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