The Royal Proclamation in Historical Context

ActiveHistory.ca and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies have partnered together to compile a collection of essays commemorating the 1763 Royal Proclamation. This collection of essays explores the implications of the Proclamation that faced Indigenous peoples and Settler communities across North America, exploring both what the proclamation meant when it was issued in the mid-eighteenth century and what it continues to mean in North American society today. Below, you will find hyperlinks for each individual essay or you can read them together by downloading the pdf version of Canada Watch.  Special thanks to the Robarts Centre’s Colin Coates and Laura Taman for their work in putting this collection together. 

Thomas Peace, The Politics of Proclamation, the Politics of Commemoration

J.R. Miller, The Royal Proclamation – “the Indians’ Magna Carta”?

Brian Slattery, Is the Royal Proclamation of 1763 a Dead Letter?

John Reid, The Significance of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in Atlantic Canada

Denys Delâge and Jean-Pierre Sawaya, Does the Royal Proclamation apply to all Indigenous People in the Province of Quebec?

Donald Fyson, The Royal Proclamation and the Canadiens

Keith Jamieson, The Haudenosaunee/Six Nations and the Royal Proclamation of 1763

Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Parchment, Wampum, Letters and Symbols: Expanding the parameters of the Royal Proclamation commemoration

John S. Long, Reflections on 1763 in Far Northern Ontario

Brandon Morris and Jay Cassel, “the said Lands… shall be purchased only for Us”: The Effect of the Royal Proclamation on Government

Robert Englebert, Much ado about nothing: The Royal Proclamation on the Edge of Empire

Neil Vallance and Hamar Foster, The Life and Times of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in British Columbia

Ken Coates, The Spirit of 1763: The Royal Proclamation in National and Global Perspectives

Victoria Freeman, The Royal Proclamation and Colonial Hocus-Pocus: A Learned Treatise