title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The archipelago was officially named "Virgineola", though later they had changed it to "The Somers Isles", which remains an official name though the archipelago had already long been infamous as "Bermuda", and the older Spanish name has resisted replacement. The Lieutenant-Governor and settlers who arrived in 1612 briefly settled on Smith's Island, where the three left behind by the Sea Venture were thriving, before moving to St. George's Island where they established the town of "New London", which was soon renamed to St. George's Town (the first actual town successfully established by the English in the New World as Jamestown was really "James Fort", a rudimentary defensive structure, in 1612).


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Bermuda was soon more populous, self-sufficient and prosperous than Jamestown and a second company, the "Company of the City of London for the Plantacion of The Somers Isles" (better known as The Somers Isles Company) was spun-off from the London Company in 1615, and continued to administer Bermuda after the London Company's Royal Charter was revoked in 1624 (The Somers Isles Company's Royal Charter was similarly revoked in 1684). Bermuda pioneered tobacco cultivation as the engine for its economic growth, but as Virginia's tobacco agriculture outstripped it in the 1620s, and new colonies in the West Indies also emulated its tobacco industry, the price of Bermudian tobacco fell and the colony became unprofitable for many of the company's shareholders, who mostly had remained in England while managers or tenants farmed their land in Bermuda with the labour of indentured servants. Bermuda's House of Assembly held its first session in 1620 (Virginia's House of Burgesses having held its first session in 1619), but with no landowners resident in Bermuda there was consequently no property qualification, unlike the case with the House of Commons.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: As the bottom fell out of tobacco, many absentee shareholders (or "Adventurers") sold their shares to the occupying managers or tenants, with the agricultural industry quickly shifting towards family farms that grew subsistence crops instead of tobacco. Bermudians soon found they could sell their excess foodstuffs in the West Indies where colonies like Barbados grew tobacco to the exclusion of subsistence crops. As the company's magazine ship would not carry their food exports to the West Indies, Bermudians began to build their own ships from Bermuda cedar, developing the speedy and nimble Bermuda sloop and the Bermuda rig.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, the British shipped an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts to their American colonies.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Meanwhile, the Plymouth Council for New England sponsored several colonization projects, including a colony established by a group of English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims. The Puritans embraced an intensely emotional form of Calvinist Protestantism and sought independence from the Church of England. In 1620, the "Mayflower" transported the Pilgrims across the Atlantic, and the Pilgrims established Plymouth Colony in Cape Cod. The Pilgrims endured an extremely hard first winter, with roughly fifty of the one hundred colonists dying. In 1621, Plymouth Colony was able to establish an alliance with the nearby Wampanoag tribe, which helped the Plymouth Colony adopt effective agricultural practices and engaged in the trade of fur and other materials. Farther north, the English also established Newfoundland Colony in 1610, which primarily focused on cod fishing.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The Caribbean would provide some of England's most important and lucrative colonies, but not before several attempts at colonization failed. An attempt to establish a colony in Guiana in 1604 lasted only two years and failed in its main objective to find gold deposits. Colonies in St Lucia (1605) and Grenada (1609) also rapidly folded. Encouraged by the success of Virginia, in 1627 King Charles I granted a charter to the Barbados Company for the settlement of the uninhabited Caribbean island of Barbados. Early settlers failed in their attempts to cultivate tobacco, but found great success in growing sugar.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The success of colonization efforts in Barbados encouraged the establishment of more Caribbean colonies, and by 1660 England had established Caribbean sugar colonies in St. Kitts, Antigua, Nevis, and Montserrat, English colonization of the Bahamas began in 1648 after a Puritan group known as the Eleutheran Adventurers established a colony on the island of Eleuthera. England established another sugar colony in 1655 following the successful invasion of Jamaica during the Anglo-Spanish War. Spain acknowledged English possession of Jamaica and the Caiman Islands in the 1670 Treaty of Madrid. England captured Tortola from the Dutch in 1670, and subsequently took possession of the nearby islands of Anegada and Virgin Gorda; these islands would later form the British Virgin Islands.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: During the 17th century, the sugar colonies adopted the system of sugar plantations successfully used by the Portuguese in Brazil, which depended on slave labour. The English government valued the economic importance of these islands over that of New England. Until the abolition of its slave trade in 1807, Britain was responsible for the transportation of 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas, a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic. Many of the slaves were captured by the Royal African Company in West Africa, though others came from Madagascar. These slaves soon came to form the majority of the population in Caribbean colonies like Barbados and Jamaica, where strict slave codes were established partly to deter slave rebellions.