Becoming Canada (Chapter 6 Questions)

Invaders or Liberators?

(Discuss)

American rebel soldiers invaded Québec in 1775. They thought the Canadiens would see them as liberators. After all, weren’t the Canadiens oppressed under British rule, too? What did the Canadiens really think?

• The QuébecAct kept NewYork traders out of the fur trade around the Great Lakes. Whom would the Canadien fur traders and merchants support?
• The seigneurs had influence in the government. Whom would they support?
• Most Americans were Protestant. Whom would the Catholic Church support?
• The habitants had regained their language and religion rights under the Québec Act. Whom would they support?
  The Americans faced fierce resistance. On the last day of 1775, they attacked Québec City. It was a disaster! There was a blinding snowstorm. The rebels got lost in Québec City’s maze of narrow streets. They were easy targets for the British and Canadien defenders, who fired on them from the walls. The Americans called off their attack. 

0. Fighting in the streets of Québec City on New Year’s Eve, 1775. Local militia (wearing red toques) and British soldiers fire on the Americans, who attempt to scale a wall. Alan Daniels painted this scene 200 years after the battle. What resources can an artist use to find out how events happened?
   

Read pages 125-126.  (We read this yesterday) Based on the material you have read, answer the seven questions below.  Please use complete sentences.  This will be a homework check for next class.

(link to google docs version)

1. Why did the people of the Thirteen Colonies begin to resent Britain?
   
2. Why did the American rebels hope the Canadians would join their revolt? .
   
3. A LIBERATOR is someone who frees another person from oppression or suffering.  Why did the Americans think that the Canadians would see them as liberators instead of invaders?
   
4. Explain why the Americans called off their attack in Quebec in 1775?
   
5. When did the Americans win their War of Independence against the British?
   
6. Define “British North America.”
   
7. In one well-developed paragraph (MINIMUM of 8-10 sentences), write about what you think might have happened if Canadians HAD joined the Americans and fought against the British.  How would our national identity have been different?  What would have been some advantages of joining the Americans during and after this fight?  What would have been some of the disadvantages of joining the Americans during and after this fight?