From Exploration to Settlement:

The Red River Colony

I.
A.

B.

The Founding of the Red River Colony

In August of 1812, Scottish settlers
reached present-day southern Manitoba
1.
began clearing land along the Red
River for farms
2.
arrived too late to plant a crop for
that year
3.
were poorly provisioned, illequipped to face the winter &
barely survived
Thomas Douglas, the 5th Earl of Selkirk
was the driving force behind this
settlement
1.
was deeply invested in the Hudsons
Bay company
2.
persuaded the HBC to give him
300,000 km2 of present day
Manitoba, Minnesota & North
Dakota to settle

C.

Selkirks Motives for

Settlement
1. poor peasant farmers of
Scotland were evicted
from their lands
2. this peasants drifted to
Britains industrial cities
or the USA (not British
North America)
3. Selkirk then used his
own money to help his
fellow Scots emigrate to
BNA

The HBC had mixed feelings about Selkirks Settlement

Positive:
Negative:
1.
the settlement
1.
settlement would disrupt the bison hunt
of the First Nations people (specifically
of a permanent
the Metis) who lived int eh Red River &
colony would
Assiniboine River valleys
help reinforce
2.
the settlement would complete with the
the claim on the
Metis for the same resources (i.e. bison)
territory
a.
the Metis living there provided the
2. the people who
NWC with pemmican (a mixture of
settled there
dried bison, meat, fat & berries
could be a
which kept for a long time)
source of food &
b.
if its supply of Pemmican was cut off
employment for
or reduced, the NWC would be less
the HBC
able to compete in the fur trade
3.

negative: HBC hoped that the settlers

would break up the prairie grassland on
which the bison grazed & produce farms

II.

Conflicts Among Trading Companies in the

Red River Colony
The New Settlers Struggle in the
Rough & New Terrain

A.

another winter of near-starvation

1.

Miles Macdonell, Governor of the

Red River colony reacts

B.
1.

2.

3.

in 1814 he becomes nervous of

more colonists coming from
Scotland
Macdonell is nervous of not having
enough food supplies for the
colonists for the duration of the
winter
he issues the Pemmican
Proclamation
a.

b.

outlawed the export of pemmican

from the Red River region
intended to preserve the resource
for the colonists

The Backlash

C.

Northwest Trading Companys employees & the Metis

relied on the pemmican to get through the winter

1.

a.

they ignored the proclamation

The Pemmican War

D.
1.

2.

Angered, Macdonell seizes the pemmican supplies stored

by NWC
NWC reacts and encourages Metis to harass the colonists
& drive them out of the area
a.
b.
c.

Attacked settlers
Burned down crops & buildings
Macdonell was arrested & taken prisoner to Fort William
i.

d.

Selkirk replaced him with a new governor Robert Semple

Some settlers moved out of the area & into Upper Canada or
various other Fur Trading Stations

Robert Semple, the new governor

of the Red River Colony

E.

showed aggression to the Metis by

burning an empty NWC trading post
at Fort Gibraltar
2.
the Metis & a group of armed settlers
would reach a breaking point at The
Battle of Seven Oaks
a.
within minutes, Semple & other
colonists would be dead
3.
the remaining settlers were
evacuated & the colony burned
Lord Selkirk hears of the battle &
organizes a tactical response at Fort
William using mercenaries & newly
settled people from Switzerland &
Scotland
1.
hostilities ensue in the region
The Northwest Company takes legal
action against HBC
1.
neither side won
2.
the costs were so great that Selkirk
lost his personal fortune & health
1.

F.

G.

III. The Merger of the Hudsons Bay

Company & the Northwest Company
A.

B.

The Red River Rebellions disrupted the

fur trade
1.
the costs of the battle caused
financial problems for both
companies
2.
became too costly for the NWC &
the decision came to merge the two
Logistics of the Merger
1.
NWC had 55 shares in the company
(& seemingly control)
a.
30 were given to the Montreal
partners
b.
25 to the hivernants
2.
HBC had 45 shares
3.
the new company would still be
called the HBC
4.
retained excusive trading rights to
Ruperts Land & extended control
over the NWC territory

NWC shares drop & HBC gains full

control

C.
1.

2.

recall that the HBC routes are at a

geographic advantage to Europe than
the NWC trading stations
Montreal partners were forced to close
their doors as they no longer had furs
to sell

The HBC emerges the stronger!

D.
1.

2.

3.

It controlled all territory drained by

rivers flowing into the Hudsons Bay
It had the license to trade in the lands
opened up by the NWC, the unsettled
lands west of the Great Lakes & North
of the 49th parallel
controlled 1/3rd of the north American
continent