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Following the success of the Jamestown and Plymouth Colonies, several more English groups established colonies in the region that became known as New England. In 1629, another group of Puritans led by John Winthrop established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and by 1635 roughly ten thousand English settlers lived in the region between the Connecticut River and the Kennebec River. After defeating the Pequot in the Pequot War, Puritan settlers established the Connecticut Colony in the region the Pequots had formerly controlled. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was founded by Roger Williams, a Puritan leader who was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony after he advocated for a formal split with the Church of England. As New England was a relatively cold and infertile region, the New England Colonies relied on fishing and long-distance trade to sustain the economy.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: A "History of New England" would not be complete without discussing John Hull, the pine tree shilling, his central role in the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Old South Church. In 1652 the Massachusetts legislature authorized John Hull to produce coinage (mintmaster). "The Hull Mint produced several denominations of silver coinage, including the pine tree shilling, for over 30 years until the political and economic situation made operating the mint no longer practical." Mostly political for Charles II deemed the "Hull Mint" high treason in the United Kingdom which had a punishment of Hanging, drawing and quartering. "On April 6, 1681, Edward Randolph (colonial administrator) petitioned the king, informing him the colony was still pressing their own coins which he saw as high treason and believed it was enough to void the charter. He asked that a writ of Quo warranto (a legal action requiring the defendant to show what authority they have for exercising some right, power, or franchise they claim to hold) be issued against Massachusetts for the violations."


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In 1632, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore founded the Province of Maryland to the north of Virginia. Maryland and Virginia became known as the Chesapeake Colonies, and experienced similar immigration and economic activities. Though Baltimore and his descendants intended for the colony to be a refuge for Catholics, it attracted mostly Protestant immigrants, many of whom scorned the Calvert family's policy of religious toleration. In the mid-17th century, the Chesapeake Colonies, inspired by the success of slavery in Barbados, began the mass importation of African slaves. Though many early slaves eventually gained their freedom, after 1662 Virginia adopted policies that passed enslaved status from mother to child and granted slave owners near-total domination of their human property.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: 640 miles East-South-East of Cape Hatteras, in the Virginia Company's other former settlement, the Somers Isles, alias the Islands of Bermuda, where the spin-off Somers Isles Company still administered, the company and its shareholders in England only earned profits from the export of tobacco, placing them increasingly at odds with Bermudians for whom tobacco had become unprofitable to cultivate. As only those landowners who could attend the company's annual meetings in England were permitted to vote on company policy, the company worked to suppress the developing maritime economy of the colonists and to force the production of tobacco, which required unsustainable farming practices as more was required to be produced to make up for the diminished value.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: As many of the class of moneyed businessmen who were adventurers in the company were aligned to the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War, Bermuda was one of the colonies that sided with the Crown during the war, being the first to recognise Charles II after the execution of his father. With control of their Assembly and the militia and volunteer coastal artillery, the Royalist majority deposed the company-appointed Governor (by the 1630s, the company had ceased sending Governors to Bermuda and had instead appointed a succession of prominent Bermudians to the role, including religious Independent and Parliamentarian William Sayle) by force of arms and elected John Trimingham to replace him. Many of Bermuda's religious Independents, who had sided with Parliament, were forced into exile. Although some of the newer continental colonies settled largely by anti-episcopalian Protestants sided with Parliament during the war, Virginia and other colonies like Bermuda supported the Crown and were subjected to the measures laid out in An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego until Parliament was able to force them to acknowledge its sovereignty.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Bermudian anger at the policies of the Somers Isles Company ultimately saw them take their complaints to the Crown after The Restoration, leading to the Crown revoking the Royal Charter of the Somers Isles Company and taking over direct administration of Bermuda in 1684. From that date, Bermudians abandoned agriculture, diversifying their maritime industry to occupy many niches of inter-colonial trade between North America and the West Indies. Bermudians limited landmass and high birth rate meant that a steady outflow from the colony contributed about 10,000 settlers to other colonies, notably the southern continental colonies (including Carolina Province, which was settled from Bermuda in 1670), as well as West Indian settlements, including the Providence Island colony in 1631, the Bahamas (settled by Eleutheran Adventurers, Parliament-allied Civil War exiles from Bermuda, under William Sayle in the 1640s), and the seasonal occupation of the Turks Islands from 1681.