In the first episode of the Nationalist Film Board's new series, "Creation of Canada," we begin our journey through the history of Canada's founding in 1775 with a look at the events that led to the formation of the country.
00:02:00.000Welcome to the first episode of the Nationalist Film Board.
00:02:05.100And tonight we're going to start by reviewing episode one of Creation of Canada.
00:02:11.000It's a 1967 National Film Board series that is essentially a 100-year retrospective, or at least a retrospective on Canadian history from the perspective of Canadians roughly 100 years after Confederation.
00:02:30.880We're going to start by playing the episode in its entirety. It runs roughly an hour.
00:02:39.140And then I've also clipped some pieces from the video that I think are of particular note to go over.
00:02:47.180There's a few things that I'd like to draw everyone's attention to as we watch this episode and the series in general.
00:02:55.760First of all, there are very few value judgments in this series.
00:03:03.400Very rarely do they insinuate any kind of morality onto the history that they are observing, which is something that is extremely refreshing.
00:03:13.720When we live in a hyper-politicized, hyper-moralized version of history where everything must, you know, anachronistically suit the values and morality of whatever set of values dominate society at the time, which is what we see now in history.
00:03:34.700Everything is viewed through the lens of social justice and intersectionalism.
00:03:40.100So having this kind of perspective from Canadians roughly 60 years ago, looking back on their early history, is something that, while it may be dated, is refreshing.
00:03:54.340The second piece, both for the series in general, but also particularly for this episode, is that you cannot separate Canadian history, American history, colonial history from the European context.
00:04:13.240Now, this may seem obvious, but it goes much deeper than just these people came from Europe and they ended up in North America.
00:04:21.240The decisions that were made in Europe, the wars that were made in Europe, the cultural phenomena that were going on in Europe, all of these things have an impact on what happened in the colonies and they're of significant importance.
00:04:39.580And so understanding that we are not a rootless segment of the European experience, we are deeply rooted within the European experience is essential.
00:04:49.860And this also works the opposite way as well.
00:04:55.280You'll notice that there are events, particularly in this series, but it will continue onwards as we move through this series, that the North American experience also ends up influencing what is going on in Europe.
00:05:09.160And this is particularly important when we come to the end of this episode.
00:05:14.240So it's something to keep in mind as we go through it.
00:05:17.300And the last point that I would like to emphasize before we begin this episode is that in order to understand Canadian history, you have to understand it in the context of anti-American, anti-revolutionary politics.
00:05:36.880And this is abundantly clear throughout this series, particularly in the early episodes, obviously, when there is more hostilities between, you know, both New France and British North America and the American fledgling nation.
00:05:52.940So you'll see it immediately in this series, and it will continue for the first few episodes.
00:06:02.880And then you'll see it diminish, obviously, as we get into the 20th century and that hostility turns into friendship and ultimately close allies.
00:06:12.720So with that in mind, and without further ado, let's get into this first episode.
00:06:21.940It is produced in 1967, so it is somewhat, you know, dry and somewhat, you know, well, from today's perspective, you would say underproduced, but it is filled with a really interesting, rich history.
00:06:36.000And I hope you find it as entertaining and educational as I did.
01:05:45.880Well, I hope you all found that interesting and entertaining.
01:05:51.140I think those of you who are watching and didn't fall asleep appreciated that.
01:05:55.160Obviously, you know, part of the problem with these series in general is that they cover such a large swath of history that basically it's just coal notes.
01:06:07.120Like even, you know, that is a very broad overview of history.
01:06:12.980We're talking about a period for 1497 to 1763, almost 300 years.
01:06:18.760You know, the ability to get into detail in these things is very minimal.
01:06:24.580And so, you know, all these things should really do is lead you down rabbit holes, you know, and what you'll find is that, you know, your own history is this endless, you know, ball of tangled yarn.
01:06:38.600And you have to start pulling at threads in different, you know, places to get an idea of, you know, to really get an idea of the breadth of the history that you're studying.
