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North America in 1774.Notice the British colonies that were not part of the Thirteen that would get independent : Québec (former colony of Canada in the viceroyalty of New France), Newfoundland, Nova Scotia (bigger than it currently is, former colony of Acadia in New France), Saint-John island (much later renamed PEI), Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon (to France, plus fishing rights in Newfoundland), East Florida and West Florida (conquered by Britain in the Seven Years War).There is also an “Indian Territory” because there were already rumors in 1761 of the future Rebellion of Pontiac in 1763, so it was a measure to calm indigenous nations in those areas until the British Crown would sign treaties to dispossess those nations.The border between the province of Nova Scotia and the province of Massachusetts Bay (because Maine does not exist) is unclear (it will only be set in 1842).There were lordships created at the time of New France around the Lake Champlain, so eventually the lords of those places would be expropriated.In the north, the Rupert Land is a territory devolved to the use of the Hudson Bay Company, that trades with indigenous nations (mostly Cree people), and there are few settlements, like York Factory.Louisiana, formerly in the viceroyalty of New France as well, became a Spanish colony in 1763 and became part of the viceroyalty of New Spain.The territory of Québec was restored in 1774 more or less to what it was at the time of New France (Quebec Act). It annoyed A LOT the southern colonies. It was the most intolerable of the Intolerable Acts.All those colonies are colonies just like the Thirteen, and in Québec city the (bilingual) Quebec Gazette published by the government tells of the news from New York, and the postmasters Benjamin Franklin and later Hugh Finlay would be in charge of the mail between Québec and the southern colonies.Details of the “Thirteen colonies”. Notice the provinces remain on the cisappalachian side and so they don’t have the same borders as the current states. Notice Maine does not exist and is part of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Notice Vermont does not exist and that Virginia is not split in two.The viceroyalty of New Spain in 1800. The map is not contemporary with the other two but it’s the same general idea. (The Floridas would be retroceded by the US to Spain later)There were troubles in Spanish Louisiana. The French Créole merchants revolted in 1768 when the new governor Antonio de Ulloa forbade trade with France and her colonies. After a victory from the insurgents (they managed to kick out the governor), Spain appointed a new governor, Alejandro O'Reilly, in 1769 and he would trap the insurgents in a fake reconciliation supper after which they would be all killed. The Superior Council of Louisiana, inherited from New France, would be disbanded.(The Nouvelle-Orléans Rebellion of 1768 in the game Assassin’s Creed Liberation)The French Acadian people was forcibly expelled from the British colony of Nova Scotia and other nearby French colonies starting in 1755, got shipped all over the word. Some fled with the help of the indigenous Micmac, and some other that were in the southern colonies managed to came back in the north, while other went to Spanish Louisiana and integrated into the Créole population. In 1764, Acadians were allowed to come back to the north.The Acadians that went to the north often found out that their former homes were given to new English settlers. Some Acadians resettled in other areas of the former colony of Acadia, and others went to Québec, in which they founded new parishes known as « Petites Cadies ». Think for example of the Saint-Jacques-de-l’Achigan parish or the county of L’Acadie.(Map of the Petites Cadies)In Québec, the population is overwhelmingly French, and integration into the British Empire would be complicated. The fate of the catholic religion was unclear. In the United Kingdom, catholics were officially forbidden from having any job in the government and in public institutions in general. They had to make the Test Oath and give up catholicism. Acadians knew that very well because since their conquest in 1713 and the advent of “Nova Scotia”, they were excluded from any public office. Québec was therefore a big problem. The only things governor Murray could promise was to allow the catholic cult “as long as the British law allows it”. They were forced to adapt. It wasn’t possible to manage such a big francophone population, with so little English, and exclude all and every francophone from juries in trials, from the management of the daily affairs. They had to break some rules and make exceptions. They found a convoluted way to make the exercice of the catholic religion possible. The diocese of Québec was considered a diocese of France. Of course that situation could not go on. They chose the submissive and collaborative priest Jean-Olivier Briand to go in England, and then secretly go to France (with the help of the famous chevalier d’Éon, the transvestite spy) and there Briand was made officially a bishop. Later, the Pope erected the diocese of Québec as a new ecclesiastic province separated from France. The bishop was not really bishop in British Law, he was called officially “Superintendant of the Romish Church” (an obvious derogatory term, since the catholics called themselves Catholic Roman and Apostolic Church), and it was a way to content the untolerant protestants. The French population saw no difference, since Briand was simply called an évêque like usual. Realism made it so that the British government had to allow the catholic religion, which they did in 1774 with the Quebec Act, but it was a big scandal among the British Empire. The fate of law was unclear. It was not realistic to abolish all the French laws from the Custom of Paris. The authorities hoped to ally with the high classes of the French society like the lords and the nobles (these two categories overlap but are not the same). New France was an Ancien Régime, feudal society. All these lords had their own fiefdoms. All of their wealth depended on the Custom of Paris. If it was to be abolished, nothing would keep their value anymore. So the feudal system kept going on. The lords were now vassals to the King of the United Kingdom and had to pay their hommage to that monarch. Many English and Scots found a charm to this quaint and well-defined hierarchy that was so convenient and became lords of many fiefdoms in Québec, however they often did unlawful things because they were either very bad to handle the Custom of Paris or didn’t care. The population in general knew nothing about English Law, so it would have been unconvenient to abolish the old Law. The French modes of marriage and inheritance were kept but the freedom to choose the mode was added, so English people could escape the French customs. The only thing everyone could agree on was to use from now on the Common Law for criminal matters, because apparently it was more gentle (and when I mean more gentle that doesn’t mean there is no death sentence). Eventually, the laws regarding trade would be from the Common Law. At the moment there were not many English colonists yet ; they had little reason to come and it wasn’t an attractive place for them. The governor would also issue licenses to trade in the Great Lakes, for now still allocated to Québec. In New France, the chronic lack of money would force the authorities to issue paper money (the first in North America) in the form of card money. However, now that Canada became a British colony, the French colonists would learn that France won’t convert those cards into money, so everybody was ruined in the process. In 1774, the governor Murray would create a Council for the Affairs of the Province of Quebec in which catholics would finally be able to be part of, and so several nobles and lords would join that council. It’s important to understand there is no parliamentary system in Québec then, unlike other British colonies.In then’s territory of Québec, there was one fort annotated on New France’s maps, the fort Chécagou. In 1779, Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable (a Franco-African mulatto !) builds the first settlements of what would become the city of Chicago later (from Chécagou). Chicagou was also the name of one of the leaders of the Illinois Confederacy.In 1763, the Ottawa military leader Pontiac and the Lenape spiritual leader Neolin would, with 14 indigenous nations, rebel against the British. It started when Jeffrey Amherst, commander of the fort Détroit, generally did no diplomatic efforts with local indigenous nations. He asked their approval for nothing, did not issue any diplomatic presents and worse, started allowing some agriculture around the fort, which alarmed the surrounding indigenous nations. It resulted in a war in which the indigenous nations took several forts. In Québec, the governor Murray would demand that five companies of 60 French colonists be formed. Some parishes would not collaborate with the recruiting and Murray would threaten them to strip them of their weapons. They went to Détroit in 1764 and did nothing there, and came back. Indigenous nations would be struck by smallpox and in the end, would want peace since the war was turning unfavorable to them. It would happen with the Niagara Treaty of 1764, in which the clauses of the 1763 Royal Proclamation, protecting indigenous nations against land acquisitions by colonists, would be explained to those indigenous nations.The US War of Independence in QuébecIn 1774, there would be a first letter from the Continental Congress of Philadelphia to the inhabitants of Québec (26th of October 1774), printed in 2000 copies. Several English merchants would distribute them while pretending to sell grain. The letter would point out no Parliament was created, that the status of the French laws was precarious and even appealed to the philosophy of Montesquieu. “Your province is the only missing ring” they said, and as for the catholic religion, they took the example of Switzerland, in which catholic and protestant cantons could coexist. The Canadiens were invited to elect delegates and to send them to Philadelphia. Simon Sanguinet said in his journal that the inhabitants of the countryside were impressed by the Bostonian rhetorics.