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Encouraged by the apparent weakness of Spanish rule in Florida, Barbadian planter John Colleton and seven other supporters of Charles II of England established the Province of Carolina in 1663. Settlers in the Carolina Colony established two main population centers, with many Virginians settling in the north of the province and many English Barbadians settling in the southern port city of Charles Town. In 1729, following the Yamasee War, Carolina was divided into the crown colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina. The colonies of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina (as well as the Province of Georgia, which was established in 1732) became known as the Southern Colonies.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Beginning in 1609, Dutch traders had established fur trading posts on the Hudson River, Delaware River, and Connecticut River, ultimately creating the Dutch colony of New Netherland, with a capital at New Amsterdam. In 1657, New Netherland expanded through conquest of New Sweden, a Swedish colony centered in the Delaware Valley. Despite commercial success, New Netherland failed to attract the same level of settlement as the English colonies. In 1664, during a series of wars between the English and Dutch, English soldier Richard Nicolls captured New Netherland. The Dutch briefly regained control of parts of New Netherland in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, but surrendered its claim to the territory in the 1674 Treaty of Westminster, ending the Dutch colonial presence in North America. In 1664, the Duke of York, later known as James II of England, was granted control of the English colonies north of the Delaware River. He created the Province of New York out of the former Dutch territory and renamed New Amsterdam as New York City. He also created the provinces of West Jersey and East Jersey out of former Dutch land situated to the west of New York City, giving the territories to John Berkeley and George Carteret. East Jersey and West Jersey would later be unified as the Province of New Jersey in 1702.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Charles II rewarded William Penn, the son of distinguished Admiral William Penn, with the land situated between Maryland and the Jerseys. Penn named this land the Province of Pennsylvania. Penn was also granted a lease to the Delaware Colony, which gained its own legislature in 1701. A devout Quaker, Penn sought to create a haven of religious toleration in the New World. Pennsylvania attracted Quakers and other settlers from across Europe, and the city of Philadelphia quickly emerged as a thriving port city. With its fertile and cheap land, Pennsylvania became one of the most attractive destinations for immigrants in the late 17th century. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware became known as the Middle Colonies.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In 1670, Charles II incorporated by royal charter the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), granting it a monopoly on the fur trade in the area known as Rupert's Land. Forts and trading posts established by the HBC were frequently the subject of attacks by the French.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In 1695, the Parliament of Scotland granted a charter to the Company of Scotland, which established a settlement in 1698 on the Isthmus of Panama. Besieged by neighbouring Spanish colonists of New Granada, and afflicted by malaria, the colony was abandoned two years later. The Darien scheme was a financial disaster for Scotland—a quarter of Scottish capital was lost in the enterprise—and ended Scottish hopes of establishing its own overseas empire. The episode also had major political consequences, persuading the governments of both England and Scotland of the merits of a union of countries, rather than just crowns. This occurred in 1707 with the Treaty of Union, establishing the Kingdom of Great Britain.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: After succeeding his brother in 1685, King James II and his lieutenant, Edmund Andros, sought to assert the crown's authority over colonial affairs. James was deposed by the new joint monarchy of William and Mary in the Glorious Revolution, but William and Mary quickly reinstated many of the James's colonial policies, including the mercantilist Navigation Acts and the Board of Trade. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony and the Province of Maine were incorporated into the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and New York and the Massachusetts Bay Colony were reorganized as royal colonies, with a governor appointed by the king. Maryland, which had experienced a revolution against the Calvert family, also became a royal colony, though the Calverts retained much of their land and revenue in the colony. Even those colonies that retained their charters or proprietors were forced to assent to much greater royal control than had existed before the 1690s.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Between immigration, the importation of slaves, and natural population growth, the colonial population in British North America grew immensely in the 18th century. According to historian Alan Taylor, the population of the Thirteen Colonies (the British North American colonies which would eventually form the United States) stood at 1.5 million in 1750. More than ninety percent of the colonists lived as farmers, though cities like Philadelphia, New York, and Boston flourished. With the defeat of the Dutch and the imposition of the Navigation Acts, the British colonies in North America became part of the global British trading network. The colonists traded foodstuffs, wood, tobacco, and various other resources for Asian tea, West Indian coffee, and West Indian sugar, among other items. Native Americans far from the Atlantic coast supplied the Atlantic market with beaver fur and deerskins, and sought to preserve their independence by maintaining a balance of power between the French and English. By 1770, the economic output of the Thirteen Colonies made up forty percent of the gross domestic product of the British Empire.