01:06:48.720So, and this is true, obviously, for the earlier periods, you'll get into more detail as there's more, there's more documentation, there's more, you know, significance, there's more, you know, to unpack.
01:07:06.880Now, that being said, there's still quite a bit that we can get into in that series.
01:07:12.800And so I've, I've taken some clips from that episode to kind of discuss in more detail.
01:07:20.180But by all means, if you guys have questions or comments or things that you thought were interesting, you can throw them in the chat, regular comments or super chats.
01:07:28.800I'll try to, you know, answer them or I might not have the answer, honestly, because there's a lot, you know, when I watch these kinds of series,
01:07:36.880I learn a lot of things, there's little tidbits that I'd never knew about, obviously, and I start digging, you know, into it a little bit deeper.
01:07:46.580But to bring it back to, you know, the three points that I brought up at the beginning, the first of all being you, I'm sure you noticed that there's very little in the way of that, what I would call value judgments.
01:08:01.260You know, they don't condemn the actions of one group over another, there's no, you know, they shouldn't have done this, or they should have done that, or how awful it was of them to, you know, kill these people or that people.
01:08:18.100You know, they don't condemn the Iroquois for fighting the Huron, they don't condemn the French for fighting the Iroquois, they don't condemn the English for fighting the French, like it's, it is, yeah, Snitter just said it is what it is, which is objectively what history, you know, should be when you're trying to study it to a certain extent.
01:08:37.960But also understanding that, you know, this is how we became what we are.
01:08:44.160And if we start placing value judgments on it, well, all you're doing is sowing more seeds for conflict.
01:08:49.260So just looking at it objectively is something, as I said, it's very refreshing relative to the kind of history that you would get in modern times, which would insist on putting those kind of value judgments on everything that happened.
01:09:02.520With an emphasis on focusing, obviously, on the minor instances of Europeans doing it to non-Europeans, with the complete over, you know, completely overlooking any of those instances that go in reverse.
01:09:20.940But with that all being said, oh, the second element, I hope that, you know, wasn't lost on anybody that I mentioned at the beginning was the extent to which, you know, European continental history is woven into the North American and vice versa.
01:09:39.260These are not separate things that you can look at in, you know, silos, you have to understand one to understand the other.
01:09:45.640And one of the criticisms that I have, particularly of this episode, but of this series in general, is that they do mention it, but they just kind of skate around the fact that, you know, most of the conflicts that were discussed in that episode are in the context of European wars.
01:10:07.080And I'll get into that more in a second, but virtually none of these conflicts were happening in a vacuum of North America.
01:10:15.280There was something also going on in Europe that was causing these conflicts to spill over, or, you know, in some cases, these conflicts in North America led to the outbreak of conflict in Europe.
01:10:28.140So the idea that, you know, you can separate, you know, the conflicts from one another is ridiculous, and they kind of don't do a good job at saying that.
01:10:37.660But I'll try to elaborate on that as we go through some of these clips.
01:10:40.620Then, obviously, the third aspect, you know, in the Canadian experience is how much of this is rooted in, you know, the fact that we aren't American.
01:10:52.640And I think, you know, the first clip I have is the very beginning of the first episode of this series of Canadian history.
01:10:59.220It's not a coincidence that they chose this particular clip, you know, as the prologue for the entire series.
01:11:08.080And I'll play it right now just to kind of illustrate this point.
01:11:17.900Snow and wind lash the city in a blinding fury.
01:11:21.720But outside the walls, an army prepares to attack.
01:11:24.960These are the soldiers of the American Revolution.
01:11:35.540If they succeed, Canada will be part of the future United States.
01:11:41.920So that's the very first clip in the entire series.
01:11:46.940You know, it's important to remember that I think Canadians, even 60 years ago, were much more cognizant of the fact that we were founded in opposition to the American experiment.
