[00:14.11]Canada Becomes a Nation
[00:17.39]Before Canada became a nation
[00:22.75]in 1867, the area of North America
[00:26.80]that now composes Canada was
[00:29.09]a large expanse of widely
[00:31.50]scattered communities of
[00:33.36]British and French origins.
[00:35.33]It was an area with diverse landscapes
[00:39.16]that physically divided them
[00:41.13]from the north of the United States.
[00:43.54]There was little connection
[00:46.71]among communities politically or economically.
[00:49.34]These colonies of British North America
[00:53.49]traditionally traded with Britain
[00:55.68]and with the United States,
[00:57.32]very little among themselves.
[00:59.51]These colonies even had
[01:02.68]customs duties that, to some extent,
[01:05.64]restricted such trade.
[01:07.17]In the mid 1800s, important events
[01:11.55]and changes took place.
[01:13.95]Britain repealed the Corn Laws
[01:17.56]and Navigations Acts, which had been
[01:21.06]economically beneficial to the colonies
[01:23.80]for generations. Britain began
[01:27.08]imposing taxes on the colonies
[01:29.27]at the same rate it applied
[01:31.57]to all other trading countries,
[01:33.64]a situation to which
[01:35.18]the colonies had never been accustomed.
[01:38.35]From 1861 to 1864,
[01:42.18]Americans were involved in
[01:46.44]a major civil war.
[01:47.86]Britain had traditional economic ties
[01:50.38]with the southern part
[01:52.46]of the United States that
[01:54.54]provided cotton to British markets.
[01:56.62]In the meantime, since the war
[01:59.90]was essentially between
[02:01.22]the North and the South,
[02:02.96]the North resented Britain’s
[02:04.82]connection with the South.
[02:07.01]In addition, during the last year (1864)
[02:10.08]of the American Civil War,
[02:13.80]the American Government of
[02:15.77]the dominant and ultimately victorious North,
[02:19.05]refused to renew a tenyear
[02:21.56]free trade agreement with United Canada,
[02:24.41]the large British colony
[02:27.03]in the central part
[02:30.54]of British North America.
[02:30.99]These arbitrary events brought
[02:34.38]concern and even fear
[02:36.13]to these colonies.
[02:37.77]With the loss of traditional
[02:40.07]trading arrangements and the end
[02:42.69]of the civil war,
[02:43.90]the North being victorious,
[02:45.65]the colonists feared that
[02:47.73]the Americans might turn on
[02:49.26]the British colonies in retaliation
[02:51.34]for Britain’s moral support for the South |