Horton High School's Canadian
History 12 Web Page and Student
Resource
Chapter 12 - The Settlement
of the West
in the Ohio Valley and Western parts
of present-day Canada, expansion was based largely on companies competing
with each other for the fur trade.
the St. Lawrence and parts of the
Canadian Shield were largely controlled by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Many
smaller companies competed against each other, which only served to further
strengthen the HBC.
in 1787, a group of Montreal businessmen
formed the Northwest company, which competed with the HBC. Established
Fort William as their main post. Many French traders moved west with the
NWC, and worked alongside the native peoples. Many intermarried. The biracial
peoples thereafter came to be known as the Metis.
settlements began throughout the
immediate west. In 1801, Alexander Mackenzie was knighted for his western
expansion into the Canadas.
the Selkirk Settlement was established
in 1811. This large territory, which took in areas of present-day Minnesota,
Manitoba and North Dakota, was 116,000 square miles. Selkirk was a rich
Scot who purchased this land to be settled by Irish and Scots from their
homelands. This was established along the Red River Valley. The NWC saw
this as an advance on their lands, thus they began a propaganda campaign
in Europe, warning potential settlers of the harsh winters awaiting them.
NWC workers, called "Nor’Westers", began raiding the Selkirk settlement,
along with the support of the Metis. In 1816, the Governor of Upper Canada,
Robert Semple, along with 20 others, were killed when they ran into a group
of angry Metis near Fort Douglas. Selkirk responded by sending seasoned
veterans of the War of 1812 into the settlement, and captured the NWC post
at Fort William. They arrested officers of the NWC, which served to quiet
the Metis and the NWC. The settlement proceeded without major obstacles
thereafter.