01:12:01.160You know, and now we've become kind of pulled into its gravity and culturally dominated by it.
01:12:09.780And it's something that I think our, you know, generations previous were more potentially more aware of than we were.
01:12:19.780That being said, it's still a very subconscious thing within the Canadian psyche.
01:12:24.140And we see that as it plays out today.
01:12:27.400Hey, there's a reason why it's so easy for the liberals to tap into that anti-American sentiment and their elbows up bullshit.
01:12:34.560And it's because it's a deeply encoded thing in the Canadian experience.
01:12:37.700So when faced with, you know, what I would maybe refer to as American chauvinism, it kind of instinctively perks up this little fuck you attitude among Canadians.
01:12:52.580And that's, again, deeply encoded both within the French and the loyalist factions in Canada.
01:13:02.120So important to continue to remember that in context.
01:13:07.700But moving along here, the next thing I wanted to bring up, just because I think this is an interesting one, it's two clips.
01:13:18.880So I'll start with the first one and then we'll transition to the second one.
01:13:23.660Men like John Elliott brought the Bible and its message to the Indians, hoping to instill in them the precepts of a Christian life.
01:13:37.700For the Indians, the religious message might sometimes seem puzzling, but they sensed that some of the men who brought it had good intentions that seemed to promise a better world through harmony and agreement.
01:13:50.780Yeah, so for those of you who are maybe familiar with Converted Savages, which is a Devin Stack episode, probably see the interesting kind of irony of that clip.
01:14:12.140And if you were paying close attention, the irony probably wasn't lost on you just in that episode itself as a contained entity.
01:14:20.640Because a few minutes, just a few minutes after that clip of the discussion of how the English attempted to bring Puritan Christianity to the aboriginals who lived in the southern colonies.
01:14:41.640Well, a lot of them ended up going to war and the obvious big one here is the Jamestown Massacre of 1622.
01:14:51.700So shortly after the establishment at the colony of Jamestown in 1619 in Virginia, three years later, I believe it was, the Indians tried to massacre the entire colony and they killed roughly a third of it.
01:15:06.320So this idea that you were going to somehow Christianize the aboriginals or the Indians and then they would magically be like Europeans or something was quite foolish.
01:15:27.040And here's the second clip that goes along with it just to kind of illustrate that point from this episode itself.
01:15:36.320Many of you pointed out as well that, you know, there's a difference as well between the French colonial experiment and the English colonial experiment.
01:16:02.540Now, a lot of you were saying, oh, English are based, you know, because, you know, I think they said it a couple of times in the episode, you know, to the English, the only good Indian was a dead Indian to the French.
01:16:15.200The only good Indian was a living one.
01:16:17.900This makes sense in the context of how they were trying to carry out their their colonies.
01:16:25.240The French colonies were based on trade.
01:16:27.960That was the primary motivating factor behind them, as we saw.
01:16:33.960We'll get into this actually shortly, but it was trade itself that was the purpose of it.
01:16:41.580And without the Indians to show them or to provide them new sources of pelts, the colony wouldn't have survived.
01:16:51.400So the idea that they would be hostile towards them and not have good relations with them was counterintuitive, whereas the English experiment was more about settlement and establishing footholds within the continent.
01:17:05.820So that's why you will see that hostility.
01:17:09.300The English were taking and holding ground, whereas the French were much, obviously, much less populated and weren't necessarily trying to enter into Indian territory and then hold it and settle it.
01:17:24.580So. Two different approaches lead to, you know, two different philosophies when it comes to it.
01:17:31.080And as we saw, you know, the as much as it may sound based or, you know, it may sound hardcore, as we know, the English were not necessarily completely adverse to working with them.
01:17:42.420And, you know, as time went on, they did, in fact, work with them, which is why they were arming the Iroquois against the Huron and the French and vice versa.
01:17:50.500So both made alliances as was necessary to expand.
01:17:55.460So it's easy to, you know, conflate the French with being soft or something, but it was simply a reality of what their purpose was in the continent at that time.
