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Self-Rule for
British Colonies
MAIN IDEA
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
Britain allowed self-rule in Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand but
delayed independence for Ireland.
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
are strong democracies today, while
Ireland is divided and troubled.
TERMS & NAMES
•
•
•
•
•
dominion
Maori
Aborigine
penal colony
home rule
SETTING THE STAGE By 1800, Great Britain had colonies around the world. These
included small outposts in Africa and Asia. In these areas, the British managed trade
with the local peoples, but they had little influence over the population at large. In the
colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, on the other hand, European
colonists had overrun and replaced the native populations. As Britain industrialized
and prospered in the 1800s, so did these colonies. Like the United States, which had
already broken away from British rule, some of these colonies were becoming strong
enough to stand on their own.
Canada Struggles for Self-Rule
Canada was originally home to many Native American peoples, including the
Algonquin, Huron, Cree, Blackfoot, and Inuit. The first European country to colonize
Canada was France. Great Britain took possession of the country in 1763, following the
French and Indian War. The thousands of French who remained there lived mostly in
the lower St. Lawrence Valley. Many English-speaking colonists arrived in Canada after
it came under British rule. Some came from Great Britain, and others were Americans
who had stayed loyal to Britain after the American Revolution. They settled separately
from the French—mostly along the Atlantic seaboard and north of the Great Lakes.
The earliest French colonists had included many fur trappers and missionaries. They tended to live among the Native Americans rather than displace them.
Some French intermarried with Native Americans. As more French and British
settlers arrived, they took over much of eastern and southern Canada. Native
groups in the north and west, however, remained largely undisturbed until later
in the 1800s.
French and English Canada Religious and cultural differences
SPOTLIGHT ON
Canadian Mounties
One of the most recognized symbols
of Canada, the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, began its
existence in the 1870s to patrol
Canada’s western frontier. One of its
first tasks was to drive out whiskey
smugglers from the United States.
The Mounties’ main purpose was
to prevent bloodshed as white
settlers moved into traditional Native
American lands in the west. Although
it was meant to be a temporary force,
the Mounties became Canada’s
national police force.
664 Chapter 26
between the mostly Roman Catholic French and the mainly
Protestant English-speaking colonists caused conflict in Canada.
Both groups also pressed Britain for a greater voice in governing
their own affairs. In 1791 the British Parliament tried to resolve both
issues by creating two new Canadian provinces. Upper Canada (now
Ontario) had an English-speaking majority. Lower Canada (now
Quebec) had a French-speaking majority. Each province had its own
elected assembly with limited powers.
The Durham Report The division of Upper and Lower Canada
eased colonial tensions only temporarily. In both colonies, the royal
governor and a small group of wealthy British held most of the power.
During the early 1800s, the people in both colonies, led by middle-class
professionals, began to demand political and economic reforms. In
Lower Canada, these demands were also fueled by French resentment
toward British rule. In the late 1830s, rebellions broke out in both
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
A. Clarifying Why
did Britain create
Upper Canada and
Lower Canada? Who
lived in each colony?
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THINK THROUGH HISTORY
B. Recognizing
Effects How do you
think Durham’s recommendations affected
French-speaking
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Upper and Lower Canada. The British Parliament remembered the
events that had led to the American Revolution. So, it sent a reformminded statesman, Lord Durham, to investigate Canadians’
demands for self-rule.
Durham’s report, issued in 1839, urged two major reforms.
First, Upper and Lower Canada should be reunited as the
Province of Canada, and British immigration should be encouraged. In this way, Durham said, the French would slowly become
part of the dominant English culture. Second, colonists in the
provinces of Canada should be allowed to govern themselves in
domestic matters. Parliament should regulate only in matters of foreign policy. Within ten years, both proposals had been carried out.
The Dominion of Canada By the mid-1800s, many Canadians
believed that Canada needed a central government. A central government would be better able to protect the interests of Canadians
against the United States, whose territory now extended from the
Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. In 1867, Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick joined with the Province of Canada to form the Dominion
of Canada. As a dominion, Canada was self-governing in domestic
affairs but remained part of the British Empire.
Canada’s Westward Expansion Canada’s first prime minister,
John MacDonald, quickly expanded Canada westward by purchasing
lands and persuading frontier territories to join the Canadian union.
Canada stretched to the Pacific Ocean by 1871. MacDonald also
began the construction of a transcontinental railroad to unite distant
parts of the dominion. It was completed in 1885.
The dominion government also took other steps to strengthen
Canada. It encouraged foreign investment to develop Canada’s rich
supply of natural resources. It also encouraged immigration to provide a labor force for Canada’s farms and factories.
