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Post-Confederation Canada (1867–1914) is the history of a new nation from its formation to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Canada had a population of 3.5 million, residing in the large expanse from Cape Breton to just beyond the Great Lakes, usually within a hundred miles or so of the American border. One in three Canadians was French, and about 100,000 were aboriginal (First Nation, Inuit, Meti). It was a rural country composed of small farms. With a population of 115,000, Montreal was the largest city, followed by Toronto and Quebec at about 60,000. Pigs roamed the muddy streets of Ottawa, the small new national capital. Besides subsistence agriculture, the economy was based on exports of lumber, fish and grain, and the import of investment capital from London and New York. Factories were small, except for those making farm implements. Overall the economy prospered in the first years of Confederation, but a world-wide depression 1873-1896 severely hurt the export economy, reduced the inflow of foreign capital, and reduced the flow of immigration. Economic growth of total GNP (in constant dollars) averaged only 2.4 percent per year, 1870 to 1896, then surged to 6.2 percent, 1897-1913. Part of that increase was due to population growth. The rate of growth of GNP per capita was 1.3% , 1870 to 1896, then surged to 2.6 percent, 1897-1913. The growth rate was respectable, but lower than that of the United States, and fueled a sense of disappointment that Confederation had not delivered on its promise of prosperity .〔Kenneth Norrie and Douglas Owram, ''A History of the Canadian Economy'' (1991) pp 293-97〕 Politically, the Father of Confederation, John A. Macdonald (1815 – 1891) and his Conservative Party ("Tories") dominated national politics until his death (with one interruption). The Liberals ("Grits") under Wilfrid Laurier (1841-1919) were in power 1896 to 1911, and then were ousted in a campaign based on anti-Americanism by Robert Borden.〔J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer, ''Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders'' (1999).〕 Francophones had a distinct and traditionalistic culture, led by the landholders and the priests. The Anglophones took pride in their Britishness and in their refusal to be swallowed up by the United States. Baseball and lacrosse were favorite sports. Cultural facilities were limited. There were only two public libraries in the entire new country; half the adults in Quebec could not read. Hard drinking in all ranks was the norm; in fact, the new prime minister, John A. McDonald, was sometimes drunk in public. Politically, the new nation was defined by its practicality, realism, and stoicism; it had little interest in theory or aesthetics. Much more important was loyalty to family, church, political party, and Queen Victoria. Historians later emphasized the iconic phrase "Peace, Order and Good Government" ("paix, ordre et bon gouvernement") as founding constitutional principles, but at the time it was rarely quoted. On the eve of the great war in 1914, the national population had reached 8.1 million. Most of the growth had taken place in the new western provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, while immigration from abroad reached 400,000 annually.〔See (''Canada Year Book 1914'' (1915) p xiv )〕 The great national achievement was the building of transcontinental railways that opened the prairies to settlement. The rich new farmlands made Canada a major exporter of wheat.〔M. C. Urquhart, and K. A. H. Buckley. ''Historical Statistics of Canada'' (Toronto, 1965) pp 14, 363, 528-29.〕 Issues of nationalism versus loyalty to the British Crown continued. So too did increasingly bitter disputes on language issues, especially the role of the French language outside Québec. Ethno-religious tensions flared between the Francophones and the Anglophones, between the Catholic Irish ("greens") And the Protestant Irish ("Orange"), and between the whites and the Asians on the West Coast. == Confederation == (詳細はAmerican Civil War. Britain also feared that American settlers might expand to the north, into land that was technically British but which was sparsely settled. There were also problems with raids into Canada launched by the Fenian Brotherhood, a group of Irish Americans who wanted to pressure Britain into granting independence to Ireland. Canada was already essentially a self-governing colony since the 1840s, and Britain no longer felt it was worth the expense of keeping it as a colony. Both sides would, it was felt, be better off politically and economically if Canada was independent. These factors led to the first serious discussions about real political union in Canada. However, there were internal political obstacles to overcome first. The Province of Canada had little success in keeping a stable government for any period of time; the Tories, led by John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier, were constantly at odds with the "Clear Grits" led by George Brown. In 1864, the two parties decided to unite in the "Great Coalition". This was an important step towards Confederation.〔Donald Creighton, ''The road to confederation: The emergence of Canada, 1863-1867'' (1965)〕 Meanwhile, the colonies further east, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, were also discussing a political union with each other. Representatives from the Province of Canada joined them at the Charlottetown Conference in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1864 to discuss a union of all the colonies, and these discussions were extended into the Quebec Conference of 1864. While there was opposition in each of the colonies, only Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland decided to remain outside of the planned Confederation. In 1867, representatives of the other colonies travelled to Britain to finalize the union, which was granted by the British North America Act on July 1, 1867.〔W. L. Morton, ''The Critical Years. The Union of British North America, 1857-1873'' (1968)〕 Early drafts of the BNA Act (British North America Act) showed that Macdonald and the other Fathers of Confederation had viewed the new nation as a kingdom, calling for the official name of the country to be the "Kingdom of Canada". Though it is still considered that Canada became a "kingdom in her own right" in 1867, it was felt by the Colonial Office in London that a name such as Kingdom of Canada was too "premature" and "pretentious."〔John Farthing, ''Freedom Wears a Crown''; Toronto, 1957〕 Instead the term "Dominion" was adopted. In 1879, July 1 was formally established as ''Dominion Day'' to celebrate Confederation. While the BNA Act gave Canada a high degree of autonomy within the British Empire, this autonomy extended only to internal affairs. External affairs, such as border negotiations with the United States, were still controlled from Britain. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Post-Confederation Canada (1867–1914)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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