French-English Relations

[1]

      In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier colonized a large area (Quebec region) of Canada and named it New France. Soon French citizens began immigrating over and the area was starting to get populated. The French were drawn by the huge land per family and the abundance of food. They practiced the seigneurial system of farming, using it very effectively to grow crops.

      Fast forward to the 1763, France loses the Seven Years' War and the Treaty of Paris is signed. New France was annexed to Britain. At this time, there were still many French people in New France, to avoid any problems, the Quebec Act was passed. The Quebec Act allowed the French Canadians to keep their culture through language, religion and politics.

     The Dominion of Canada entered WWI in 1914. Britain had just declared war on Germany and needed Canada's help in the war efforts. Thousands of Canadian men and women volunteered to help in the war and military training camps were set up. Three years later in 1917, Prime Minister Robert Borden introduced the Military Service Act, a law to gather 100,000 men across Canada to fight in the war. English Canadians felt loyal to Britain and thought it was their duty to fight alongside Britain. The French Canadians on the other hand, felt this was not their war and did not want to fight. This caused increased tensions between the English and French, the English claiming that by being a part of Canada, the French had a duty to fight in the war and that the French had to serve their share. This was known as the Conscription Crisis of 1917.

[2]

     Maurice Duplessis was the Premier of Quebec from 1936-1939 and 1944-1956. He was part of the Union Nationale Party. They focussed heavily on the four tenets of Quebecois culture; Farm, Family, Faith and Civil Law. Because of this, Quebec was fairly secluded from the rest of Canada. Their economic growth was very slow because they had very conservative ideas and did not advance in science as fast as the rest of the Canadian provinces.

[3]

     After Duplessis died, a new young premier, Jean Lesage and the Liberal party overthrew the Union Nationale. They started a movement for change known as the Quiet Revolution. The Quiet Revolution was a time of reformation in eduction, hospitals, status of women and nationalization of hydro. For example, schools began teaching world studies more and more hospitals were built. It was also during this time that the Separatist movements began growing and eventually the Quebec government wanted to become independent from Canada. This was turned down two times by the people of Quebec, the results being 60% and 50.4%. The French thought that they were not recognized in Canada so Pierre Trudeau introduced the Official Languages Act which recognized Canada as a bilingual nation, the official languages being English and French.

     The English and French have had a tense relationship throughout Canadian history and although Quebec is part of Canada, the English and French have diverse views on many subjects and it will probably be like that for a long time.





Photo Credit[1]:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Cartier.png/220px-Cartier.png
Photo Credit[2]:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Maurice_Duplessis,_1938.png/220px-Maurice_Duplessis,_1938.png
Photo Credit[3]:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Jean_Lesage_avocat.jpg/170px-Jean_Lesage_avocat.jpg