UNITED
STATES
GREENLAND
(DENMARK)
Beaufort
Sea
Baffin Bay
Victoria
Island
Yukon
Territory
NUNAVUT TERRITORY
Baffin
Island
Labrador Sea
CANADA
British
Columbia
Alberta
Hudson
Bay
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Newfoundland
Ontario
Quebec
UNITED STATES
CONNECT to TODAY
The Nunavut Territory
While Canada expanded westward
in the 1870s, it also gained vast
lands in the Arctic north. Most of
the inhabitants of this sparsely
populated region were Inuit. This
native people had developed a way
of life in the harsh Arctic climate
over a period of thousands of years.
During the 20th century, the
northern region became important
to Canada for its rich natural
resources and as a location for
military bases. At the same time, the
Inuit wanted more control over the
resources of their native lands and
a greater voice in their own affairs.
In the early 1990s, the Inuit and
the Canadian government agreed
to create a new self-governing
territory called Nunavut in 1999.
The name is an Inuit word meaning
“Our Land.” Nunavut includes the
eastern two-thirds of the Northwest Territories—an area of land
one-fifth the size of Canada.
Australia and New Zealand
The British sea captain James Cook claimed New Zealand in 1769 and Australia in
1770 for Great Britain. Both lands were already inhabited. On New Zealand, Cook
was greeted by the Maoris, a Polynesian people who had settled on New Zealand’s
two main islands around A.D. 800. Maori culture was based on farming, hunting, and
fishing. Although the Maoris had driven away Dutch explorers in the 1640s, they
made peace with Cook. As British colonization began, however, they stood ready to
defend their land.
When Cook reached Australia, he considered the land uninhabited. In fact,
Australia was sparsely populated by Aborigines, as Europeans later called the native
peoples. These nomadic peoples fished, hunted, and gathered food. As they did not
practice warfare among themselves, they at first raised little resistance to the flood of
British immigrants who settled their country.
Britain’s Penal Colony Britain began colonizing Australia in 1788—not with ordi-
nary settlers, but with convicted criminals. The prisons in England were severely overcrowded. To solve this problem, the British government established a penal colony in
Australia. A penal colony is a place where convicts were sent to serve their sentences
as an alternative to prison. Many European nations used penal colonies as a way to prevent overcrowding of their prisons. After their release, the freed convicts could buy
land and settle as free men and women.
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Australia and New Zealand
to 1850
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500 Miles
150°E
140°E
130°E
0
0
1,000 Kilometers
G RE
AT
INDIAN
OCEAN
DI
GREAT
SANDY DESERT
VI
20°S
Coral
Sea
DI
NG
SIMPSON
DESERT
RA
N
Tropic of Capricorn
GIBSON DESERT
40°S
Great Australian
Bight Adelaide, 1836
Climate Regions
Rainforest
Desert
Savanna
Grassland
Mediterranean
Woodlands
Densest Aborigine or Maori
populations, around 1770
D
R.
ing Newcastle,
l
r
a
1804
Sydney,
1788
M urray R.
Melbourne, 1835
New Zealand
Port Phillip,
1,300 miles
1803Bass Strait
GEOGRAPHY
SKILLBUILDER:
Interpreting Maps
1. Place What is the site of the
first British settlement on
Australia?
2. Region What regions of
Australia and New Zealand
were most densely inhabited by
native peoples?
Launceston,1804
Tasmania
Tasman
Sea
Hobart,1804
170°E
A.
GR
LIN
Albany, 1827
GREAT VICTORIA
DESERT
Brisbane,
1824
L.. Eyre
NEW
ZEALAND
Russell, 1829
Auckland, 1840
New Plymouth, North I.
1841
40°S
Nelson, 1841
Wellington,
1840
South I.
@;@;
@;@;
R
DA
30°S
E
G
A U S T R A L I A
PACIFIC
OCEAN
Dunedin, 1848
0
0
200 Miles
500 Kilometers
Free Settlers Arrive In time, the
former convicts in both Australia and
New Zealand were joined by other
British settlers who came of their own
free will. In the early 1800s, an
Australian settler named John
MacArthur experimented with breeds
of sheep until he found one that produced high quality wool and thrived in
the country’s warm dry weather.
Although sheep are not native to
Australia, the raising and export of
wool became its biggest business.
Australians say that their country “rode
to prosperity on the back of a sheep.”
To encourage immigration, the government offered settlers cheap land.
It used the money from land sales to
lure laborers from Britain by paying
the costs of the long voyage. The population grew steadily in the early
1800s and then skyrocketed after a
gold rush in 1851.
