MONDAY NIGHT LECTURE SERIES | ’COMPARISON’ AS A MODE OF INQUIRY IN THE POST-COMPARATIVE WORLD

Canada, the Revolution, and Creating the United States

FEBRURARY 8 @ 6 P.M. | Daniel Family Commons, Usdan University Center

The American Revolution is credited with creating two countries: the United States and Canada. The revolutionary process itself, however, was equally shaped by rebelling and loyal colonies. Canada, or the British colonies that later became Canada, exerted a significant influence over the direction of the revolution and the American nation that emerged. The Quebec Act (1774) enraged colonists and pushed them closer to outright rebellion; the failed campaign against Canada (1775-6) and Benjamin Franklin's Commission to Canada demonstrated the limits of diplomacy and encouraged independence; and Native nations caught between warring Europeans weighed their options and favoured protecting their homelands. At the negotiations in Paris to end the conflict, Canada also played an important role as a loyalist stronghold, a potential bargaining chip, and a desired acquisition. This paper, then, will explore the creation of the United States by comparing reactions to what was happening in Canada. Consequently, the American founding becomes a story of options and alternatives, influenced not only by the actions of thirteen rebelling colonies, but also by the loyal provinces and neutral actors who weighed their options, navigated the contexts and contingencies of the revolutionary upheaval, and ultimately helped create the United States.