General Amherst attempted to foster a climate of confidence between francophones and anglophones by outlawing pillaging and injustices, and by granting the same rights to everyone. On December 12, 1762, the British Secretary of State, Lord Charles, Count of Egremont, sent General Amherst the following recommendations on how best to deal with Canadians:

Please inform the above-named Governors [of Montréal, Trois-Rivières and Québec] to give very precise and express orders to prevent any soldier, sailor or another from insulting the French inhabitants who are now subjects of the same Prince, forbidding anyone to offend them by reminding them in a less than generous manner of this inferiority to which the fate of war has reduced them, or by making insulting remarks about their language, their clothing, their fashions, their customs and their country, or less than charitable and Christian reflections on the errors of the blind religion that they have had the misfortune to follow.

However, the governor modified part of the last sentence. He changed on the errors of the blind religion that they have the misfortune to follow to the religion they profess, so that the text, which was to be read in French and posted at church doors, might be better received. In any case, it was not possible to do otherwise; moreover, it was an effective way of winning over the population.

As far as retail businesses were concerned, they remained in the hands of Canadian tradesmen, who nonetheless had to obtain a permit from the governor and henceforth use English units of measure. However, the import business fell immediately into the hands of English merchants, in particular Protestants and Jews, who were already numerous in Montréal, hence their nickname, Montrealers. This mercantilistic practice was the outgrowth of British laws adopted a century earlier, such as the Navigation Act of 1660 (amended in 1662, 1663, 1670, and 1673). In keeping with the Navigation Act, all trade was required to pass by the home country on ships owned by the English (or Irish, Welsh, or Scots), commandeered by English captains and manned by a crew three-quarters English. The mercantilism and Navigation Acts were designed to protect the interests of the mother country. This system not only gave the Crown a monopoly on raw materials from the colonies, but also prevented them from competing with London. The French merchants either went bankrupt or they returned to France.

Canada quickly came to go by the name Province of Quebec. At the time, the word "province," in Great Britain as well as France, referred to a colony or even a "plantation" (in New England). Administration of the new colony was thus carried out in French. However, knowledge of the English language would henceforth be very useful in ensuring social and economic promotion; the Canadian elite of Quebec and Montreal slowly began to learn the new language. About this short period there is therefore little to say, as a kind of status quo reigned.

From this moment in Canadian history, the French term Canadians would designate the descendents of French colonists who settled in Canada—in any case, they had long ago ceased to be French—and who continued to speak the French language, as opposed to the new anglophone occupying forces and immigrants generally designated by Canadians as the English, and on more rare occasion the British. As for the latter, they preferred to speak of themselves as subjects(the Anglophones) or British subjects of His Majesty, as opposed to new subjects (the Francophones); sometimes, the terms British or Britons were used. From that time, the people of Canada and Acadia were no longer perceived as "French," but as "Canadians" or "Acadians."

Interestingly enough, the word Canada disappeared from official legal documents, as if Great Britain wished to sever all ties with the country's past. Beginning with the Treaty of Paris, and until 1791, Canada, henceforth comprising only the St. Lawrence River Valley, would officially be called the Province of Québec, the word "province" designating a "colony." Furthermore, in official usage, British authorities now spoke of "new subjects"—instead of the term Canadians—as opposed to His Majesty's "old subjects." In the decades to follow, the term Canadian would come to refer exclusively to French descendents, while other descendents were designated as "the English."

The Treaty of Paris was composed in French, which was then the language of international diplomacy. It was therefore an official document written in French that turned Canada into a British colony. On the subject of language, a separate article (Article 2) has this to say:

Section 2

It has been agreed and determined, that the French language made use of in all the copies of the present treaty, shall not become an example which may be allegded, or made a precedent of, or prejudice, in any manner, any of the contracting powers; and that they shall conform themselves, for the future, to what has been observed, and ought to be observed, with regard to, and on the part of powers, who are used, and have a right, to give and to receive copies of like treaties in another language than French; the present treaty having still the same force and effect, as if the aforesaid custom had been therein observed.

