GO rD hIll
The COlONI za TION
OF CaNaDa
In contrast to the U.S. campaign
of extermination, the colonization
process in Canada lacked the large-
scale military conflicts that char-
acterized the U.S. “Indian Wars”.
Although many Euro-Canadians^30
would like to believe that these dif-
ferences in colonization lie in fun-
damentally different values, cul-
tures, etc., they are no more than
the result of differences in colonial
practises rooted in basic economic
needs and strategies. As can be seen
in the aftermath of the U.S. War for
Independence, there followed a pe-
riod of rapid expansion and settle-
ment. Following the consolidation
of the “13 British colonies along the
North Atlantic, and armed with a
pre-imperialist thrust (the Monroe
Doctrine and the ideology of ‘manifest destiny’), the entrepreneurs control-
ling the new state machinery dispatched their military forces rapidly across
North America”.^31
Canada, on the other hand, did not fight a war for independence and
remained firmly a part of the British Empire.
As previously discussed, the first major colonization of what would
become eastern “Canada” was carried out by France. Between 1608 and
1756, some 10,000 French settlers had arrived in Canada. The “French- Euro-Canadian: a term used to distinguish between descendants of Europeans
in the U.S. and those in Canada. - Ortiz, op. cit.