(1774 Letter of the Congress in French : Lettre adressée aux habitans de la province de Québec, ci-devant le Canada, de la part du Congrès général de l’Amérique septentrionale, tenu à Philadelphie)The spy John Brown came to Montréal pretending to be a horse merchant and said :The French of Canada constitute a sort of people that know no other way to get riches and honour than by making of themselves court sycophants ; and, as the introduction of the French laws will give posts to the small French nobility, they gather around the governor.They [the people of La Prairie] appear to have no indisposition against the colonies, but they rather prefer to remain neutral.He went to La Prairie and the local priests asked for copies of the letter. Locals were neither for or against the Bostonians (that’s how we called them).The 8th of April 1775, Thomas Walter, James Price, John Welles and William Heywood, of the Comittee of Montréal, said in a letter to the Boston Comittee that they should not expect help from the Canadiens.9th of May 1775, the Ticonderoga fort (former French Carillon fort) is taken by rebels.11th of May 1775, the Crown Point fort (location of the former Saint-Frédéric French fort) is taken by the rebels.18th of May 1775, the fort Saint-Jean (in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu) is taken as well.The governor Carleton was alarmed. Québec was not ready for attack or defense. He noticed that if nobles we eager to stand with him, they were powerless to make the general population loyal to the cause of the government. (7th of June 1775)29th of May 1775 : a second letter of the Congress was printed. This time, it says that France is going to support the rebel cause.4th of June 1775 : the governor Carleton had trouble recruiting the militia in the district of Montréal, and the inhabitants of Saint-Joseph and Saint-François resisted to the governor’s orders. (Letter of the bishop Briand to Jean-Marie Verreau)9 of June 1775 : Martial Law is proclaimed.Simon Sanguinet noted in his journal that the inhabitants of Montréal refused to form a militia because it was not consistant with a promise colonel Templer did to them.In Terrebonne, the son of the deceased lord, Louis II de La Corne, would menace the inhabitants of prison and bounds for their non-cooperation. 300–400 militiamen from the nearby parishes of Saint-Louis-de-Terrebonne, Saint-Charles-de-Lachenaie, Saint-Henri-de-Mascouche and L’Assomption-de-Repentigny read the 2nd letter of the Congress, got enthusiasted by it and went to Lachenaie to block the passage to the royal troops. Carleton sent the 15th Regiment to them, they got afraid and went back home.In Trois-Rivières and Québec city, recruitment was also difficult.The 3rd of August 1775, the indigenous Kanien’kehá:ka of Sault-Saint-Louis (future Kahnawà:ke) gathered in Montréal and decided to attack the rebels only if they were attacked.22th of August 1775, 16 rebels attack British scouts near the Lacolle river.4th of September 1775, the rebels are now camping on the île aux Noix.7th of September 1775, George Washington writes a letter to the Canadiens (300 copies) asks the inhabitants to join his cause, saying that we were no fools, that exciting the vanity of the nobility was not enough to deceive us. He said that the troops of Benedict Arnold that were coming would pay for everything that they took.Meanwhile, in Montréal, the major Prescott sent to the captains of the militias of the nearby parished the order to levy 15 men per company, but they refused to obey.12th of September 1775, Schuyler, commander of the rebels camping in the île aux Noix, is sick and the commandment is transfered to Richard Montgomery. He’s quite disappointed by his men and wonders what would the Canadiens think if they saw those Bostonians.17th of September 1775 to the 3rd of November 1775 : siege of the fort Saint-Jean by Montgomery. Both sides have deserters. On the British side, Carte, Madore Desjardins, Adam Labranche, Joseph Hamelin, Joseph Chaîné and Cécile, all volunteers from Yamachiche, deserted. After the capture of the fort by Montgomery, the English would be kept as prisoners but the Canadiens would be freed with the condition of not taking arms against the rebels. (45 days of siege)24th of September 1775, Ethan Allen, with 36 rebels, tries to attack Montréal. He would sleep in the house of some inhabitant in the faubourg Saint-Marie outside of the walls, but the next day, 300 Canadiens and 30 English would defeat them and Allen would be sent to London as a prisoner (until 1778).29th of September 1775, a local Canadien in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse would speak against the government in the mass.18th of October 1775, the fort Chambly surrenders to the rebels after a siege of two days.30th of October 1775 : In the South, the army of Benedict Arnold reached Saint-Joseph in Beauce. Washington’s letter is read, the locals sell them all sort of products and there is even an old lady that sings the Yankee Doodle. The locals agreed to transport the soldiers on their canoes for 55 cents per man per 12 miles.3rd of November 1775, in La Prairie. The Canadiens of the Richelieu valley joined the rebel cause. In La Prairie, the inhabitants seem less enthusiast, but the fall of Saint-Jean impressed them ; they were starting to take the rebels more seriously. The Bostonian officer there praised the hospitality of the locals : whenever a soldier would enter in some house, the inhabitants would give them a bowl of milk and some bread.Meanwhile, the governor Carleton had the