As was the custom of the day, the Treaty declared that only the legal document was in French. It granted no linguistic rights to the inhabitants of the conquered colonies, but this was not a problem for anyone at the time. French was the preferred means of communication among European nations and was spoken by the entire English elite. Not only did General Jeffery Amherst speak French, but like everyone of their social class, so did James Murray, Thomas Gage, Ralph Burton, Frederik Haldimand (a Swiss francophone), etc. who would run the colony.

Treaty of Paris: A French Diplomatic Success?

It should be emphasized that for many of the French, the loss of New France and of Canada was not a national tragedy. For some, trade with the Antilles seemed preferable. For Étienne-François de Choiseul (1719-1785), then secretary of State for War and the Navy, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 even constituted a "diplomatic success." It was all the easier to console himself because, for him, the transfer of Canada was a genuine "time bomb" for the British Empire. At the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Choiseul, speaking about the English, declared to his entourage, "We've got them!" Playing the prophet, he exclaimed, "The only revolution that will occur will be the American one, but in all likelihood we will not see it, a revolution that will once again reduce England to a weakened state so that Europe will no longer need fear her." For Choiseul, it was the fear of the Franco-Canadian military strength that kept the Thirteen American Colonies in the British fold. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 could blow apart the English colonial empire. As for James Murray, one of the key English players in the Conquest, in June 1760 he replied to a French officer (Malartic) who asked him if the English were going to keep Canada:

Overwhelmingly English-speaking since the departure of the Acadians, the colony had no trouble making English its only language. After 1760, the New England colonists had begun to make their way to Nova Scotia. They laid claim to the well-irrigated, fertile lands that once belonged to the Acadians, in particular, those around Baie Française, which had come to be known as the Bay of Fundy. Numbering around 9,000 (but probably 12,000), these immigrants radically changed the ethnic makeup of the Nova Scotian colony. For the first time since 1713, the colony was comprised of a British and Scottish majority that spoke English and practiced the Protestant religion (Anglicanism). Of course, the colony of Nova Scotia did not have the same linguistic problems as the new "Province of Québec" with its strong French-speaking majority. If one could simply ignore the Acadians, perhaps it would be possible to do the same with French-speaking Canadians.

In 1764, the deported Acadians received the authorization to return to Nova Scotia on condition that they swear allegiance to Great Britain. Some Acadians returned from New England, notably from Georgia and South Carolina; others came from the province of Québec. At first, they congregated around the towns of Yarmouth and Digby and continued to speak French. But by 1771, there were only 2,000 Acadians in Nova Scotia, less than one-fifth of the original population. A majority prior to 1755, they were now irremediably a minority. At the time, there was no question of linguistic rights. English was the only official language, although in private homes people continued to speak their mother tongues—English among the British, Scottish among the Scots, and French among the Acadians.

On St. John's Island immediately following the Conquest, 67 British landowners divided their territory into 67 municipalities of 20,000 acres each. They would always remain absentee landlords, only taking an interest in their land just long enough to collect rent money. As the colonists living on these properties were tenants only, there was little incentive to improve the land. In 1767, the city of Charlottetown was founded, named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III; Charlottetown would become the capital of the province of Prince Edward Island in 1769.

If the Royal Proclamation of 1763 made no mention of cold and inhospitable Newfoundland, it was because the British government did nothing to promote either the populating or the colonization of the island. It considered it "a large English ship moored near the Grand Banks," intended only to facilitate fishing while at the same time protect the lucrative market controlled by British merchants. Overpopulation of the island might affect the profitability of this immense commercial enterprise. Nonetheless, in the years after 1760, between 8,000 and 9,000 people spent the winter in Newfoundland, and the population doubled during the summer. During the 18th century, the population remained concentrated between Bonavista and the Avalon Peninsula, that is to say where fishing was most plentiful. Although the English language of London became the medium of communication, the fishermen spoke the English of working-class southwest England, a far cry from London English.

Rupert's Land remained under the exclusive control of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had no settlement policy. The Royal Proclamation stipulated that the lands granted to the Indians should not include the "Territory granted to the Hudson's Bay Company." The Hudson's Bay Company used English to communicate with the indigenous peoples or had recourse to French-speaking interpreters from the "pays d'en haut" (upper country).

