Quebec’s act, the drop of too much for the “Americans”

“According to the British colonial agent Benjamin Franklin, the Americans should have had a word to say about the governance to be established in Quebec, since they are the ones who have shed a lot of blood and resources in the conquest of Canada ‘”, reports the specialist in the history of the Francophone minorities in North America, Serge Dupuis, in a conference on the occasion of the holidays of New France.

We are the day after the Seven Years War, which opposed Great Britain to France from 1756 to 1763.

In the thirteen colonies. Therefore, which is today the United States, tension rises with the establishment of a new tax intended to bail out the chests of the British crown, while the colonists believe they are not heard by their metropolis.

To the north. Therefore, in the Province of Quebecformerly New France, the Canadians complain of having lost the southern fertile land and the western milking territories.

The British authorities feel that anger rises and that the revolt is not far away.

“To prevent the inhabitants of Quebec to rise up to form their own state. Consequently, join the Bouillonne American revolution, the government of Lord North supports [la mise en place] of the Quebec Act, which seeks to provide accommodation to French Canadians to remain faithful to the Crown, ”said Dupuis to the Soleil.

This law was adopted in 1774. Similarly, “More than 250 years later. Consequently, we can say that it worked, since we welcomed King Charles III this year”, launched the one who is also a member at the Chair for the Development of French Culture in North America of Laval quebec’s act, drop too much University.

Frustration in the thirteen colonies

The Quebec act is however perceived as an insult to the thirteen colonies. Nevertheless, even a brake on their expansion.

“The Quebec act is also cited among the ‘intolerable laws’. For example, imposed to restore order after the uprising of the Boston Tea Party,” says Serge Dupuis.

This legislative piece. However, which acts as a first constitution for what will become Canada, restores the seigniorial system, the practice of Catholicism and the perception of the parish tithe.

This has revived a strong anti-Catholic feeling south of the border. For example, since the Quebec act marks the end of the dream of Protestant hegemony in North America.

“The card of the professor of the Yale University. Ezra Stiles,” depicts Quebec as a blood -red wound which drips on the Protestant colonies, quebec’s act, drop too much in light green, and threatens them by surrounding them with all stripes “, explains Mr. Dupuis.

“We also criticize the Quebec act not to create a legislative assembly, as is the case in Massachusetts. The establishment of democracy was late, and this is one of the criticisms formulated by the thirteen colonies. According to them, we were forming a monarchist autocracy in the North and East of North America, ”he adds.

And the drop that made the vase overflow. and the most dismissed measure, believes Serge Dupuis, was an extension of the borders of the Province of Quebec in Labrador, to the Great Lakes via the Ohio valley coveted by the thirteen colonies.

“It was seen as a provocation by the Americans. while the British sought to create conditions of peace and coexistences between its colonies,” said the historian.

Between cooperation. quebec’s act, drop too much conflict

The Quebec Act is considered a trigger for the American Revolution, which led to the independence of the United States in 1776.

“‘Given that the Quebec Act is now adopted. ” wrote a reader of Connecticut Gazette In 1775, ‘there is no longer to believe that if English freedoms remain, it will be in the North American colonies where I hope the inhabitants will have enough virtue and forced it to themselves’, “reports Mr. Dupuis.

Since then, Canada and the United States have had a relationship made of love and hatred. For the Canadian political scientist Charles F. Doran. the history of our two countries is punctuated by cycles of cooperation and rivalry, as he exposed in the Handbook of Canadian Foreign Policy.

If some 250 years separate the Quebec act from the current tariff conflict. it is because we are quebec’s act, drop too much going through a more difficult phase today. But, according to history, a lull will eventually occur.

Carrying figures

Serge Dupuis’ conference came to close the festivals of New France. The director general of the event. Marie-Ève Jacob, has been delighted with the Fort Augenage since Thursday, accompanied by a more than perfect weather.

“All activities with Ticketing have displayed complete,” says Jacob. According to her. a sign that the event has attracted as much the regulars as the passers -by who, around a street, allowed themselves to be trained by the holiday atmosphere.

Each year. she explains, the organization seeks to renew the way of telling our story, whether with the audiovisual show The gathering of giants or the game The night of the traitors.

The figures seem to show that it works. since almost half of quebec’s act, drop too much the visitors to New France are from the Quebec region.