What was the 'difference' between Canada and the American colonies before the American Revolution?

by Mapuches_on_Fire

My apologies in advance for not being able to word this question clearly.

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Why was Canada so different from Massachusetts and New York and Virginia in the pre-American Revolution period? Wasn't it just a large northern colony? It was much larger geographically than any American colony and it didn't rebel against Great Britain.

Oldmanthrowaway12345

It's important to understand what colonies "Canada" was composed of:

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- Quebec (commonly called "Canada" by the British colonials) that encompassed the St. Lawrence river/Great Lakes watershed. Nowadays that region is Ontario, Quebec, and the states in the Ohio Valley. The vast majority of the inhabitants were French or aboriginal, and were markedly different than the British colonials on the Atlantic seaboard.

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- Nova Scotia and St. John's Island - These maritime colonies were populated mostly by New England immigrants, and were similar in nature to her New England counterparts, albeit very sparsely populated. These colonies did sympathize with the rebels during the War of Independence, and Nova Scotia even sent emissaries to meet with George Washington. However, the important differentiating factor between these colonies and their New England counterparts was that these colonies were entirely separated by road with the Atlantic colonies further south. These colonies were dependent on oceanic travel, and the rebels never established the naval superiority necessary to launch a maritime invasion. Also, there were a few incidents of American privateers plundering several communities in St. John's Island and the western portion of Nova Scotia in the Bay of Fundy. These incidents created some degree of resentment.

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- Newfoundland - Was very separated from the southern colonies and was a very sparsely populated colony whose base economy was almost exclusively linked to fishing in the Grand Banks. Newfoundland had little to gain from joining the rebellion, and only became a Canadian province in 1949, almost two centuries after the war.

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- Rupert's Land - This was a very large territory administered by the Hudson's Bay Company - a fur trading company - that encompassed all of the watersheds flowing in to the Hudson's Bay. This territory's population was overwhelmingly aboriginal, and there were no large British settlements there at this time.

dlpm0207

Some things to consider:

  1. Canada has a French history that the lower American colonies didn't share.
  2. Canadian cities were providing different exports to England and were not being taxed in the same way or to the same degree.
  3. The land divisions in New England were different from today. Maine was part of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont were one colony until 1791. Northern Maine was claimed by the US and Canada after the Revolution and a number of New England Loyalists moved north.
  4. The St Lawrence River, Lake Champlain, forests, and First Nations made overland travel difficult. It's 300 miles by car today from Boston to Montreal; almost 400 to Quebec. Ships from the east coast would have to go around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to the St Lawrence River to get to Canadian cities.
  5. The American colonies were unique from each other. Different areas from England and Europe settled different locations.