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History Pre-confederation (to 1867)

Political Culture in Louis XIV's Canada

Majesty, Ritual, and Rhetoric

by (author) Colin M. Coates

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2024
Category
Pre-Confederation (to 1867), France

  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780228022367
    Publish Date
    Sep 2024
    List Price
    $39.95

  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780228022350
    Publish Date
    Sep 2024
    List Price
    $110.00

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Description

In Louis XIV’s New France, colonial authorities attempted to reproduce French regal authority in novel ways, often by performing typical metropolitan political rituals. When these practices were transposed into the St Lawrence Valley settlements, where a small French population lived alongside a substantial Indigenous presence, they took on new meanings.

The colony of Canada replicated many features of the developing French absolutist state. Yet while the king likely knew more about his colony than he did about most parts of metropolitan France, this transatlantic setting imposed new constraints on absolutist authority, from the challenges of distance to an Indigenous population that largely lived outside European norms. Political Culture in Louis XIV’s Canada examines royal power as it was represented in ritual (ceremonial entrances, Te Deums, processions), in rhetoric (political disputes over cabals and factions), and in objects (portraits, royal busts, currency, buildings, maps, and censuses). Colin Coates describes the successes and failures the French authorities experienced in exporting their political practices. He reveals how those authorities’ understandings of Indigenous political culture shaped ideas of the proper relation between rulers and the ruled.

This book traces the establishment of a colonial political culture that continued to shape the lives of the French in Canada long after the Sun King’s death in 1715.

About the author

COLIN M. COATES teaches environmental history and Canadian studies at York University. He is past president of the Canadian Studies Network-Réseau d’études canadiennes and was a member of the executive of NiCHE, the Network in Canadian History and Environment.

Colin M. Coates' profile page

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