Seven Years War
Treaty of Paris 1763
The Royal Proclamation
The Treaty of Paris 1763 and North
America
• Officially put an end to the Seven Years’
War between France and Great Britain, New
France (with the exception of Louisiana)
officially became a British possession.
• served to confirm that Great Britain had
become the greatest empire in the world and
that henceforth North America would be
English.
The continent's new administrative
framework was as follows:
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1. The Province of Québec had been declared a colony (or "province") and its
borders encompassed the Gaspé Peninsula (wrested from Acadia) and the St.
Lawrence River Valley from Anticosti Island to the Ottawa River.
2.Nova Scotia included the region north of the Bay of Fundy (today's New
Brunswick), St. John's Island, and Royal Island (today's Cape Breton).
3. The colony of Newfoundland included Labrador, the island of Newfoundland,
and the Magdalen Islands, brought together so as to control the entire fisheries
trade.
4. Rupert's Land remainded under the exclusive control of the Hudson's Bay
Company as a "private colony".
5. There remained a huge triangle (the Great Lakes, the Appalachians, and
Mississippi) designated as "Indian Territory", where it was forbidden to send
colonists.
The Royal Proclamation
• is a document that set out guidelines for
European settlement of Aboriginal territories
in what is now North America.
• initially issued by King George III
• the Royal Proclamation explicitly states that
Aboriginal title has existed and continues to
exist, and that all land would be considered
Aboriginal land until ceded by treaty.
• forbade settlers from claiming land from the
Aboriginal occupants, unless it has been first
bought by the Crown and then sold to the
settlers.
• Only the Crown can buy land from the First
Nations.
• an important first step toward the recognition
of existing Aboriginal rights and title, including
the right to self-determination
• sometimes called “the Indian Magna Carta.”
• set a foundation for the process of establishing treaties.
• I.e; treaty-making typically involved presence of both parties - the First Nation and the government, for there to be some
form of consent between the two, and for the First Nation to
be compensated for any lands or resources taken.
• designed and written by British colonists without Aboriginal
input, and clearly establishes a monopoly over Aboriginal
lands by the British Crown
Works Cited
• http://www.slmc.uottawa.ca/treaty_paris_17
63
• http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/ho
me/government-policy/royal-proclamation1763.html