The scattered settlements on
Australia’s east coast grew into separate colonies. Meanwhile, a few pioneers pushed westward across the vast
dry interior and established outposts
in western Australia. In the 1860s, settlers finally pressured the British to
stop sending convicts to Australia.
Settling New Zealand European settlement of New Zealand grew more slowly. This
was because the British did not claim ownership of New Zealand, as it did Australia.
Rather, it recognized the land rights of the Maoris. Among the first British settlers in
New Zealand were convicts who had escaped from Australia. In 1814, missionary groups
began arriving from Australia seeking to convert the Maoris to Christianity.
The arrival of more foreigners stirred conflicts between the Maoris and the European
settlers over land. Responding to the settlers’ pleas, the British decided to annex New
Zealand in 1838 and appointed a governor to negotiate with the Maoris. In a treaty
signed in 1840, the Maoris accepted British rule in exchange for recognition of their
land rights. Britain quickly established colonies around New Zealand. Many colonists
successfully turned to producing wool and other agricultural products for export.
Self-Government Like many Canadians, the colonists of Australia and New Zealand
wanted to rule themselves yet remain in the British Empire. During the 1850s, the
colonies in both Australia and New Zealand became self-governing and created parliamentary forms of government. In 1901, the Australian colonies were united under a
federal constitution as the Commonwealth of Australia. During the early 1900s, both
Australia and New Zealand became dominions.
The people of Australia and New Zealand pioneered a number of political reforms.
For example, the secret ballot, sometimes called the Australian ballot, was first used
in Australia in the 1850s. In 1893, New Zealand became the first nation in the world
to give full voting rights to women. These rights were granted only to white women of
European descent.
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THINK THROUGH HISTORY
C. Contrasting How
did the colonial settlement of Australia and
New Zealand differ?
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Status of Native Peoples Native peoples and other non-Europeans were
generally excluded from democracy and prosperity. As in the Americas, diseases brought by the Europeans killed a great number of both Aborigines and
Maoris. As Australian settlement grew, the colonists displaced or killed many
Aborigines. Sheep ranchers in particular took possession of vast tracts of land
for grazing. Both the loss of open land and the spread of diseases contributed
to the destruction of the Aborigines’ way of life.
In New Zealand, tensions between settlers and Maoris continued to grow after
it became a British colony. Between 1845 and 1872, the colonial government
fought the Maoris in a series of wars. Reduced by disease and outgunned by
British weapons, the Maoris were finally driven into a remote part of the country.
This photo from the
early 20th century
shows a Maori man
with traditional
dress and face
markings.
Background
The act that joined
Ireland to Britain created the United
Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland.
The 1707 Act of Union
had created Great
Britain out of England,
Scotland, and Wales.
Background
Before the famine,
the average Irish
adult ate an estimated 9 to 14 pounds
of potatoes a day.
The Irish Fight for Home Rule
English expansion into Ireland had begun in the 1100s, when the pope granted control of Ireland to the English king. English knights invaded Ireland, and many settled
there to form a new aristocracy. The Irish, who had their own ancestry, culture, and
language, bitterly resented the English presence.
This resentment grew stronger after English King Henry VIII tried to tighten
England’s hold on Ireland. In hopes of planting a pro-English population in Ireland,
Henry VIII and some later English leaders (including Elizabeth I and Oliver
Cromwell) encouraged English and Scottish subjects to move there. Large numbers
did, mostly to the north. Religious differences between the native Irish, who were
Catholic, and these Protestant settlers caused conflicts.
Laws imposed in the 1500s and 1600s limited the rights of Catholics. For example,
Catholics could no longer hold public office. They had to pay taxes to support the
Church of Ireland, which was Protestant. In addition, English was made Ireland’s official language.
Many Irish hated British rule. However, the British government was determined to
preserve its control over Ireland. It formally joined Ireland to Britain in 1801. Though
a setback for Irish nationalism, this move did give Ireland representation in the
British Parliament. One brilliant Irish leader, Daniel O’Connell, persuaded
Parliament to pass the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. This law restored many
rights to Catholics.
The Great Famine In the 1840s, Ireland expe-
rienced one of the worst famines of modern history. For many years, Irish peasants had
depended on potatoes as virtually their sole
source of food. From 1845 to 1848, a plant fungus ruined nearly all of Ireland’s potato crop.
Out of a population of 8 million, about a million
people died from starvation and disease over the
next few years. A traveler described what he saw
on a journey through Ireland in 1847:
A VOICE FROM THE PAST
We entered a cabin. Stretched in one dark corner, scarcely visible, from the smoke and rags
that covered them, were three children huddled
together, lying there because they were too
weak to rise, pale and ghastly, their little limbs—
on removing a portion of the filthy covering—
perfectly emaciated, eyes sunk, voice gone, and
evidently in the last stage of actual starvation.
