Transcript The Great Migration: British Immigration 1815

The Great Migration:
British Immigration
1815 - 50
Canadian History
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Upper Canada
Lower Canada
Nova Scotia
New Brunswick
PEI
NL
1806
1831
1851
Why leave Europe?

The Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 causing
an economic depression & high unemployment

Massive population growth

Higher life expectancy (more people were
surviving famines & disease due to new farming
methods & better diets)
Population Explosion Effects

Pop had outpaced economic opportunity

Land & jobs were scarce for many

People crowded into urban areas & lived in slums

Many decided to leave for America for better
opportunities
British Govt Reaction

Increased policies for emigration to solve the
problems such as high unemployment, poverty,
& social unrest
Scotland

Many Scottish farmers were
evicted from their homes in
a process called clearances

Landlords reclaimed
farmland from settlers &
created huge sheep farms
to provide wool for English
textile mills

Over 50,000 Scots moved
to Nova Scotia
Ireland…..1840s

Potato was the main crop &
staple of the Irish diet

Mid 1840s “potato blight”
spread to Ireland & destroyed
the crops

Famine set in killing approx. 1
million Irish between 1847-51

In 1847 over 90,000
emigrated to BNA
The Voyage Out

Immigrants arrived at Halifax, St. John, & Quebec

Cargo ships were used to bring the immigrants from
Britain to earn extra profits
Cramped conditions, disease,
little food, sea sickness, death


“Coffin Ships”
The Voyage Out (Pp 44-46)

Summarize the voyage to North America for:


An English gentlewoman
Regular immigrants

Where is Grosse Isle?

What purpose did it serve?

Why was Canada considered a ‘poor man’s country” in
the mid 1800s?