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Prior to 1660, almost all immigrants to the English colonies of North America had migrated freely, though most paid for their passage by becoming indentured servants. Improved economic conditions and an easing of religious persecution in Europe made it increasingly difficult to recruit labor to the colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. Partly due to this shortage of free labor, the population of slaves in British North America grew dramatically between 1680 and 1750; the growth was driven by a mixture of forced immigration and the reproduction of slaves. In the Southern Colonies, which relied most heavily on slave labor, the slaves supported vast plantation economies lorded over by increasingly wealthy elites. By 1775, slaves made up one-fifth of the population of the Thirteen Colonies but less than ten percent of the population of the Middle Colonies and New England Colonies. Though a smaller proportion of the English population migrated to British North America after 1700, the colonies attracted new immigrants from other European countries, including Catholic settlers from Ireland and Protestant Germans. As the 18th century progressed, colonists began to settle far from the Atlantic coast. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and Maryland all lay claim to the land in the Ohio River valley, and the colonies engaged in a scramble to expand west.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Following the 1684 revocation of the Somers Isles Company's Royal Charter, seafaring Bermudianses established an inter-colonial trade network, with Charleston, South Carolina (settled from Bermuda in 1670 under William Sayle, and on the same latitude as Bermuda, although Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, is the nearest landfall to Bermuda) forming a continental hub for their trade (Bermuda itself produced only ships and seamen). The widespread activities and settlement of Bermudians has resulted in many localities named after Bermuda dotting the map of North America.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The Glorious Revolution and the succession of William III, who had long resisted French hegemony as the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, ensured that England and its colonies would come into conflict with the French empire of Louis XIV after 1689. Under the leadership of Samuel de Champlain, the French had established Quebec City on the St Lawrence River in 1608, and it became the center of French colony of Canada. France and England engaged in a proxy war via Native American allies during and after the Nine Years' War, while the powerful Iroquois declared their neutrality. War between France and England continued in Queen Anne's War, the North American component of the larger War of the Spanish Succession. In the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of Spanish Succession, the British won possession of the French territories of Newfoundland and Acadia, the latter of which was renamed Nova Scotia. In the 1730s, James Oglethorpe proposed that the area south of the Carolinas be colonized to provide a buffer against Spanish Florida, and he was part of a group of trustees that were granted temporary proprietorship over the Province of Georgia. Oglethorpe and his compatriots hoped to establish a utopian colony that banned slavery, but by 1750 the colony remained sparsely populated, and Georgia became a crown colony in 1752.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In 1754, the Ohio Company started to build a fort at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River. A larger French force initially chased the Virginians away, but was forced to retreat after the Battle of Jumonville Glen. After reports of the battle reached the French and British capitals, the Seven Years' War broke out in 1756; the North American component of this war is known as the French and Indian War. After the Duke of Newcastle returned to power as Prime Minister in 1757, he and his foreign minister, William Pitt, devoted unprecedented financial resources to the transoceanic conflict. The British won a series of victories after 1758, conquering much of New France by the end of 1760. Spain entered the war on France's side in 1762 and promptly lost several American territories to Britain. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the war, and France surrendered almost all of the portion of New France to the east of the Mississippi River to the British. France separately ceded its lands west of the Mississippi River to Spain, and Spain ceded Florida to Britain. With the newly acquired territories, the British created the provinces of East Florida, West Florida, and Quebec, all of which were placed under military governments. In the Caribbean, Britain retained Grenada, St. Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago, but returned control of Martinique, Havana, and other colonial possessions to France or Spain.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The British subjects of North America believed the unwritten British constitution protected their rights and that the governmental system, with the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the monarch sharing power found an ideal balance among democracy, oligarchy, and tyranny. However, the British were saddled with huge debts following the French and Indian War. As much of the British debt had been generated by the defense of the colonies, British leaders felt that the colonies should contribute more funds, and they began imposing taxes such as the Sugar Act of 1764. Increased British control of the Thirteen Colonies upset the colonists and upended the notion many colonists held: that they were equal partners in the British Empire. Meanwhile, seeking to avoid another expensive war with Native Americans, Britain issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which restricted settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. However it was effectively replaced five years later thanks to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. The Thirteen Colonies became increasingly divided between Patriots opposed to Parliamentary taxation without representation, Loyalists who supported the king. In the British colonies nearest to the Thirteen Colonies, however, protests were muted, as most colonists accepted the new taxes. These provinces had smaller populations, were largely dependent on the British military, and had less of a tradition of self-rule.