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Royal Proclamation of 1763

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A portion of eastern North America; the 1763 "Proclamation line" is the border between the red and the pink areas.

The Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763 by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War. The purpose of the proclamation was to establish Britain's vast new North American empire, and to stabilize relations with Native Americans through regulation of trade, settlement, and land purchases on the western frontier. The Proclamation in essence forbade colonists of the thirteen colonies from settling or buying land west of the Appalachian Mountains. This led to considerable outrage in the colonies, as many colonists had already acquired land in that region. Additionally, the Proclamation gave the Crown a monopsony over purchasing lands from the First Nations.

Organization of new colonies

Besides regulating colonial expansion, the proclamation dealt with the management of newly ceded French colonies and it established government for four areas: Province of Quebec[1][2], West Florida, East Florida, and Grenada. All of these were granted the ability to elect general assemblies under a royally appointed governor or a high council, which could then create laws and ordinances specific to the area in agreement with British and colonial laws. In the meantime, the new colonies enjoyed the same rights as native-born Englishmen, something that British colonists had been fighting over for years. An even bigger affront to the British colonies was the establishment of both civil and criminal courts complete with the right to appeal--but those charged with violating the Stamp or Sugar Act were to be tried in admiralty court, where the defendant was considered guilty until he or she could prove his or her innocence [citation needed].

Legacy

The influence of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 on the coming of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) has been variously interpreted. Many historians argue that the proclamation ceased to be a major source of tension after 1768, since the aforementioned treaties opened up extensive lands for settlement. Others have argued that colonial resentment of the proclamation contributed to the growing divide between the colonies and the Mother Country.

In the United States, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 ended with the American Revolutionary War, because Great Britain ceded the land in question to the United States in the Treaty of Paris (1783). Afterwards, the U.S. government also faced difficulties in preventing frontier violence, and eventually adopted policies similar to those of the Royal Proclamation. The first in a series of Indian Intercourse Acts was passed in 1790, prohibiting unregulated trade and travel in Native American lands. Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court case Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823) established that only the U.S. government, and not private individuals, could purchase land from Native Americans.

The Royal Proclamation continued to govern the cession of aboriginal land in British North America, especially Upper Canada and Rupert's Land. The proclamation forms the basis of land claims of aboriginal peoples in Canada – First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is thus mentioned in section 25 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The High Court of Australia, in the 1992 decision of Mabo v Queensland (No 2), determined that under the Proclamation of 1763, "all the Lands and Territories lying to the Westward of the Sources of the Rivers which fall into the Sea from the West and North West as aforesaid," included the whole of Australia. This decision stems from the fact that Australia was not settled by the English until 1770. Terms of settlement are still outstanding in this case.[citation needed]

Royal Proclamation and Aboriginal Rights and Title

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is a “fundamental document” forFirst Nations land claims and self-government.[3] It is “the first legal recognition by the British Crown of Aboriginal rights.”[4] The intent and promises made to the Aboriginal peoples in the Proclamation have been argued to be of a temporary nature, only meant to appease the Native peoples who were becoming increasingly resentful of “settler encroachments on their lands”[5] and were capable of becoming a serious threat to British colonial settlement. [6][7] While advising the Board of Trade on August 30th, 1764, Sir William Johnson expressed that

The Indians all know we cannot be a Match for them in the midst of an extensive woody Country…from whence I infer that if we are determined to possess Our Posts, Trade & ca securely, it cannot be done for a Century by any other means than that of purchasing the favour of the numerous Indian inhabitants.[8]

With the proclamation, “the British were trying to convince Native people that there was nothing to fear from the colonists, while at the same time trying to increase political and economic power relative to First Nations and other European powers.”[9] However, the Royal Proclamation along with the subsequent Treaty of Niagara, provide for an argument that “discredits the claims of the Crown to exercise sovereignty over First Nations”[10] and affirms Aboriginal “powers of self-determination in, among other things, allocating lands.”[11] Further so, the Royal Proclamation outlined a policy in which to protect and extinguish Aboriginal rights and in doing so, recognized these rights existed.

See also

References

  1. ^ Cappon, Lester J., Petchenik, Barbara B., and Hamilton, John, Editors (1976). Atlas of Early American History:The Revolutionary Era, 1760-1790. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. pp. 1, 77, 90. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help); |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Shortt, Adam and Doughty, Arthur G., Editors (1907). Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, Volume 1, 1759-1791. Ottawa: Canadian Archives. pp. Sessional Paper #18, pp. 1, 77, 90. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ John Borrows, “Wampum at Niagara: The Royal Proclamation, Canadian Legal History, and Self-Government,” in Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in Canada, ed. Michael Asch. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 155.
  4. ^ Douglas R. Francis, Richard Jones and Donald B. Smith, Origins: Canadian History to Confederation 6th ed. (Toronto: Nelson Education Ltd., 2009), 157.
  5. ^ Francis et. al., Origins, 156.
  6. ^ Jack Stagg, Anglo-Indian Relations In North America to 1763 and An Analysis of the Royal Proclamation of 7 October 1763, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Research Branch, 1981, 356.
  7. ^ Borrows, "Wampum," 158-159.
  8. ^ Quoted in Native Liberty, Crown Sovereignty: The Existing Aboriginal Right of Self-Government in Canada, Bruce Clark. (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1990), 81.
  9. ^ Borrows, "Wampum," 160.
  10. ^ Borrows, "Wampum," 164.
  11. ^ Borrows, "Wampum," 165.
  • Abernethy, Thomas Perkins. Western Lands and the American Revolution. Originally published 1937. New York: Russell & Russell, 1959.
  • Calloway, Colin. The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-530071-8.

Further reading

  • Lawson, Philip. The Imperial Challenge: Quebec and Britain in the Age of the American Revolution. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1989.
  • Roth, Christopher F. (2002) "Without Treaty, without Conquest: Indigenous Sovereignty in Post-Delgamuukw British Columbia." Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 143-165.
  • Stonechild, Blair A. "Indian-White Relations in Canada, 1763 to the Present." In Encyclopedia of North American Indians, ed. Frederick E. Hoxie, 277-81. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
  • Tousignant, Pierre. “The Integration of the Province of Quebec into the British Empire, 1763-91. Part 1: From the Royal Proclamation to the Quebec Act.” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 4. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
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