Wendats, Genocide, & Proxy Wars
Background facts impacting the history of Mount Dennis and York
1452 Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting Afonso V of Portugal the right to reduce any “Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers” to hereditary slavery, which legitimized the slave trade under Catholic beliefs of that time.
1493 Pope Alexander VI papal bull gives the New World to Spain, and Christians the right to displace non-Christians from their lands.
1517 Martin Luther publishes Ninety-Five Theses criticizing sale of Indulgences, Protestant Reformation begins,
1532 Machiavelli’s experience showed him that politics have always been played with deception, treachery and crime. He also notably said that a ruler who is establishing a kingdom or a republic, and is criticized for his deeds, including violence, should be excused when the intention and the result is beneficial. Machiavelli’s Prince is published to mixed reaction. Some considered it a straightforward description of the evil means used by bad rulers; others read in it evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power.
1538 Henry VIII seizes Catholic properties in Britain
French funded Catholic missionaries operate in North America a from 1611 – 1763, followed by a mix of Catholic and Protestant missionaries from 1763 to the present day.
Prior to 1636, New France’s Wendat people living in what was called New France were pressured to convert to Christianity in exchange for guns and trading rights. This split the Wendat nation into Traditionalist and a favored Christian group.
1636 to 1640 About 2/3 of the total Wendat population dies of smallpox and other introduced diseases
1640 Poorly armed, fractured and depleted Wendat population is overrun by Haudenosaunee expansion, which was armed by New Amsterdam. Wendat survivors disperse into Haudenosaunee and Wyandot communities
1665-1674 British Dutch wars, British replace Dutch in New Amsterdam
1675 Mississauga/Aanishinaabe and Haudenosaunee communities migrate into vacant Wendat territory
1719 Kahnawake established, a Christian segregated Haudenosaunee settlement at Montreal
1720 French Fort Douville established at top of Humber Bay (Baby Point)
1750 French Fort Toronto built at mouth of Humber
1754 French English hostilities, Acadian deportation to Louisianna
1756-63 Seven Year War Proxy war in North America, French support First Nations against British
1759 British replace French in Ontario, Plains of Abraham, Forts destroyed
1775-83 American Revolutionary War, supported by France, British by Haudenosaunee
1763 British conquer French in New France, North West company takes over French fur trade via St Lawrence and Great Lakes, in competition with the Hudson’s Bay company. Catholic church retains its influence in Quebec, but no longer has support from France.
1784 Forced migration of Haudenosaunee to Ontario
United Empire Loyalist migration to Ontario
Haldimand Grant to Haudenosaunee, 2M acres
1787 Toronto Purchase begins, Humber to Victoria Park but uses ill-defined survey, signatures missing from original documents
1793 John Simcoe travels the Humber, creates Town of York and Township of York
1793-1815 Napoleonic Wars, France & US vs Britain/Canada. Most British/Canadian combatants are First Nations
1796 John Dennis builds HMS Toronto at former Fort Douville site
1801 John Dennis deeded MD lands
1815 Village of Weston named but mostly on Etobicoke side of the Humber
1834 City of Toronto incorporated from unincorporated town of York (provincial decree)
1844 Louis Riel executed, English-French animosity in former North West company areas, French/Catholic/Metis displaced by Protestants from Upper Canada.
1867 Canadian confederation,
1872 Dominion Lands Act removes indigenous and Metis land titles