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: At the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the Patriots repulsed a British force charged with seizing militia arsenals. The Second Continental Congress assembled in May 1775 and sought to coordinate armed resistance to Britain. It established an impromptu government that recruited soldiers and printed its own money. Announcing a permanent break with Britain, the delegates adopted a Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776 for the United States of America. The French formed a military alliance with the United States in 1778 following the British defeat at the Battle of Saratoga. Spain joined France in order to regain Gibraltar from Britain. A combined Franco-American operation trapped a British invasion army at Yorktown, Virginia, forcing them to surrender in October 1781. The surrender shocked Britain. The king wanted to keep fighting but he lost control of Parliament and peace negotiations began. In the 1783 Treaty of Paris, Britain ceded all of its North American territory south of the Great Lakes, except for the two Florida colonies, which were ceded to Spain.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: With their close ties of blood and trade with the continental colonies, especially Virginia and South Carolina, Bermudians leaned towards the rebels during the American War of Independence, supplying them with privateering ships and gunpowder, but the power of the Royal Navy on the surrounding Atlantic left no possibility of their joining the rebellion, and they eventually availed themselves of the opportunities of privateering against their former kinsmen. Although often mistaken for being in the West Indies, Bermuda is nearer to Canada (and was initially grouped within British North America, retaining close links especially with the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland until the continental colonies were confederated into Canada) than to the West Indies, and the nearest landfall is North Carolina. Following the independence of the United States, this would make Bermuda of supreme importance to Britain's strategic control of the region, including its ability to protect its shipping in the area and its ability to project its power against the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, as was to be shown during the American War of 1812.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Having defeated a combined Franco-Spanish naval force at the decisive 1782 Battle of the Saintes, Britain retained control of Gibraltar and all its pre-war Caribbean possessions except for Tobago. Economically the new nation became a major trading partner of Britain.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The loss of a large portion of British America defined the transition between the "first" and "second" empires, in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific, and later Africa. Influenced by the ideas of Adam Smith, Britain also shifted away from mercantile ideals and began to prioritize the expansion of trade rather than territorial possessions. During the nineteenth century, some observers described Britain as having an "unofficial" empire based on the export of goods and financial investments around the world, including the newly independent republics of Latin America. Though this unofficial empire did not require direct British political control, it often involved the use of gunboat diplomacy and military intervention to protect British investments and ensure the free flow of trade.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: From 1793 to 1815, Britain was almost constantly at war, first in the French Revolutionary Wars and then in the Napoleonic Wars. During the wars, Britain took control of many French, Spanish, and Dutch Caribbean colonies. Tensions between Britain and the United States escalated during the Napoleonic Wars, as the United States took advantage of its neutrality to undercut the British embargo on French-controlled ports, and Britain tried to cut off that American trade with France. The Royal Navy, which was desperately short of trained seamen and constantly losing deserters who sought better-paid work under less draconian discipline aboard American merchant vessels, boarded American ships to search for deserters, sometimes resulting in the Impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy. The United States, at the same time, coveted the acquisition of Canada, which Britain could ill afford to lose as its naval and merchant fleets had been constructed largely from American timber before United States independence, and from Canadian timber thereafter. Taking advantage of Britain's absorption in its war with France, the United States began the American War of 1812 with the invasion of the Canadas, but the British Army mounted a successful defence with minimal regular forces, supported by militia and native allies, while the Royal Navy blockaded the United States of America's Atlantic coastline from Bermuda, strangling its merchant trade, and carried out amphibious raids including the Chesapeake Campaign with its Burning of Washington. As the United States failed to make any gains before British victory against France in 1814 freed British forces from Europe to be wielded against it, and as Britain had no aim in its war with its former colonies other than to defend its remaining continental territory, the war ended with the pre-war boundaries reaffirmed by the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, ensuring Canada's future would be separate from that of the United States.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Following the final defeat of French Emperor Napoleon in 1815, Britain gained ownership of Trinidad, Tobago, British Guiana, and Saint Lucia, as well as other territories outside of the Western Hemisphere. The Treaty of 1818 with the United States set a large portion of the Canada–United States border at the 49th parallel and also established a joint U.S.