WILLIAM BENNETT, quoted in The Peoples of Ireland
The Great Famine, 1845–1851
Fate of the Irish during the famine
70% remained in Ireland, though
millions more Irish emigrated
after 1851
12% died
18% emigrated
Where they
emigrated to (1851)
Australia, 2.5%
Canada, 11.5%
Sources: R.F. Foster, Modern
Ireland, 1600–1972; D. Fitzpatrick,
Irish Emigration, 1804–1921
Britain, 36%
United States, 50%
SKILLBUILDER:
Interpreting Graphs
1. What percentage of Ireland’s population died during
the great famine?
2. Which country received the most Irish emigrants?
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During the famine years, about a million-and-a-half people fled
from Ireland. Most went to the United States; others went to Britain,
Canada, and Australia. At home, in Ireland, the British government
enforced the demands of the English landowners that the Irish peasants
pay their rent. Many Irish lost their land and fell hopelessly in debt,
while large landowners profited from higher food prices. This situation
fueled even greater Irish resentment toward their British overlords.
Demands for Home Rule During the second half of the 1800s,
opposition to British rule over Ireland took two forms. Some people
wanted Ireland to be completely independent. A greater number of
Irish preferred home rule—local control over internal matters only.
The British refused, however, to consider home rule for many decades.
One reason for Britain’s opposition to home rule was concern for
Ireland’s Protestants. Protestants made up a small minority of the
population. Most lived in the northern part of Ireland, known as
Ulster. Irish Protestants feared being a minority in a country dominated by Catholics. Finally, in 1914, Parliament enacted a home rule
CONNECT to TODAY bill for southern Ireland. Just one month before the plan was to take
effect, World War I broke out in Europe. The issue of Irish indepen“Troubles” in
dence was put on hold.
Northern Ireland
When Northern Ireland decided to
stay united with Great Britain, many
Catholics there refused to accept
the partition, or division. Catholics
also resented that the Protestant
majority controlled Northern
Ireland’s government and economy.
In the late 1960s, Catholic
groups began to demonstrate for
more civil rights. Their protests
touched off violent rioting and
fighting between Catholics and
Protestants. Militant groups on both
sides engaged in terrorism. This
violent period, called the “troubles,”
continued into the 1990s.
In 1999, on the heels of a historic
peace accord, Catholics and
Protestants began sharing power
in a new home-rule government.
Nonetheless, tensions between the
two sides remain.
Rebellion and Division Frustrated over the delay in indepen-
dence, a small group of Irish nationalists rebelled in Dublin in Easter
week, 1916. British troops quickly put down the Easter Rising and
executed its leaders. Their fate, however, aroused wider popular support for the nationalist movement.
After World War I ended, the Irish nationalists won a major victory
in the elections for the British Parliament. To protest delays in home
rule, the nationalist members decided not to attend Parliament.
Instead, they formed an underground Irish government and led a
series of violent attacks against British officials in Ireland. The attacks
sparked war between the nationalists and the British government.
In 1921, Britain tried to end the violence by dividing Ireland and
granting home rule to southern Ireland. Ulster, or Northern Ireland,
remained a part of Great Britain. The south became a dominion
called the Irish Free State. However, many Irish nationalists, led by
Eamon De Valera, continued to seek total independence from
Britain. In 1949, the Irish Free State declared itself the independent
Republic of Ireland.
This poster urges
Protestant Northern
Ireland to reject home
rule. The militant tone
foreshadows the
continuing political
troubles in Northern
Ireland today.
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
D. Evaluating
Decisions Was
Britain’s policy in dividing Ireland successful?
Why or why not?
Section 2 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES
Identify
• dominion
• Maori
• Aborigine
• penal colony
• home rule
2. TAKING NOTES
Using a chart like the one below,
compare progress toward selfrule by recording significant
political events in Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, and
Ireland during the period.
Country
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
Ireland
668 Chapter 26
Political Events
3. COMPARING
How was Great Britain’s policy
towards Canada beginning in the
late 1700s similar to its policy
towards Ireland in the 1900s?
THINK ABOUT
• the creation of Upper and
Lower Canada
• the division of Ireland into
Northern Ireland and the Irish
Free State
4. ANALYZING THEMES
Empire Building At various
times, England encouraged
emigration to each of the
colonies covered in this section.
What effects did this policy have
on these areas?
THINK ABOUT
• cultural divisions in Canada
• native peoples in Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand
• political divisions in Ireland