French Quebec Nationalism a Major Turning Point Essay

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French Quebec Nationalism

A major turning point in the history of Canada was the fall of Quebec which resulted in the transformation of a French colony into a British colony. Had it not happened, English would never have become the first language of the country. The battle of Quebec was one of the numerous wars fought between the British and the French over fur and land during the 18th century. The fall of Quebec ensured the control and domination of British in major parts of North America. New ideas were brought forward by new generations who came in power and redefined the political scenario of the province. The Quebec Act was drafted by the British government which motivated the growth of nationalism in Quebec and since then, the nationalist movement has remained powerful and dominated the politics of the province.

Troubles in Manitoba

In 1870, the British government introduced the Manitoba Act under which the Catholic and Protestant system of schooling was to be unified. However, as Protestants dominated the politics, the government eventually stopped funding the Catholic schools (Crunican, 2012). This resulted in a lot of discontent in the Manitoba and Quebec regions and masses protested on large scales. It was only when the Liberals came into power did the Catholic system of schooling revived but the loss of French from the Canadian system still disturbed the nationalist leaders of the province (Crunican, 2012).

The 1830s rebellions

In the early years of 1830s, the habitants of French Canada (or Quebec) had to encounter stressful economic conditions, an agricultural crisis and severe famine and drought. Louis-Joseph Papineau led an organized mass of nationalists working with the and demanded more power and authority at apolitical level. The nationalists asked for a raise in the revenues spent in Quebec and the control of the provincial civil service. The killing of the local Quebec's people by the British troops during and/or after the riots also helped in increasing the tension and polarisation between the two groups present in the country.

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The situation was further worsened when the British government refused to achieve any sort of agreement with the French Canadian parties and took away their money as well.

Therefore, in 1837, a number of rebellions took place in Lower Canada in an attempt to reform the French nationalism in the area. Boycotts of British goods were organized and protest rallies held all over the country. In answer, the British called for carrying out military activities against the 'rebels' and arresting the leaders. The British burned down Quebec settlements and there was widespread looting and harassment of the families of the rebels. Although the rebels did manage to defeat small British forces but the rebellions failed against the large British forces result in tension between the British and the French Canadians greatly increasing. The people who were accused of leading the rebellions were exiled while many other participants were deported to Australia and the nationalism force was weakened.

Rene Levesque

Born in 1922, Rene Levesque was an important figure in the history of Quebec. He served as the premier of the French Canadian province and is popular for his active efforts of promoting sovereignty for Quebec. In late 1967, Levesque helped form several separatist movements, of which the most important was Mouvement Soverainete-Association (Britannica, 2012). His career in politics took a major turn with his admission into the Quebec National Assembly where he took up the responsibility of public works and later on, social welfare. Levesque and his party aspired to achieve semi-independence for the French Canadians in Quebec; the idea was to ensure a system in which the provincial governing body made their own laws, collected their own taxes and administered their own foreign policy rather than the British federal system. In return, the provincial government was to create an economic reunion with the federal government.….....

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