–British occupation of Oregon Country. In the 1846 Oregon Treaty, the United States and Britain agreed to split Oregon Country along the 49th parallel north with the exception of Vancouver Island, which was assigned in its entirety to Britain.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: After warring throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in both Europe and the Americas, the British and French reached a lasting peace after 1815. Britain would fight only one war (the Crimean War) against a European power during the remainder of the nineteenth century, and that war did not lead to territorial changes in the Americas. However, the British Empire continued to engage in wars such as the First Opium War against China; it also put down rebellions such as the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Canadian Rebellions of 1837–1838, and the Jamaican Morant Bay rebellion of 1865. A strong abolition movement had emerged in the United Kingdom in the late-eighteenth century, and Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807. In the mid-nineteenth century, the economies of the British Caribbean colonies would suffer as a result of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, and the 1846 Sugar Duties Act, which ended preferential tariffs for sugar imports from the Caribbean. To replace the labor of former slaves, British plantations on Trinidad and other parts of the Caribbean began to hire indentured servants from India and China.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Despite its defeat in the American Revolutionary War and shift towards a new form of imperialism during the nineteenth century, the British Empire retained numerous colonies in the Americas after 1783. During and after the American Revolutionary War, between 40,000 and 100,000 defeated Loyalists migrated from the United States to Canada. The 14,000 Loyalists who went to the Saint John and Saint Croix river valleys, then part of Nova Scotia, felt too far removed from the provincial government in Halifax, so London split off New Brunswick as a separate colony in 1784. The Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada (mainly English-speaking) and Lower Canada (mainly French-speaking) to defuse tensions between the French and British communities, and implemented governmental systems similar to those employed in Britain, with the intention of asserting imperial authority and not allowing the sort of popular control of government that was perceived to have led to the American Revolution.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The British also expanded their mercantile interests in the North Pacifc. Spain and Britain had become rivals in the area which came to ahead with the Nootka Crisis in 1789. Both sides mobilised for war, and Spain counted on France for support but when France refused, Spain had to back down and capitulated to British terms leading to the Nootka Convention. The outcome of the crisis was a humiliation for Spain and a triumph for Britain, for the former had practically renounced all sovereignty on the North Pacific coast. This opened the way to British expansion in that area, and a number of expeditions took place; firstly a naval expedition led by George Vancouver which explored the inlets around the Pacific NorthWest, particularly around Vancouver Island. On land, expeditions took place hoping for a discovery of a practicable river route to the Pacific for the extension of the North American fur trade (the North West Company). Sir Alexander Mackenzie led the first starting out in 1792, and a year a later he became the first European to reach the Pacific overland north of the Rio Grande reaching the ocean near present-day Bella Coola. This preceded the Lewis and Clark Expedition by twelve years. Shortly thereafter, Mackenzie's companion, John Finlay, founded the first permanent European settlement in British Columbia, Fort St. John. The North West Company sought further explorations firstly by David Thompson, starting in 1797, and later by Simon Fraser. More expedition took place in the early 1800s and pushed into the wilderness territories of the Rocky Mountains and Interior Plateau and all the way to the Strait of Georgia on the Pacific Coast expanding British North America Westward.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In 1815, Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost was "Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Provinces of Upper-Canada, Lower-Canada, Nova-Scotia, and New~Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, Vice-Admiral of the same, Lieutenant-General and Commander of all His Majesty's Forces in the said Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper-Canada, Nova-Scotia and New-Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, and in the islands of Newfoundland, Prince Edward, Cape Breton and the Bermudas, &c. &c. &c." Beneath Prevost, the staff of the British Army in "the Provinces of Nova-Scotia, New-Brunswick, and their Dependencies, including the Islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Prince Edward and Bermuda" were under the Command of Lieutenant-General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke. Below Sherbrooke, the Bermuda Garrison was under the immediate control of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bermuda, Major-General George Horsford (although the Lieutenant-Governor of Bermuda was eventually restored to a full civil Governorship, in his military role as Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda he remained subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief in Halifax, and naval and ecclesiastic links between Bermuda the Maritimes also remained; The military links were severed by Canadian confederation at the end of the 1860s, which resulted in the removal of the British Army from Canada and its Commader-in-Chief from Halifax when the Canadian Government took responsibility for the defence of Canada; The naval links remained until the Royal Navy withdrew from Halifax in 1905, handing its dockyard there over to the Royal Canadian Navy; The established Church of England in Bermuda, within which the Governor held office as Ordinary, remained linked to the colony of Newfoundland under the same Bishop until 1919).


