On February 10, 1763, the representatives of the crowns of France, Great Britain and Spain signed in Paris the treaty ending the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Two hundred and sixty years after its signature, the Treaty of Paris still remains for many the mark of the “abandonment” of Canada by Louis XV, despite the abundant historiographical renewal on the subject (still in progress) initiated on the occasion of the 250e anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
The term “abandonment” is disproportionate and should be avoided in that it does not reflect the efforts invested in reality to preserve New France. Between 1755 and 1760, more than 8,000 soldiers and officers were sent to the colonies of Canada and Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). This is much more than for any other French colony (for comparison, 4,500 combatants were sent to India during the conflict, and Saint-Domingue, present-day Haiti, received a reinforcement of 5,000 men at the end of the war, in 1762).
The “few acres of snow in Canada”, to quote Voltaire, have therefore benefited much more from the military attention of the metropolis than the rich sugar islands of the West Indies, so often decried in Quebec for having been “preferred” in Canada during the peace negotiations. Historian Boris Lesueur noted that in 1758, 78% of the French troops present in America were assigned to New France (Canada, Île Royale and Louisiana), against only 22% in the West Indies. Guadeloupe and Martinique, taken by the British in 1759 and 1762, would have much more legitimacy to protest against a military “abandonment” of France.
Far from an “surrender,” Canada’s sacrifice in 1763 responded to the cold realities of a disastrous conflict for France. Even if the diplomatic customs of the time did not guarantee the preservation of territories conquered militarily, the negotiations which led to the signing of the Treaty of Paris presented a particularly difficult situation for French decision-makers: Canada had been occupied since September 1760, French power in India was reduced to nothing, the main West Indian islands were under British control and the very integrity of the kingdom’s territory was compromised by the capture of Belle-Île in June 1761.
Even the late support of the Spanish ally in 1762 does not reverse the situation, the intervention of Spain ending in a fiasco and the loss of Havana and Manila. Under these conditions, choices had to be made, and Canada, a colony that was not very profitable and difficult to defend because it was too vast, did not weigh heavily against the West Indies, whose trade was essential to the finances of the kingdom.
The Musée de la civilization de Québec hosted the Treaty of Paris during an exhibition in the fall of 2014, for what was its first outing outside France. It is no exaggeration to say that this document is the most important in the history of North America, given its continental and global consequences. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 created the “Province of Quebec” and reserved the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains for Aboriginal people, despite the covetousness of British settlers who had fought against the French for these lands.
This U-turn by the metropolis, seen as a betrayal, largely contributed to the outbreak of the American Revolution. In turn, the existence and rise to power of the United States will worry the British provinces, which will come together in 1867 to form Canada. Moreover, there is no need to recall the influence of our southern neighbors on the world since…
Let’s also not forget the significance of 1763 for the Aboriginal peoples: from a legal point of view, this year marks the starting point of relations between the First Nations of Canada and the British Crown. Indeed, more than two and a half centuries of French diplomacy were brushed aside, and the political and diplomatic vacuum left by France was immediately taken in hand (awkwardly) by the British Crown, embodied during the first years by Commander Jeffery Amherst.
Administrators and departments responsible for Indigenous relations have replaced each other over the centuries, the latest being the creation in 2017 of the Ministry of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs. This succession therefore stems directly from the consequences of the Treaty of Paris.
In this perspective, the anniversary of the Treaty of Paris seems an opportune time to commemorate the old Franco-Aboriginal alliances. Not that they were perfect, far from it (let’s not forget the Foxes and the Natchez), but they were certainly based on a fundamentally different perception of the sharing of territory and a rapprochement between nations.
The historian Gilles Havard in particular was able to demonstrate that, for the French of the time, “the term ‘domination’, of course, does not necessarily rhyme with that of ‘subjugation’”. We can then ask ourselves if it is not possible to draw inspiration from this period to improve today’s relations between the government and the First Nations? It is a file to dig, certainly.