Red River Colony

A British colony founded by the Earl of Selkirk in Rupert's Land (Manitoba) on the Assiniboine and Red Rivers in 1812. It was an English- and Gaelic-speaking colony in an area dominated by Indian and Métis fur traders and farmers. It was the focus of ethnic, racial, and commercial rivalries, culminating in the Battle of Seven Oaks (1816). From the 1820s, anglophone Protestant ‘country-born’ settlers and francophone Catholic Métis developed side by side in relative harmony until 1869–70.

The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement) was a colonization project set up by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk in 1811 on 300,000 km² of land granted to him by the Hudson's Bay Company under what is referred to as the Selkirk Concession. The colony was never very successful, but changes during the development of Canada in the 1800s led to the colony forming the basis of what is today Manitoba.

Selkirk had become interested in the concept of settling the area after reading Alexander Mackenzie's 1801 book on his adventures in exploring what is today the west of Canada. Selkirk was interested in giving them a chance at a better life in a new colony he called Assiniboia.

He then purchased a controlling interest in the Hudson's Bay Company and set up the land grant. His idea (apparently) was to gain firm control of the area in order to take control of the West from the company's bitter rivals, the Montreal-based North West Company. With a colony in place the Métis trappers supplying the North West's fur traders, the Nor'Westers, would be displaced, cutting them off from areas further west.

The land included the watersheds of the Red and Assiniboine rivers up to Lake Winnipeg.

When farming started the next spring, the results were less than expected and Selkirk had to ban anyone from taking food out of the colony.

Selkirk heard of the problems and sent out a new governor, Robert Semple, to take over. When he read a proclamation ordering the fighting to stop, the Battle of Seven Oaks broke out, Fort Douglas was destroyed for a second time, and the settlers were forced off their land. Selkirk then sent in a force of about 100 soldiers from the British Regiment de Meuron to enforce the peace and eventually become settlers themselves, while also capturing the North West outpost at Fort William, Ontario. However it also left Selkirk almost bankrupt, and was one of the reasons the two companies were forced to merge in 1821, thus ending the problems for good.

The colony was never particularly successful agriculturally, but the lure of free land added new settlers every year.