01:18:05.840So, yeah, and yeah, we'll move right along here because that's the next clip I have here is understanding as well.
01:18:19.680I guess one of the good things about this series is that it doesn't do the kumbaya, noble savage.
01:18:24.460They were all peaceful and loving before Europeans and then, you know, et cetera.
01:18:29.320This is, you know, kind of subtly hinted at here, but it is mentioned.
01:18:34.800But even before this, Jacques Cartier of France, dreaming of diamonds and gold as he approached America, had discovered another good reason for setting foot on the continent.
01:18:46.020The Indians he found there were without the simplest of metal tools.
01:18:50.780For these, they showed themselves almost pitifully eager to trade.
01:18:59.920But it was far from Europe and the voyage was hard.
01:19:03.200What could the Indians possibly offer to make it worthwhile?
01:19:08.980Well, obviously, the answer to that last question was pelts, in particular beaver pelts.
01:19:15.960But this is it's interesting because we've just, you know, passed truth and reconciliation bullshit day a month ago or whatever it was.
01:19:26.400And at the time, there was a clip going around that I played it on a stream where some, you know, Indian in B.C. was complaining about how, you know, we get somebody.
01:19:37.480Some politician had said something like, you know, we gave you the light bulb and she said, well, we never asked for that.
01:19:44.400You asked for everything that Europeans could give you.
01:19:47.440It's part of the reason why, you know.
01:19:49.320You had the relations with them that you did.
01:19:52.340It's part of the reason why it was worthwhile for, in particular, the French to continue expanding.
01:19:58.060They could bring goods that they could manufacture cheaply and get something extremely valuable to them out of it.
01:20:03.960So if it wasn't for like you demanding goods, there's a chance that, you know, expansion, at least in the Canadian experience, wouldn't have happened as it did.
01:20:13.740But you motivated, like the Indians themselves motivated, you know, European expansion into the continent.
01:20:20.180So it's just, again, something worth bringing up because, like, you were as much a part of this process or sorry, maybe not you were as much a part of this process, but you willingly took part in this process on both sides, whether it was Iroquois, Algonquin, Huron, you know, it doesn't matter.
01:20:41.760You were involved in the process the entire time and, you know, didn't like the outcome at the end.
01:23:46.220This is longer than many of the nation states in Europe existed in their current forms.
01:23:52.120Some ethnogenesis of European cultures and, you know, ethnicities across the globe are younger than that.
01:23:59.900A good example of this would be something like Jamaicans or Haitians.
01:24:05.780You know, nobody would deny that Haitians are a distinct people with an ethnic identity in modern times.
01:24:13.480And it's the same age as any European ethnicity existing in the colonial world, particularly, well, in North America anyways.
01:24:22.520So why is it that one is valid and not the other?
01:24:24.980And the answer, of course, is that they hate white people.
01:24:27.520So, but yeah, the other thing that I wanted to mention on that as well, just a theme going forward, because this will come up again a couple times, is God damn the French were indomitable.
01:24:46.340So, when you understand, I'll play this clip and then we'll talk more about it.
01:24:54.180But if you were paying attention during that episode, you'll notice that much of the exploration and discovery, you know, throughout the interior of the North American continent was carried out by the French, not the English.
01:25:08.360Um, Radisson, Champlain, Laverandre, um, you know, even Hudson's Bay, right?
01:25:17.600So Hudson's Bay discovered by, was it Radisson?
01:25:22.360The English are the ones who took advantage of that discovery, but it was the French who made it.
01:25:27.760So I do find that like interesting that particularly, not so much in the, the, uh, naval exploration, but in the, the interior exploration of the continent, you'll find that it was the French that were making these insane journeys that just are a celebration of the human spirit.
01:25:49.560Right? Right. Um, so we'll, we'll get into that more, uh, in a second, but I'll play this clip and it'll, it'll show, I'll, I'll show you what I'm talking about.
