Assimilation or Accommodation

With the end of the Seven Years’ War and the fall of New France in
1763, Britain assumed control of almost all of North America. The
Seven Years’ War was for the possession of the Ohio Valley. A
valley rich in the fur trade industry and land good for future
settlement. Britain’s newly conquered country would now have to
deal with the opposing cultures to which forms their population.
Britain’s colony was home to a society of sixty thousand
francophone Catholics. Britain was faced with the issue of how to
deal with the growing population. Attempts of both assimilation
and accommodation were evident among the newly conquered
French population.
Since the British were the dominating culture, many English
people wished to see the French over turned and eventually live
their life solely under British rule. Under the British law they could
not recognize the rights of Catholics. Therefore no Roman
Catholics could sit on the British Council and have political
representation. The governor of Britain, James Murry, although
liked by the French forbid any other Roman Catholic churches to be
resurrected but promoted the religion of the British, by increasing
the amount of Protestant churches built. Another sign of
assimilation of the French is the Court of Kings Bench. An English
court, by whom the King sentences foreigners that have no defense
and can not even speak the English language. The French no longer
had control of the fur trade, they lost their market to the English and
could no longer compete to the full extent as the English. Above all,
the French out number the British, resulting in the constant fear of a
French revolution.
In order to stop the French from revolting, Murry pursued a
lenient policy toward the newly conquered population. Murry
realized the critical role the church played among the French
population. Therefore he allowed the churches to remain within the
British... [continues]

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