From ironmtn@bigfoot.com Mon Dec 7 12:27:47 1998 Path: brain!torn!howland.erols.net!newshub2.home.com!newshub1.home.com!news.home.com!news.rdc1.bc.wave.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: ironmtn@bigfoot.com (Mike Cleven) Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada Subject: Re: Timeline of Canadian history, Part 4 of 5 Organization: Iron Mountain Creative Systems Reply-To: ironmtn@bigfoot.com Message-ID: <36721821.227433316@news.nvcr1.bc.wave.home.com> References: <749rl1$lcq$5@brain.npiec.on.ca> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.452 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 118 Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 00:09:35 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.112.120.143 X-Complaints-To: news@home.net X-Trace: news.rdc1.bc.wave.home.com 912989375 24.112.120.143 (Sun, 06 Dec 1998 16:09:35 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 16:09:35 PDT Xref: brain soc.culture.canada:223439 On 4 Dec 1998 23:36:01 GMT, Foxtaur wrote: >1858: About 600 Blacks from California move to Victoria British Columbia. >One of them, Mifflin Gibbs, later plays a key role in persuading British >Columbia to become part of Canada. >1858 The Halifax-Truro line begins rail service. Chinese immigrants from >California arrive in British Columbia, attracted by the Fraser >River Gold Rush. Yikes. You do have a way of over-simplifying things, don't you? By mentioning only "blacks" from California, you overlook the extremely large contingent of West Indians who were the new Crown Colony's first militia (and the fact that Gov. Douglas was himself a mulatto and his wife was native). Your failure to mention the Hawaiians, Portuguese, and Scandinavians ("Dutchmen") who were omnipresent in the region is also noticeable......sure it's trendy and PC to talk about blacks and Chinese, but I don't buy into the "other people weren't important" attitude towards history that is typical of today's ethnic favouritism..... And by mentioning only blacks and Chinese, you (rather incredibly) don't mention _any_ of the hordes of Americans and Britons who headed for the Fraser Canyon and Cariboo goldfields from all over the world. In fact, you don't even mention the establishment of the Crown Colony of British Columbia at all, nor do I recall that you mention the establishment of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island (1846, concomitant with the Oregon Treaty, the circumstances of which you have also greatly over-simplified). It might also help if you did not describe the island capital as "Victoria, British Columbia", since Victoria was not _in_ British Columbia until the union of the two colonies in 1866; the correct terminology would be "Victoria, Vancouver Island". This might seem like nit-picking to you, but given the rather extraordinary and often-superfluous detail you've given eastern and central Canada, you might do us a courtesy by treating our history with as much of a fine-tooth comb as your own neck of the woods.......or else just leave us out altogether.......... There are a number of interesting elements concerning the early mainland colony that you would do well to mention here: - the restriction of overland migration from the US to "entry only via Fort Victoria", although some Americans _did_ come overland (a difficult prospect given the recent Cayuse War in Washington Territory) - the Fraser Canyon War of the winter of 1858-9, wherein American miners massacred natives, blacks, and Chinese, only to apologize for it to a poorly-equipped Governor Douglas in the spring (at Yale) - steamboat traffic on the Fraser was among the busiest on the continent - the establishment of New Westminster, Yale, and Port Douglas - various historical episodes involving Fort Langley (seige by the Euclataws, for example) - the commissioning of the Douglas Road and the use of the Royal Engineers to begin construction of the Fraser Canyon road to the Cariboo - the appointment of Matthew Bailie Begbie to dispense "British justice" to the natives and Americans (to prevent the region from becoming American) - come to think of it, you didn't mention the Queen Charlottes goldrush of 1850, either As far as post-1859 goes, you've missed out on tons of important BC history: - the accession to power of Gov. Seymour, who aborted Gov. Douglas' treaty-making process and shelved native affairs in BC for the next hundred years - the land survey scandal concerning Burrard Inlet involving Col. Moody and Lt.-Gov. Trutch (1862), who were later stripped of the lands they had pre-empted when the matter was investigated. During the survey, protests by the Chief of the Squamish resulted in Trutch using his discretionary powers as L-G to abolish slavery on the Inlet, thereby humiliating the chief and breaking his power (the Inlet hitherto had been clearly the domain of the Squamish chieftaincy). Trutch would succeed Seymour as governor, and instituted several precedents for British Columbia's avoidance of Indian rights issues. - the Chilcotin War of 1864 (in fact, you haven't mentioned any of the great recorded plagues of the 1800s in BC - notably "the mortality" of the 1820s (unknown disease; 98% death rate), the smallpox epidemics of 1842 and 1862 (the latter of which was among the causes of the Chilcotin War. - the union of the two colonies in 1866 and the quarrel over where the capital would be - Gassy Jack's landing on the shores of Burrard Inlet on Sept. 21, 1867, the accepted founding date of the settlement that was to become the City of Vancouver. You also make no mention of the founding of Stamp's Mill, Moodyville, or Barnet, which followed upon the Trutch survey (and provided the market for Gassy Jack's barrel of rum); the trees of Burrard Inlet are credited with providing mainmasts for the world windjammer fleet, which would have been impossible and inconceivable without them..... - the advent of the Pig War (the San Juan Islands dispute)....... Mike Cleven http://members.home.net/ironmtn/ The thunderbolt steers all things. - Herakleitos