01:25:59.180Champlain's canoe carried him up the Ottawa river, across Lake Huron, and back through much of what is now the province of Ontario.
01:26:08.260This route would serve missionaries as well as fur traders, but the French had also brought their religion with them.
01:26:19.560It was mainly among the Hurons that the Jesuit missionaries preached their zealous, crusading Catholicism.
01:26:26.460Their work could not help but have its effect on the fur trade, for the missionaries and the traders had one aim in common, securing the goodwill of the Indians.
01:26:37.620When the Indians responded favorably to the missionaries, the fur traders stood to benefit, and it worked the other way around as well.
01:27:01.100Linked together in a harmonious pattern in French North America.
01:27:05.180A pattern very different from that of the English colonies to the south.
01:27:08.540Yeah, so obviously that ties into what we were talking about before, about the difference in colonial tactics or, you know, expansionary tactics between the French and the English.
01:27:20.040The French being more trade and exploration driven and the English being more settlement and, you know, agriculture driven.
01:27:28.460But the first part of that clip that is interesting is, I'll just play it again just for a second.
01:28:20.040What an absurd, insane journey to do in those conditions.
01:28:26.600And, like, it's the kind of thing that, like, you can't even grasp it today.
01:28:30.040Because if you were to do, like, a 10-day canoe trip with, like, modern technology and navigation and all this stuff, that would be, like, a crazy thing to do, right?
01:28:41.680I'm going to go on a 10-day or three-week or whatever portage trip, you know, through.
01:28:46.220So, like, you have all the benefits of, like, if you get in trouble, there's probably a town nearby.
01:28:52.460You might be able to get supplies if you need to.
01:28:54.940You'll be able to get help if you, like, all of these things.
01:28:57.780Like, imagine just setting off with, you know, 50, a retinue of 50 guys into unknown territory and just hoping you find a way back.
01:29:05.800And, you know, it all works out insane.
01:29:09.840So, like, when you understand, just drive that.
01:29:14.660You know, it's the kind of thing that if you were to drive that territory, you'd be like, hold.
01:29:45.040The last thing as well there, too, I think it's an interesting point because it talks about how, you know, there was a, there was a mutually beneficial relationship between the missionaries and the traders.
01:30:07.780I feel like this is maybe something that is a little bit whitewashed.
01:30:13.260I think that it's much more likely that the reason the Indians were open to hearing, you know, the biblical word and to listen to these missionaries is because of the trade that was being brought.
01:30:29.420I doubt that many of them were convinced, you know, to engage in trade because of the word of God, you know, words from a book that they couldn't even read.
01:30:42.180I think that probably trade is what motivated them to listen to the preachers or the missionaries.
01:30:49.940And even more so, I bet you that a lot of them wouldn't have listened to the missionaries at all if it wasn't for the prospect of trade.
01:30:57.600And I suspect that in some circumstances, trade was withheld, you know, without, you know, if hear us out and, you know, let us introduce you to the word of God or no trade.
01:31:09.160I don't know, I don't know, I find that very unlikely.
01:31:15.320But that was just my kind of, when I saw that, that was just kind of my opinion.
01:31:19.540But hey, I don't know, maybe they just heard it.
01:31:30.100Real pieces, they heard Jesus turned water into wine and they were immediately interested, perhaps.
01:31:49.860All right, let's keep it rolling, though.
01:31:55.400Yeah, this is obviously ties into what I was just kind of talking about, which is the primary motivating factor, you know, between having the Indians wanting to have good relations with the Europeans is access to tools and trade that they couldn't have produced on their own.
01:32:10.740The spires of Quebec and the Indian families camped around them seemed to symbolize a natural partnership between the white man and the red, one that preserved and even enriched the Indian way of life.
01:32:33.940The wonderful goods the French brought from Europe were soon no longer luxuries for the Indians, but necessities, avidly sought by all.