canons of Montréal nailed so the rebels would not be able to use them, had everyone go back home, burned the boats and had all ammunitions removed and sent to Québec city.8th of November 1775 : Benedict Arnold is now in Saint-Marie in Beauce, and he sleeps in the manorial house of the lord Taschereau. The local captain of the militia, Étienne Parent and his wife were enthusiast pro-rebels.9th of November 1775 : Trois-Rivières’ inhabitants decide to capitulate, but it will take them several days to agree on a text.The same day, the lieutenant-governor Cramahé writes :Possesing strenght, the rebels have on their side the canadian peasants, that neither the zealed efforts of their nobility, of the clergy or the bourgeoisie would convince to fulfill their duties. We could not either persuade them or force them to. Two battalions, this spring, could have saved the province. I doubt that twenty of them could take it back.10th of November 1775 : Benedict Arnold’s army is now in Lévis, in front of Québec city.11th of November 1775, landing of Montgomery one the île Saint-Paul in front of Montréal. Montréal is abandoned by the defenders ; it is useless to attempt to defend the city, especially since it was not designed to sustain an European-style siege.12th of November 1775 : landing in the Pointe-Saint-Charles, on the Montréal island. The inhabitants of Montréal send 4 delegates to enquire about Montgomery’s whereabouts. They are given four hours to write a project of capitulation.13th of November 1775 : Montréal capitulates (12 articles of capitulation). Montgomery enters the city trough the Récollets’ Gate. A lot of women come to see him to ask about their husbands or brothers that were made prisoner. The inhabitants of three faubourgs around Montréal congratulate Montgomery.16th of November 1775 : Benedict Arnold captures the Hôpital général de Québec, outside of the walls of the city.20th of November 1775 : Montgomery accepts Trois-Rivières’ capitulation.28th of November 1775 : Montgomery departs from Montréal with British boats captured in Sorel. The city is left to the care of David Wooster.3rd of December 1775 : Montgomery’s and Arnold’s armies meet.Later they start a joint siege of Québec city. The rebels will be struck by smallpox. From the 10th of December onward, the bombardments would become regular. Some inhabitants of Québec city would put on the walls horse with a sign saying “When this horse will have eaten this bundle of wheat, we will surrender.” There are so much deserters on Montgomery’s side, revealing all sorts of information, that he will be forced to change his plans. Rebels use a party of Canadiens of Livingston and some Provincials of the South to make a diversion on the Saint-Jean Gate. Meanwhile Montgomery starts attacking, it would be difficult to walk on the snow and getting past barricades and they would be prey of an ambush from Canadiens commanded by Joseph Chabot. Montgomery would die and his body would be found at the time of the new year of 1776. Arnold would also have trouble getting past the barricades, and he would be stuck in a crossfire. 416–426 rebels would be made prisoner. Arnold, wounded on the leg, would be sent to the Hôpital général. Some of the prisoners would pass on the British side and be added to the Royal Highland Emigrants.Meanwhile, in Montréal, David Wooster is getting harsher and harsher, grows impatient. Canadiens don’t know to whom be loyal to and it causes great disputes (Simon Sanguinet). The Americans are less and less welcomed. They don’t have money anymore. The failure of the siege of Québec city is hard on their nerves. The rebel soldiers start getting what they want by force, even kill people with their bayonets. In Trois-Rivières, some soldiers sought to steal all the food a family had.February 1776, third letter of the Congress, asking yet again that Canadiens elect delegates and send them to Philadelphia.12th of February 1776 : Moses Hazen and Prudent Lajeunesse are in Philadelphia to explain to the Continental Congress that the clergy and the lords are to blame for the lack of participation of the Canadiens to the rebel cause. The Congress decides to send Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, Charles Carroll and John Carroll (Jesuit, catholic, cousin of Charles). They will arrive in Montréal the 29th of April 1776. They will only stay for a few days, as the situation is now desesperate for the rebels.6th of May 1776 : British reinforcements arrive in Québec city.19th of May 1776 : Capitulation of a small rebel fort between the île Perrot and Beauharnois, after its attack by Canadien and indigenous forces commanded by George Forster. They also capture about 500 rebels that came in reinforcement.June 1776 : German mercenaries arrive in Québec city. (They would leave in August 1781, excepted some that will stay and be the origin of those families.)7th of June 1776 : Antoine Gauthier, a pro-British Canadien, betrays the rebels of William Thompson and asks his wife to tell he will be coming to Trois-Rivières with them. The Yankees are defeated.14th of June 1776 : Yankee rebels learn that German, Canadiens and indigenous are coming for them, so they decide to leave Montréal and retreat to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.18th of June 1776 : Rebels left Saint-Jean, after