French Canadians
French Canadians (French Canadiens français ) describes a historical collective. As Canadiens français , the francophone population referred to in Quebec , Ontario and the western provinces of Canada (see Francophone Canadians ) approximately from the mid-19th century to the 1970s.
The French settlers who settled in the Saint Lawrence River Valley in the 17th century initially referred to themselves as Canadians (French Canadiens ) in contrast to the French , who worked in the colonial administration and in the French army. When, after the conquest of New France by England in 1763, more and more English came to Canada (see History of Canada ) and gradually adopted the term Canadians for themselves, the French-speaking population began to call themselves French Canadians. The identity of French Canadians was closely linked to belonging to the Catholic faith . In view of the English rule, it should also express the bond with the French mother country .
The Silent Revolution in Québec led to a new, more positively occupied identity than Quebecers (French: Québécois ) and to an emancipation from the French mainland , so that the expression French Canadians is unusual there today as a self-designation. The francophone population of Québec sees themselves as Quebecers and / or Canadians. In the other Canadian provinces, the self-designation of French Canadians is uncommon today too, the francophone populations there see themselves as Franco-Ontarians, Franco-Manitobans etc. or as Canadians.
In German , the expression Canadiens français has often been translated as "French Canadians ". Sometimes German sources simply speak of French or Canadian French when they want to highlight the differences from Anglophone Canadians. Stefan Zweig writes in “With the French in Canada”: The intransigence of Catholicism - and then the famous (...) large number of children of the Canadian French have erected a bulwark here, which is a monument of national energy unparalleled in our days (Auf Reisen, p. 129). Such expressions can be found in newspaper articles and travel guides to this day.
In the Anglophone population, the term French Canadian or even French is still often used, whereas the Anglophone Canadian media and politically reflective Anglophone Canadians use the term Francophone or the provincial names today .
See also
Web links
literature
- Gérard Bouchard: Genèse des nations et cultures du nouveau monde. Essai d'histoire comparée (= Boréal compact 126). 2. édition. Boréal, Montréal 2001, ISBN 2-7646-0110-7 .
- Jacques Lacoursière, Jean Provencherm Denis Vaugeois: Canada. Quebec. 1534-2000. Septentrion, Sillery 2001, ISBN 2-89448-186-1 .
- Philip Marchand : Ghost Empire. How the French Almost Conquered North America. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 2005, ISBN 0-7710-5677-X .