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In response to the Rebellions of 1837–1838, Britain passed the Act of Union in 1840, which united Upper Canada and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. Responsible government was first granted to Nova Scotia in 1848, and was soon extended to the other British North American colonies. With the passage of the British North America Act, 1867 by the British Parliament, Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were formed into the confederation of Canada. Rupert's Land (which was divided into Manitoba and the Northwest Territories), British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island joined Canada by the end of 1873, but Newfoundland would not join Canada until 1949. Like other British dominions such as Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, Canada enjoyed autonomy over its domestic affairs but recognized the British monarch as head of state and cooperated closely with Britain on defense issues. After the passage of the 1931 Statute of Westminster, Canada and other dominions were fully independent of British legislative control; they could nullify British laws and Britain could no longer pass laws for them without their consent.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: United States independence, and the closure of its ports to British trade, combined with growing peace in the region which reduced the risk to shipping (resulting in smaller evasive merchantmen, such as those that Bermudian shipbuilders turned out, losing favour to larger clippers), and the advent of metal hulls and steam engines, were to slowly strangle Bermuda's maritime economy, while its newfound importance as a Royal Navy and British Army base from which the North America and West Indies Station could be controlled meant increasing interest from the British Government in its governance.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Bermuda was grouped with British North America, especially Nova Scotia and Newfoundland (its closest British neighbours), following United States Independence. When war with France followed the French Revolution, a Royal Naval Dockyard was established at Bermuda in 1795, which was to alternate with Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax (Bermuda during the summers and Halifax during the winters) as the Royal Navy headquarters and main base for the "River St. Lawrence and Coast of America Station" (which was to become the "North America Station" in 1813, the "North America and Lakes of Canada Station" in 1816, the "North America and Newfoundland Station" in 1821, the North America and West Indies Station about 1820, and finally the "America and West Indies Station" from 1915 to 1956) before becoming the year-round headquarters and main base from about 1818.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The regular army garrison (established in 1701 but withdrawn in 1784) was re-established in 1794 and grew during the Nineteenth Century to be one of the British Army's largest, relative to Bermuda's size. The blockade of the Atlantic seaboard ports of the United States and the Chesapeake Campaign (including the Burning of Washington) were orchestrated from Bermuda during the American War of 1812. Preparations for similar operations were carried out in Bermuda when the Trent Affair nearly brought Britain to war with the United States during the American Civil War (Bermuda had already been serving as the primary tran-shipment point for British and European manufactured arms which were smuggled into Confederate ports, especially Charleston, South Carolina, by blockade runners; cotton was brought out from the same ports by the blockade runners to be traded at Bermuda for the war materiel), and Bermuda played important roles (as a naval base, trans-Atlantic convoy forming-up point, as a connecting point in the Cable and Wireless Nova Scotia-to-British West Indies submarine telegraph cable, as a wireless station, and from the 1930s as a site for airbases used as a staging point for trans-Atlantic flights and for operating anti-submarine air patrols over the North Atlantic) in the Atlantic theatre of the First World War and in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War, when the already existing Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force bases were joined by a Royal Canadian Navy base and naval and air bases of the allied United States. It remained a vital air and naval base during the Cold War, with American and Canadian bases existing alongside the British ones from the Second World War until 1995.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In the early 17th century, English sailors had begun cutting logwood in parts of coastal Central America over which the Spanish exercised little control. By the early 18th century, a small British settlement had been established on the Belize River, though the Spanish refused to recognize British control over the region and frequently evicted British settlers. In the 1783 Treaty of Paris and the 1786 Convention of London, Spain gave Britain the right to cut logwood and mahogany in the area between the Hondo River and the Belize River, but Spain retained sovereignty over this area. Following the 1850 Clayton–Bulwer Treaty with the United States, Britain agreed to evacuate its settlers from the Bay Islands and the Mosquito Coast, but it retained control of the settlement on the Belize River. In 1862, Britain established the crown colony of the British Honduras at this location.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The British first established a presence on the Falkland Islands in 1765 but were compelled to withdraw for economic reasons related to the American War of Independence in 1774. The islands continued to be used by British sealers and whalers, although the settlement of Port Egmont was destroyed by the Spanish in 1780. Argentina attempted to establish a colony in the ruins of the former Spanish settlement of Puerto Soledad, which ended with the British return in 1833. The British governed the uninhabited South Georgia Island, which had been claimed by Captain James Cook in 1775, as a dependency of the Falkland Islands.