Civic Literacy Curriculum

The territory that eventually became the United States was far from the only British colony in the New World. To the north were other British territories, including former French lands, ceded to the British at the end of the Seven Years War (called the French and Indian War in America). Despite the hopes of Americans, the people of these territories chose to remain loyal to the British government in Canada; indeed, many former Americans who remained loyal to the British crown moved there.

These territories were eventually and gradually granted self-government by the British government as the nation of Canada (though Canada remains a part of the British Commonwealth, with the monarch as ceremonial head of state). Like with Great Britain itself, relations between the United States and Canada have long been very friendly, after a bumpy 19th century. America and Canada share what is often considered the longest militarily undefended border in the world, are major trading partners, and generally cooperate on defense measures such as NATO. (Canada and the United States, along with Great Britain and other former British colonies in Australia and New Zealand, also make up the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network.) This should not be surprising: the two nations are politically quite similar – both constitutional and federal countries, with a common-law tradition derived from a shared history of British settlement. 

Among the states bordering Canada in the northeast are the upper New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, as well as New York. The border that the states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana share with Canada was once potentially a site of conflict with Great Britain, before a peaceful resolution helped lay the groundwork for the friendship between the United States and Great Britain. That friendship has carried over to our strong relationship with Canada once it too became independent of Great Britain.