ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

Social Studies 5: The Birth of Canada 199 Views


Share It!


Description:

Being born out of multiple wars doesn't quite seem to fit the peaceful, polite Canadians we know and love today...oh wait, they were called The Beaver Wars? Never mind, that makes sense.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

The Birth of Canada...

00:15

No, it didn't happen when a Beaver and a Bottle of Maple Syrup fell in love and got married... [Beaver and maple syrup at a wedding altar]

00:19

It was actually very similar to the way America was born.

00:22

Which no, didn't happen when a Bald Eagle and a Bottle of Barbecue Sauce fell in love

00:26

and got married...

00:27

Come on, guys. In the 1500s, the French and several other

00:31

European countries jumped on the bandwagon – or should we say boatwagon? - and tried [French and European men on a boat]

00:35

to sail around the world to Asia.

00:37

How’d that work out for them? Eh….not very well.

00:41

They ended up stumbling into a big ol’ rock we like to call the Americas. You know, North, [European ship appears in America]

00:46

South, etc. But unlike the Dutch and English, who wanted

00:49

to get their hands on what’s now called the U.S.A., the French set their sights a

00:53

little further north...

00:54

…and in the 1600s, they established settlements throughout eastern Canada.

00:58

They were led by a man by the name of Samuel de Champlain… Could it get any Frencher?

01:03

Huh. Looks like it can.

01:05

Anyway, Samuel and his pals made buddy-buddy with the Huron tribe of Natives, who helped [Samuel with tribesman of the Huron tribe]

01:09

make sure every other tribe didn't kick Samuel and his buddies' butts.

01:12

It pays to have friends, huh? But not every tribe made peace with Samuel

01:16

– especially not the Iroquois.

01:18

So there was a scuffle between Samuel, the Hurons, and the Iroquois, which seems like [Samuel, Huron and Iroquois arguing]

01:23

a bit of a fair fight, right? That is, if fights can be fair.

01:26

But then the English saw what was going on and…well. See, the English and the French

01:30

weren't exactly the best of pals at the time, so the English decided to step in and side

01:35

with the Iroquois.

01:36

These two sides fought in a series of conflicts which were called the most Canadian thing

01:40

ever...

01:41

Well, no, they weren’t called the Maple Beaver Hockey Winter Wars, Eh? [Beaver on a TV screen]

01:45

But they were called the Beaver Wars, because they were fought over control of the fur trade.

01:50

Yep, we weren’t kidding. So Canadian. [Man wearing a fur jacket]

01:52

Anyway, the Beaver Wars never fully settled the score – and in fact, they led to many

01:57

other wars.

01:58

But this initial conflict over Canadian land between the French and the English is the

02:02

reason why Canada is divided into parts that speak English, French, or sometimes even both.

02:07

Those fancy Canadian overachievers… [Woman holding trophies on stage]

02:08

And, of course, just to make it a little bit more confusing, Canadian French grew to have

02:13

some major differences from French French.

02:16

All colonies have to leave the nest sometime, eh? [Bird flies into a window]

Up Next

ELA 5: How to Spot Bias
3243 Views

Check out the best bias video ever made, courtesy of the most awesome and amazing educational website in existence.

Related Videos

Social Studies 5: Impeachment
1011 Views

No, this isn't a terrible new mint-peach bubble gum flavor...though it does tend to leave a bad taste in people's mouths.

Social Studies 5: Jamestown
335 Views

Those settlers in Jamestown really should have settled down with all that land-stealing. Tobacco's bad for you anyway.

Social Studies 5: How to Analyze a Political Cartoon
636 Views

Not every cartoon is meant to entertain small children while their mother gets some "Mommy time." There are also political cartoons, which are mean...

Social Studies 5: The First English Colonies
161 Views

We don't blame the new settlers for abandoning Roanoke. If we sailed up on a creepy ghost town island like that, we'd be rowin' oak as fast as we c...