forces had been forced into surrender or deliberately disbanded by the end of 1865.
- Sep 1901 - Mar 1909 Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal IN response to the California Gold Rush, in 1855 a railroad had been built with great difficulty (and thousands of lives lost) across the isthmus of Panama, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Following the failure of the French to build the canal, in 1902-1903 Theodore Roosevelt entered into talks with Colombia. When talks broke down, American warships supported Panama's tacit claims to independence as a fledgling republic. Panama received $US10 million, much of which the United States required to be invested in that country, plus annual payments of $US250,000. The canal became an unincorporated territory of the US, until 1979. Construction of the canal began in earnest in 1907 and completed in Aug1914 though the celebration of the canal's opening was overshadowed by the outbreak of World War 1. Recognition of Panama's independence by Colombia came in 1909, after Colombia received a $500,000 concession to cover debts owed. In 1979 the canal came under joint US-Panamanian control, until it was fully turned over to Panama in 1999.
- Mar 1933 - Apr 1945 Frankin Delano Roosevelt 5th cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, but unlike Theodore, a Democrat. In wheelchair from polio / neural disease after 1921. Died in office just a few weeks before Germany's surrender, though he had been unwell from 1940. While there had been an informal understanding since the days of George Washington that no President would serve more than two terms, with major war & disruption in Europe impacting on the US, Roosevelt had offered to serve a third term if he were "drafted" at the Democratic convention. He was, and he easily defeated his Republican opponent in the November 1940 election. Then he won again in November 1944.
- Apr 1945 - Jan 1953 Harry Truman. Previously Vice President to Roosevelt. Truman was responsible for the atom bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that ended the war with Japan. And in 1947 the US Congress formally passed the 22nd Amendment, limiting an elected President to two terms in office.
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