Dreams of Empires: New France survives

Top quality update, as usual.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_of_Canada#18th_century
Would it really only be 72000 by the mid 1770's? According to Wikipedia the province of Quebec in its 1763-1791 borders had 90,000 people in 1775. This does include the English population as well, but I don't think there were that many in 1775. Considering French Canadians had a pretty high birthrate I would think it would have well exceeded 72000 by the mid 1770s.
 
Would it really only be 72000 by the mid 1770's? According to Wikipedia the province of Quebec in its 1763-1791 borders had 90,000 people in 1775. This does include the English population as well, but I don't think there were that many in 1775. Considering French Canadians had a pretty high birthrate I would think it would have well exceeded 72000 by the mid 1770s.
You're right. I just checked my source, and I now realize I looked at the wrong year. I hereby retcon the population of New France to ~95, 000 (taking into account the soldiers from the five regiments).

So, what will happen to New France during the French Revolution?
That would be telling, wouldn't it? ;) I will say that, much like in OTL, the Canadiens won't be indifferent to events that transpire in France in the 1790s, but will also be very divided on wether or not these changes are for the best...
 
I commend you on showing restraint with the population growth. so many of these New France TL's go: France realizes they need to increase the population, and....BAM....within a couple years the population is increased by hundreds of thousands
 

PART X. WAR DRUMS

iroquois-hiawatha-6.jpg


From "Covenant: Politics and Religion in the Ohio Country, 1754-1815" by Linda Choudhury, 2001

[…]
At the beginning of the 1770s, the political situation in the Indian Reserve was reaching a breaking point.

For the past century and a half, the East coast nations had been feeling the pressure from the steady push of European settlers into their territory. Tribes had been forced to emigrate westward and northward, due to a combination of multiple factors: a series of wars and frontier clashes with colonists, but also the introduction of Old World diseases, such as smallpox, for which they had no antibodies, and the depletion of game in their traditional hunting grounds caused by overhunt by white settlers. The migrating tribes had in turn clashed with the nations in whose territory they had moved. The Susquehannock in the late seventeenth century who entered the Ohio Country were forced to fight the Shawnee, and the displaced Erie and Wendat were almost whipped out during a conflict with the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois].

Sometimes, emigrants could be integrated peacefully into a new tribe. Following their bloody war with British settlers, Tuscarora survivors migrated North to settle in Haudenosaunee territory and joined their confederacy, as did later the Tuleto and the Saponi. Likewise, the Yamasee migrants who went into Spanish Florida were welcomed by the Simanoli [Seminole] and the Hitchiti. However, the integration of these newcomers into the local population only exacerbated the demographic pressure to the increasing scarcity of resources.

The creation of the Reserve, intended to pacify the Ohio and Illinois Country by slowing down settler encroachment, would ultimately result in the emergence of new conflicts. The rivalry of the British and (intruding) French trading companies led to the forging of new alliances and the polarization of formerly neutral tribes in the imperialist protracted war. Because of the importance of the fur trade, tribes would compete over the beaver-rich hunting areas, and over trading privileges with their European partners. The winners of these competitions would tighten their alliance with one Company, while the losers would migrate away and, oftentimes, would align with the rival Company in the hope of returning to a position of strength following the inevitable next war.

Indeed, many frontier wars erupted in the 1760s and early 1770s between Europeans and First People: The First Cherokee War (1760), the Second Yamasee War (1767) [1] and Soyechtoga's War (1773) were the most important.

The enslavement of First Nation people by Europeans was also a source of tensions, naturally. Though it was not unheard of in the British colonies, it was especially prevalent in the French possessions; in New France, it was so common that the word pani (from Pawnee) had become synonymous with slave. Louis Antoine de Bougainville had famously said that the Pawnee "[played] the same role in America as the negroes do in Europe" [2].

[…]

MapFirstNations.jpg


Map of the First People alliances with European powers circa 1770

Blue: French territory & French allies
Red: British territory & British allies
Purple: The Indian Reserve
White: Neutrals

[Note: Obviously, not all tribes were included, and the locations are approximate due to the non-existence of definite borders, the semi-nomadic lifestyle of many of these nations and the migration phenomenon I mention above. Also, I suck at mapmaking.]

[…]

Many First People societies were also experiencing fast and tumultuous socio-economic transformations due to increasing presence of Europeans near or within their territory. The introduction of western goods, such as weapons, tools and clothes, changed the way of life of many tribesmen and -women, and would also spur the rise of a new elite composed of rich merchants and war leaders. Said new elite would often clash with traditional leaders (clan mothers, elders etc.) on a great number of issues. Therefore, two new factions arose within First People communities of Louisiana and the Great Lakes region: The Traditionalists, who wished to return to an older way of life, and minimize contacts with European traders and settlers, and the Modernists, who wished to increase business with the Trading Companies, and would in many cases take European names and wear European clothes, and might even convert to Christianity.

