How hard would it be for the US to integrate Canada around 1900?

They wouldn't go that far. People exaggerate the nationalist identity of the Quebecois, something that only really flared up in the 1960's. 1900 was around the period that something like near a million or so french canadians actually migrated to New England and they assimilated so well that today their ancestors only identifying traits are french sounding last names many New Englanders still carry.

As for Southern Ontario, the stereotype many Canadians have of Torontonians is of them as "wanna-be" Americans anyways.
Migrating it´s different, it´s like saying the US could conquer Ireland and the people would be just fine because the Irish that migrated were integrated with time .
 
Canadians are the people who, either speaking english of speaking french, did not want to become part of the US and fought against the US attempt to annex them. Having the same language and being free and democratic has never been enough to merge into one same country. Just ask the irish. The 20th century is far too late for a US annexation of Canada resulting in a peaceful integration.
Western Canada maybe(I still think it´s possible, in Eastern Canada I doubt it.
 
I imagine it'll depend some on the specifics. Pretty good odds that any annexation will only follow after a period of Canadians and Brits identifying as anti-American as tensions mount, and that will make later integration harder. But if it's 5 or 50 years of mounting tensions makes a difference.
 
Western Canada maybe(I still think it´s possible, in Eastern Canada I doubt it.

Could parts of Eastern Canada get different deals, like Quebec and Ontario remain Commonwealths, and the rest, the Maritimes, become states? Even if they became independent, they'd be highly reliant on the USA, and I doubt they'd maintain armed borders.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
Annexation of Canada means doing so by force. If Canada is so like the US, remember how the US proverbially reacts to invasion.
 
Migrating it´s different, it´s like saying the US could conquer Ireland and the people would be just fine because the Irish that migrated were integrated with time .

I'd say the current Irish-American identity that exists is about 100x stronger than any lingering french-canadian identity in the US, it was as total an assimilation as you could get really. That factor is actually sometimes brought up by french-canadian nationalists about how fragile french-canadian culture can be in a sea of english speakers.

My overall point is if Canada as a whole were conquered it wouldn't be a walk in the park but there is nothing so special about Qubecoise identity that they'd fight some prolonged guerrilla war decades longer than the english canadians.

At this point today a Quebec under the US for around a century would have some characteristics of the cajun regions of Louisiana.
 
I'd say the current Irish-American identity that exists is about 100x stronger than any lingering french-canadian identity in the US, it was as total an assimilation as you could get really. That factor is actually sometimes brought up by french-canadian nationalists about how fragile french-canadian culture can be in a sea of english speakers.

Yep. My great great grandfather came down the Lake Champlain corridor before ending up in CT. Would never know we had the French-Canadian ancestry without a lot of research, at this point. We don't even live in New England anymore.

I think Quebec would honestly be the easiest integration: The things they would be most sensitive about (language and schools) are very firmly state prerogatives in this time period and their loyalty to the British Empire had always had a dose of pragmatism to it.
 
I'd say the current Irish-American identity that exists is about 100x stronger than any lingering french-canadian identity in the US, it was as total an assimilation as you could get really. That factor is actually sometimes brought up by french-canadian nationalists about how fragile french-canadian culture can be in a sea of english speakers.

My overall point is if Canada as a whole were conquered it wouldn't be a walk in the park but there is nothing so special about Qubecoise identity that they'd fight some prolonged guerrilla war decades longer than the english canadians.

At this point today a Quebec under the US for around a century would have some characteristics of the cajun regions of Louisiana.

It wasn't a simple process of assimilation. For one thing, about half of the migrants eventually returned to Quebec. Moreover, those who stayed congregated in French-speaking neighborhoods called "Little Canadas" for a long time. What caused those neighborhoods to finally lose their identity was due to two factors: first, immigration from Quebec essentially stopped after the 1930s; second, there was a general push across the nation in the mid-20th century towards the assimilation of all immigrants. The period from c. 1930-60 was when a lot of American families stopped speaking their ancestral languages.

In Louisiana, francophone culture survived until demography worked against it: when the anglophone majority became large enough to dictate public policy by itself, it eliminated the francophones' legal rights. For the same to happen in Quebec (which had a larger total francophone population than Louisiana), you'd need a really large non-francophone migration there. As part of Canada in OTL, Quebec was the gateway to the rest of the country, and did in fact receive substantial immigration - but many of these immigrants (most notably the Irish) actually assimilated into francophone society, and others simply moved on to other parts of Canada.

If it is part of the U.S., Quebec might actually be a smaller initial immigrant destination than it was OTL - why go there when Ellis Island is closer? I suppose it could, conversely, receive a domestic migration of Americans, but I'm not certain what would draw them there. The climate's a lot colder than Louisiana's, and Quebec doesn't have oil.
 
Last edited:
I'd say the current Irish-American identity that exists is about 100x stronger than any lingering french-canadian identity in the US, it was as total an assimilation as you could get really. That factor is actually sometimes brought up by french-canadian nationalists about how fragile french-canadian culture can be in a sea of english speakers.

My overall point is if Canada as a whole were conquered it wouldn't be a walk in the park but there is nothing so special about Qubecoise identity that they'd fight some prolonged guerrilla war decades longer than the english canadians.

At this point today a Quebec under the US for around a century would have some characteristics of the cajun regions of Louisiana.

Just ask some Quebecois. The Quebecois identity did not suddenly appear in the 1960´s. It just profited of more freedom of expression to make It more vocal. But they had previously been fighting what is known as "the battle of craddles".
 
I'd say the current Irish-American identity that exists is about 100x stronger than any lingering french-canadian identity in the US, it was as total an assimilation as you could get really. That factor is actually sometimes brought up by french-canadian nationalists about how fragile french-canadian culture can be in a sea of english speakers.

My overall point is if Canada as a whole were conquered it wouldn't be a walk in the park but there is nothing so special about Qubecoise identity that they'd fight some prolonged guerrilla war decades longer than the english canadians.

At this point today a Quebec under the US for around a century would have some characteristics of the cajun regions of Louisiana.
Because the communities are bigger.

There could be nothing special, but it´s still a million people living near each other.

No, Louisiana had not even a fraction of the people of Quebec.
 
.... Canadians, assuming an integration, would have to adjust to a republic at least on the federal level (there is, of course, nothing in the US Constitution that mandates the form of state governments).


Article IV of the US Constitution mandates that each state have a republican form of government.
 
Top