having burned the fort.The rebels will then go to l’île aux Noix and go back to Crown Point. The rest of the war will be conducted in the south.Between the 22th of May 1776 and July 1776, there was an inquiry by the governor Carleton about who helped the Yankee rebels in the colony. The commissioners were François Baby, Gabriel-Elzéar Taschereau and Jenkin Williams.In the parish of Vieille Lorette, Plamondon father and son and Pierre Drolet are found “bad subjects of His Majesty”.In Charlesbourg and Beauport, several inhabitants were sympathetic to the rebels and even took arms.In Beauport, the majority of the inhabitants assisted the rebels.In L’Ange-Gardien, 18 people were enthusiast pro-rebels.In Château-Richer, no one wanted a commission of captain of the militia.In Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, there was only one “bad suject”.In Saint-Ferréol, six militiamen collaborated with the rebels.The inhabitants of the île d’Orléans were more openly pro-rebels. Basile Bauché dit Morency and Louis Pépin dit Major even accepted a commission of captain of the militia from the rebels, and they were asked to burn it in public. The wife of Augustin Chabot, nicknamed “la reine de Hongrie” (the Queen of Hungary, a nickname given to women that would get involved in politics), did pro-rebel propaganda all over the parish of Saint-Pierre de l’île d’Orléans.In Cap-de-la-Madeleine, 7 militiamen were “bad subjects”, especially Dorval, father of Michel Dorval, that always made speeches against the government and that said the bishop of Québec was paid to preach for the King of Great Britain.From Bécancour to Saint-Jean-Deschaillons, few collaborated with the Yankees but a few. Everybody in Sainte-Croix was loyal.In Saint-Nicolas, Denis Frichet complained during the mass that his priest became an English.La Pointe de Lévis is considered very pro-rebel, very seditious.In all the Nouvelle-Beauce region, 35 militiamen were considered “bad subjects”.In Beaumont, 20 pro-rebels.Saint-Charles de Bellechasse was found suspicious : they attended the pro-rebel assembly in the Pointe de Lévis.Saint-Vallier de Bellechasse’s inhabitants were also quite pro-rebel and they took possession of the presbytary. The Gaboury widow, also nicknamed “the Queen of Hungary”, would hold assemblies against the government.Saint-Pierre-du-Sud was especially rebellious : only nine families were loyal to the King.Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, Rivière-Ouelle and Kamouraska were also more rebellious than usual.Over the 4492 militiamen reviewed for the district of Québec city, 757 were rebellious. Another commission was made for the district of Montréal, but the documents were lost.The French, supporting the Bostonian rebels, also tried to get the Canadiens rebelling. The admiral Henri, count of Estaing, wrote a manifesto and it circulated in Québec. D’Estaing suggests that Québec joins the United States. His manifesto is displayed on the doors of several churches. Few priests complain about that and the new governor Haldimand is unhappy that they don’t react more. The abbot Gatien of the parish of Lotbinière would even warmly receive the emissaries of the rebellious colonies.Haldimand would be worried. Now that France joined the rebels’ side, the clergy is less loyal than it used to be. This is why he stroke against the abbot Pierre Huet de La Valinière, priest of Sainte-Anne-du-Sud would be exiled to England, and would then manage to go to France. He would only come back in 1792 to Québec, now called Lower Canada.Pierre de Sales Laterrière, director of the Forges du Saint-Maurice in Trois-Rivières, would be jailed because he gave tools and weapons to the rebels.Fleury Mespley, printer, and Valentin Jautard, journalist, would also be punished. They printed pro-rebel propaganda, they criticized the British judiciary system, etc.François Cazeau, merchant in Montréal and Charles Hay, merchant in Québec city, would be jailed because they gave information to the rebels.There was also a rumour that the oath made to the King of Great Britain in 1763 would expire after 21 years.Joseph-Louis Gill, of Saint-François-du-Lac, would be arrested because he was suspected of delivering correspondance to the southern rebellious colonies.So was the doctor Pilon and Pierre du Calvet. Pierre du Calvet is especially famous because he wrote Appel à la justice de l’État. He is considered the precursor of all independentist thought in Québec, and the precursor of the Montréal School historiography. You can still visit his house in Old Montréal.The governor Haldimand wrote to the general Riedesel:“I am afraid there are too many of those individuals [pro-rebels] in the province and, since we are lacking room to accomodate them, I wish that we stop arresting more people, unless we have a well-founded suspition against them.”Bonus : Fictional Canadiens in Assassin’s Creed III (a game involving the US War of Independence).Stéphane Chapheau* (fictional) is a cook in Boston.*Although that name exists in France, it’s very unusual in Québec.Maurice (fictional, nicknamed Norris by locals) is a miner from Montréal that stays in the fictional Davenport Homestead in the game.Fun fact : The US was in debt to the Ursulines of Trois-Rivières since their raid in 1775, and it’s only in 2009 that debt was paid.