[…]
The existential threat posed by European imperialism did not go unnoticed by First People leaders. Obwandiyag of the Odawa [Pontiac], who had previously forged a military alliance against the British during the Seven Years' War, continued his efforts in the following decade to promote unity among neighbouring tribes against the power he perceived as their common foe. He successfully brought within his alliance Weyapiersenwah of the Shawnee [Blue Jacket], Buckongahelas of the Lenape, and Kaiontwakon [Cornplanter] and Guyasita of the Seneca. The latter’s’ adherence to a pro-French alliance would prove the death knell for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy: the five other nations of the Confederacy were aligned with Britain, and, in this context or rising trading rivalries, diplomatic relations quickly degenerated and broke down; although the Confederacy would not be officially dissolved until 1779, it had stopped existing for all intents and purposes by 1773.

Obwandiyag's impassioned speeches, though they often failed to form the military alliances he envisioned, would nonetheless give birth to the ideology of Originism: the idea that the First People of North America, the original inhabitants of the continent, all share a common heritage that supersedes their tribal or linguistic differences, and that they have to show solidarity to each other and work together to resist conquest or assimilation [3]. This ideology gained little support during his lifetime, due to the important inter-tribal conflicts that seemed, at the time, much more significant than the big-picture issue of European colonialism. However, the ideas of Originism didn't entirely fall into deaf ears, and were remembered later, at a time when First People would be much more receptive to radical new ideas following the crisis of […]

Closely related to Originism was the new religious movement later known as Manitism, born during the Seven Years' War from the teachings of the Lenape prophet Neolin. Manitism opposed European colonialism on moral grounds, claiming (not inaccurately) that it was responsible for the loss traditional customs, the introduction of alcohol and the illnesses that accompanied it, the increase of intra-tribal conflicts, and (more debatably) the spread of sexual promiscuity, polygamy and witchcraft. Neolin had gathered many followers during and after the war, including Obwandiyag himself, and his message attracted travellers from great distances.

One of such travellers was a young Ojibwe man named Debwe, who shared many of his views. The Ojibwe were old allies of French, whose missionaries had been present in their territory since the 17th century. Debwe was born circa 1745. During his teenage years, he had studied under Catholic priests in a mission, and, according to one biographer, had considered becoming a priest himself, until, for a reason unknown, he had decided to reject Catholic teachings and started to gravitate towards traditional Ojibwe mysticism [4]. Around 1765, he became acquainted with the Prophecy of the Seven Fires. Said prophecy tells the history of the migrations of the Ojibwe people during seven great eras (fires), from their departure from the Atlantic coast in the distant past to their establishment north of the Great Lakes more recently. The prophecy of the Fourth Fire announced the arrival of a new people in their land, wearing light skin and bringing new knowledge and articles with them, who will change everything for generations to come. The prophecy warns that if the white-skinned people come bearing weapons, they will be a source of great suffering for the Ojibwe and all Anishinaabeg [Algonquian] people.

For Debwe, and many of his contemporaries, the prophecy could only refer to the coming of Europeans to the New World [5]. This belief shaped in own philosophical musings. When he met Neolin (circa 1770), he was greatly impressed by the tales of his visions of the Kitche Manito [Great Spirit] and his message of rejection of European influences. Debwe combined the prophet's teachings with his own interpretation of his people's prophecies, and, perhaps ironically, many tenets of Christianity, due to his contacts with Catholics missionaries. He elaborated a new theology, which he detailed in the Book of the Rightful Path, a series of sermons encoded in wampum [6] that was distributed among many tribes of the Great Lakes region. The Rightful Path presents the origins of the First People, who were created by a monotheistic figure, the Kitche Manito, who had once blessed his creation with many gifts, but was greatly displeased with the wickedness of the people, who had turned away from their virtuous path due to the evil influence of European colonists, and had become sexually promiscuous and practiced witchcraft. The book then explains how the First People can regain their creator's favour, by purifying themselves of European influences and driving them away from their land.

After the passing of Neolin circa 1772, Debwe became one of the most influential religious figure in the American northeast, and attracted disciples by the thousands. His Book seems to have had enjoyed great success, as copies in wampum forms were found as far as western Louisiana, in Caddo territory. It is however difficult to tell exactly how influential it was. Certainly, it was not without its detractors. While many traditionalists approved its message, many more might have objected to its theology that contradicted older sets of beliefs in many ways (especially the more Christianity-influenced dogmas). As for its precept of unity against Europeans, it got little support for the same reasons as Obwandiyag's proto-Originism.

However, Debwe would become a highly-regarded religious figure posthumously, hailed as the Second Prophet of Manitism, and his Book of the Rightful Path would enjoy an even wider circulation after its translation in French and its transcription on paper by…

-//-

Notes:

[1] Opposing the Yamasee-Natchez alliance to the French Louisiana Company. It didn't happen in OTL, due to the earlier end of French colonization in Louisiana.

[2] OTL quotation. This is definitely not a Pro-French timeline, for the record.

[3] More or less what we call pan-Indianism in OTL, although it emerges much earlier in TTL.

[4] Debwe is an original character, but one who shares the background of many Native American leaders and mystics of his era, such as Handsome Lake and Tenskwatawa. His name means "He who speaks the truth" in Ojibwe.

[5] That is not however the only possible interpretation of the Prophecy of the Seven Fires, which has been the topic of many debates among Ojibwe scholars. As I am not expert on the matter, I will simply report how it is interpreted in TTL.

[6] http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Wampum
 
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