Many of the provisions of the Royal Proclamation also affected indigenous peoples. It excluded not only the lands granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, but also the colonized regions of Québec, Newfoundland, Florida, and the 13 New England colonies. The Proclamation formally prohibited any potential buyer, other than the Crown, from purchasing lands belonging to indigenous peoples: "And We do hereby strictly forbid, on Pain of our Displeasure, all our loving Subjects from making any Purchases or Settlements whatever, or taking possession of any of the lands above reserved, without our especial leave and Licence for that Purpose first obtained." The peoples of the First Nations continued to use their ancestral languages in their respective communities.

At the time, Great Britain had 17 colonies and one private territory (the "Indian Territory"): the Thirteen Colonies of New England, Newfoundland (and Labrador), Nova Scotia, the Province of Québec, and Florida. Yet of all these colonies, only those of New England, thanks to its larger population, could really contribute to repaying the British debt.

At the same time, the Thirteen Colonies saw little point in anteing up for this costly British military defence system, which they believed they no longer needed since the fall of New France. The New England colonists had been waiting for a British victory to finally pursue their westward expansion. But they had not reckoned with the policy of the new king, George III (whose reign had just begun in 1760). He had decided to closely administer the colonies of North America and call them to order. No sooner was he on the throne than George III made known his intention to strengthen royal prerogatives.

In the first place, rather than deal with the expansionist aspirations of its colonies, Great Britain set aside the "Indian Territory" for indigenous peoples and even prohibited colonists from settling there, entry to the territory being guarded by British garrisons. One can read in the Royal Proclamationnorth_eastexternal link of 1763,

And We do hereby strictly forbid, on Pain of our Displeasure, all our loving Subjects from making any Purchases or Settlements whatever, or taking Possession of any of the Lands above reserved, without our especial leave and Licence for that Purpose first obtained.

And We do further strictly enjoin and require all Persons whatever who have either wilfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any Lands within the Countries above described or upon any other Lands which, not having been having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are still reserved to the said Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such Settlements.

Thus, although Great Britain had increased its possessions on the North American continent, it had not altered the borders to the advantage of English colonists. Instead, it was openly showing opposition to its colonists' expansionist dreams. This was the first great disappointment after the Seven Years War.

The second disappointment concerned the Quartering Actnorth_eastexternal link of March 24, 1765, which ordered the colonial authorities to ensure housing for soldiers of the British Crown. The maintenance of the English army during peace time, around 10,000 men, on colonial territories provoked numerous recriminations, especially since the Quartering Act allowed for the requisition of private homes to house soldiers. The London Parliament also adopted the Money Act, the Stamp Actnorth_eastexternal link, the Sugar Actnorth_eastexternal link, etc., all designed to help eliminate the enormous debt accumulated during the Seven Years War. For example, the revenue from the Stamp Act (which stated that a revenue stamp must figure on a multitude of documents such as permits, contracts, insurance policies, newspapers, playing cards, etc.) was to finance a third of the cost of the army of 10,000 British soldiers that Prime Minister William Wyndham Grenville wanted to maintain in North America. Moreover, in order to demonstrate its firm intention to collect these taxes, the British government sent its own customs officers, protected by its army, with special powers such as the authorization to penetrate any locality (private or public) to verify goods and seize all those that would be deemed illegal. To do so, the customs officers were armed with permanent search warrants (Writs of Assistance). All of these taxes were added to the Currency Actnorth_eastexternal link of September 1, 1763, which formally prohibited the printing of paper money in the colonies and deprived them of liquid assets.

