#whereas the (comparatively) less dangerous US allowed more opportunity for individualistic fortune-seeking. and so their whole national | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tomwambsmilk · 2 years ago

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Sorry I’m just now putting the terror into its proper historical context. In my mind I was classifying it with, like, John Cabot and Henry Hudson and Alexander Mackenzie, the early explorers. But 1847 is only 20 years before Canadian Confederation. It’s after the War of 1812 and the Acadian Expulsion and the Upper Canada Rebellion and the 7 Years War and all sort of other major historical events that were really fundamental to shaping Canadian identity. This was an expedition that happened into the northernmost corner of a land that, further south, had already been pretty thoroughly colonized. The juxtaposition between the raw, untouched danger of the North vs the well-established cities and systems and communities only a few thousand kilometres south is…. Really something

#Margaret Atwood wrote an excellent book examining Canadian literature and she argued that the major theme across all of it is ‘survival’#as opposed to American literature which is about the concept of frontier #because what is now Canada was historically so dangerous and inhospitable that the idea that the land wants to kill you is baked into #the very core of Canadian identity #it’s part of why Canada has a more socialized political system. Canadians prioritize the community over Americans bc the only way Canadians #survived historically was through fostering strong community support #whereas the (comparatively) less dangerous US allowed more opportunity for individualistic fortune-seeking. and so their whole national #identity formed differently #and that’s maybe part of why the US rebelled against Britain and Canada didn’t #anyways. that’s what I’m thinking about when I watch this

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