01:32:43.180Dealing in them was easier than hunting and very profitable for the middlemen.
01:32:47.520For wherever trade flows, middlemen arise, and before long there were bloody wars among the Indians, with the middleman role as prize.
01:33:03.200These trade wars were between old tribal enemies.
01:33:07.700Soon after they began, Champlain's guns helped his Algonquin friends score an easy victory over a startled band of Iroquois.
01:33:15.520From then on, the Iroquois, most powerful Indian nation in America, were the sworn enemies of the French.
01:33:25.460Yeah, so the thing I think is interesting about the way that's framed is that it sounds like the trade led to war between these Indian factions, right?
01:33:39.420But if you listen to the end of the clip, they mention that, you know, these wars were fought along old tribal, like, you know, old enemy tribal lines.
01:33:48.780So it's like, well, what were they fighting about before?
01:33:50.760And obviously the answer is they were always fighting.
01:33:53.100This just became the new reason to fight.
01:33:55.320So prior to, you know, the desire to be the middleman in trade between Europeans and other tribes being the reason for them to be at war, before that they were at war over game and territory, right?
01:34:11.320The same as every other, you know, civilization or, you know, tribal peoples in the world.
01:34:19.520That's what every war is fought over, trade, territory, et cetera.
01:34:23.760So this idea that Europeans introduced, you know, that kind of conflict, that's almost seems how it's framed.
01:36:29.340It's a little genocide over some trade.
01:36:31.700So obviously, part of the interesting thing about this clip, because in the grand scheme of things, it's not as relevant as many other things from this time period.
01:36:44.860But, you know, again, it kind of drives home this idea that colonial expansion into North America was not something that was just done, obviously, by the French and the English.
01:36:57.340Although that's often how it's portrayed in the context of Canada and America as well, to a certain extent.
01:37:06.880But obviously, this was something that was being done by many European nations.
01:37:10.680Obviously, you know, the Dutch were involved, right?
01:37:13.320And we'll get to New Amsterdam in a second.
01:37:15.080But we're talking about, you know, the middle of the 17th century to, you know, the end of the 17th century.
01:37:24.460The Dutch were a legitimate force in European military and trade.
01:37:31.580So the importance of this is like, you know, it shouldn't be lost.
01:37:37.760You know, they were a rival at one point to these other powers, at least to a certain extent, as with the Spanish, as with the Portuguese, as were, you know, some other smaller nations.
01:37:51.360So it wasn't just a French and English, you know, adventure that was going on here.
01:37:59.720And yeah, I'll play this next clip just because it helps, you know, illustrate that point, you know.
01:38:08.420This came at a time when Holland was at the peak of its commercial power.
01:38:13.160In the North Sea, fierce Anglo-Dutch battles reflected the bitterness of the rivalry between the two countries.
01:38:25.780Across the ocean, New Amsterdam was a tempting target for the English.
01:38:30.640If they could seize it, the Hudson River route into the interior would be theirs.
01:38:34.820Moreover, they would be closing a dangerous gap between the existing English colonies, to the north and to the south.
01:38:44.240And so the English set about harassing and intimidating the Dutch settlers.
01:38:50.080The Dutch were unable to defend their distant colony.
01:38:53.340And when a strong English naval force arrived at New Amsterdam, Governor Stuyvesant surrendered this important gateway to the continent.
01:39:02.480The Dutch were unable to defend their distant colony.
01:39:04.820You know, so that was 1664, I believe.
01:39:11.120And like, obviously, the relevance of this, again, it's like, well, what does this matter?
01:39:17.900It's like, well, to drive that point home again about how, you know, what's going on in Europe is intricately linked back to what's going on in the new world.
01:39:38.400But it was at the end of the second Anglo-Dutch war, which obviously there was a first Anglo-Dutch war, followed by a third Anglo-Dutch war, all within, you know, the latter half of the 17th century.
01:39:54.080So, you know, like, that was resolved.