If these measures aroused deep resentment in Canada, they caused a profound anger among the colonies of New England. Twelve of the thirteen colonies (missing was Georgia) met at the Stamp Act Congress, while Benjamin Franklin defended the cause of the colonists in London. In the eyes of the New England colonists, these acts violated the right of British subjects not to be taxed without the consent of their representatives by virtue of the principle of No taxation without representation, because the colonies were not represented in British Parliament. These acts thus diminished the independence of their colonial assemblies and were the first stage of a "plot" aimed at depriving them of their freedoms. As if by chance, at the same time, the Gazette of Québec, the only newspaper in the province published in a bilingual edition, suddenly ceased publication. The Stamp Act provoked such discontent that the following year the British Parliament had to repeal the law (on May 1, 1766). In reality, Parliament had not revoked the Stamp Act because it agreed with the colonists, but because it was in no position to have it enforced by His Majesty's army.

In repealing the Stamp Act, the British government thought it wise to replace it with the Declaratory Actnorth_eastexternal link of March 18, 1766. With this act, Parliament gave itself complete power to legislate with regard to British possessions beyond the Atlantic and "to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever." In fact, the British Parliament took offense, and in no way accepted the colonialist argument that their assemblies were legitimate and representative. In May of 1766, the Gazette of Québec resumed publication.

In 1767, Great Britain imposed new taxes (glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea) with the Townshend Actsnorth_eastexternal link (named for the Chancellor of the Exchequer or Minister of Finance, Charles Townshend), which only served to fuel the fire. As most of the new taxes were used almost exclusively to pay the tax collectors' salaries and to ensure their security, rather than pay down the debt, the New England colonists decided to boycott goods exported by Great Britain and pay no more taxes until they had expressed their opinions on the question of the absence of colonial representation in the London Parliament. In 1770, London abolished taxes on all goods, with the exception of tea, but British soldiers were sent to Boston to protect the tax collectors. These measures were well received in America and calm was restored, which led one to believe that the point of view of the "Patriots" had triumphed. However, the Tea Act north_eastexternal linkof 1773 revived the dispute in all of New England and led to the final confrontation; by way of protest, the colonists stopped drinking tea. If the question of taxation had taught them anything, the events that were to follow led the colonists of New England to band together against the mother country, and especially against the King of England, George III, perceived at the time as a tyrant.

4.The Québec Act of May 20, 1774, which modified the Canadian borders in favour of Canadians, Francophone and Roman Catholics, and did so at the expense of the Thirteen Colonies.

The English colonists could not accept that London would grant territorial rights to their former enemies of New France against whom they had fought some 15 years earlier, not to mention would acknowledge the presence of "Canadian papists on British soil." The merchants of New York and Albany were incensed to see their westward expansion blocked and to forfeit the Great Lakes fur trade to Montréal, just as prior to the Conquest of 1760. The English colonists could not tolerate that the Québec Act appeared not only to set aside any plans to assimilate the French Canadians but to legally assert the existence of a French civilization in America. They immediately denounced the "Anglo-Canadian collusion." A Boston lawyer wrote at the time: "Well now! We Americans, have we spent our blood and wealth in the service of Great Britain in the conquest of Canada so that the British and the Canadians might now subjugate us?"

This is why the Québec Act, like the other so-called intolerable acts, seemed completely unacceptable to the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies, who perceived it as a maneuver aimed expressly against them. This was not entirely false when one considers how the British authorities had decided to favour Canadians at the expense of the New England colonists. Still, the British had not abandoned their plan to assimilate the Canadians; they were merely adopting temporarily to circumstances. As British strategists came to realize that the Anglo-Saxon world was ineluctably moving toward war, they began to see Canadians as potential allies, the colony having at its disposal but a few hundred anglophone merchants and civil servants, the vast majority being French-speaking and Roman Catholic. Up until now, the British had failed in their attempts to bring immigrants into the "Province of Québec." And tellingly, the main provisions of the Québec Act were in part the work of Guy Carleton, Governor of the Province of Québec from 1766 to 1778 and from 1786 to 1796 (returning as Lord Dorchester).

In reality, having, at last, rid themselves of the French rival "who left one not a moment's rest" (in the words of Benjamin Franklin), the New England colonists refused to let the mother country prevent them from protecting their own commercial interests and fully enjoying freedoms they believed they had finally acquired. In other words, the New France of old, now British, still blocked the westward expansion of the Thirteen Colonies, and even served as a military base to a mother country that had become the enemy. Clearly, one had to put an end to this menace.