IV.

Effects and Reactions

In the short term, the proclamation caused widespread dismay in the 13 colonies and Québec, and it failed to protect the Indian territory it had created. In the 13 colonies, settlers resented Britain’s effort to restrict their freedom to trade and to settle in the North American interior. In Québec the proclamation shrank the colony and failed to resolve the competing interests of the British newcomers and the French-speaking majority. Finally, there were too few imperial forces to protect the Indian territory and to stop colonists from moving westward onto the lands. In 1774 the Royal Proclamation was largely replaced by the Québec Act.

After the American Revolution, Americans disregarded British imperial documents such as the proclamation. However, Canada never revolted against Britain, and the proclamation has continued to influence Canadian law. Although the Québec Act replaced many of the proclamation’s provisions, the one that recognized indigenous peoples’ ownership of the land they occupied remained valid. After the United States became independent in 1783, many British Loyalists fled to Québec. Although Québec needed to find land for these settlers, it did not forcibly seize indigenous groups’ land. Instead the colonial government there and later in Upper Canada (Ontario) negotiated for it, as the proclamation dictated. After the Confederation of Canada in 1867, the Canadian government adhered to the same approach in the western Prairie provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta) and the Northwest Territories.

Courts in Britain and Canada—in the Calder case (1973) and the Delgamuukw case (1997)—have used the proclamation to construct a doctrine that legally recognizes aboriginal title to land in situations in which Indians never surrendered land through treaty. In these cases, indigenous groups in British Columbia were able to point to the proclamation as evidence that they possessed land and other rights that the provincial and federal governments had to recognize. The proclamation is even cited in the Constitution Act of 1982. The proclamation has been so important for indigenous groups’ interests in Canada that it is often described as the Indian Magna Carta.