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: With the onset of the Cold War in the late 1940s, the British government began to assemble plans for the independence of the empire's colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. British authorities initially planned for a three-decades-long process in which each colony would develop a self-governing and democratic parliament, but unrest and fears of Communist infiltration in the colonies encouraged the British to speed up the move towards self-governance. Compared to other European empires, which experienced wars of independence such as the Algerian War and the Portuguese Colonial War, the British post-war process of decolonization in the Caribbean was relatively peaceful.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In an attempt to unite its Caribbean colonies, Britain established the West Indies Federation in 1958. The federation collapsed following the loss of its two largest members, Jamaica and Trinidad, each of which attained independence in 1962; Trinidad formed a union with Tobago to become the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The eastern Caribbean islands, as well as the Bahamas, gained independence in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Guyana achieved independence in 1966. Britain's last colony on the American mainland, British Honduras, became a self-governing colony in 1964 and was renamed Belize in 1973, achieving full independence in 1981. A dispute with Guatemala over claims to Belize was left unresolved.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Though many of the Caribbean territories of the British Empire gained independence, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands opted to revert to British rule after they had already started on the path to independence. The British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Falkland Islands also remain under the jurisdiction of Britain. In 1982, Britain defeated Argentina in the Falklands War, an undeclared war in which Argentina attempted to seize control of the Falkland Islands. In 1983, the British Nationality Act 1981 renamed the existing British Colonies as "British Dependent Territories".


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Historically, colonials shared the same citizenship (although the Magna Carta had effectively created English citizenship, citizens were still termed "subjects of the King of England" or "English subjects". With the union of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, this was replaced with "British Subject", which encompassed citizens throughout the sovereign territory of the British Government, including the colonies) as Britons. Although historically all British Subjects had the right to vote for candidates, or to themselves stand for election, to the House of Commons (providing that they were male, prior to women's suffrage, and met the property qualification, when it applied). The British Government (as with the Government of the Kingdom of England before it) has never assigned seats in the House of Commons to any colony, effectively disenfranchising colonials at the Sovereign level of their government. There has also never been Peer in the House of Lords representing any colony. Colonials were therefore not consulted, or required to give their consent, to a series of Acts that passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1968 and 1982, which were to limit their rights and ultimately change their citizenship.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: When several colonies were elevated before the Second World War to Dominion status, collectively forming the old British Commonwealth (as distinct from the United Kingdom and its dependent colonies), their citizens remained British Subjects, and in theory, any British Subject born anywhere in the World had the same basic right to enter, reside, and work in the United Kingdom as a British Subject born in the United Kingdom whose parents were also both British Subjects born in the United Kingdom (although many governmental policies and practices acted to thwart the free exercise of these right by various demographic groups of colonials, including Greek Cypriots).


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: When the Dominions and an increasing number of colonies began choosing complete independence from the United Kingdom after the Second World War, the Commonwealth was transformed into a community of independent nations, each recognising the British monarch as their own head of state (creating separate monarchies with the same person occupying all of the separate Thrones; the exception being republican India). "British Subject" was replaced by the British Nationality Act 1948 with "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" for the residents of the United Kingdom and its colonies, as well as the Crown Dependencies. however, as it was desired to retain free movement for all Commonwealth Citizens throughout the Commonwealth, "British Subject" was retained as a blanket nationality shared by Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies as well as the citizens of the various other Commonwealth realms.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The inflow of coloured people to the United Kingdom during the 1940s and 1950s from both remaining colonies and newly independent Commonwealth nations was responded to with a racist backlash that led to the passing of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, which restricted the rights of Commonwealth nationals to enter, reside and work in the United Kingdom. This Act also allowed certain colonials (primarily ethnic-Indians in African colonies) to retain Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies if their colonies became independent, intended as a measure to ensure these persons did not become stateless if they were denied the citizenship of their newly independent nation.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Many ethnic-Indians did find themselves marginalised in newly independent nations (notably Kenya) and relocated to the United Kingdom, in response to which the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 was rapidly passed, stripping all British Subjects (including Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies) who were not born in the United Kingdom, and who did not have a Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies parent born in the United Kingdom or some other qualification (such as existing residence status), of the rights to freely enter, reside and work in the United Kingdom.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: This was followed by the Immigration Act 1971, which effectively divided "Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies" into two types, although their citizenship remained the same: Those from the United Kingdom itself, who retained the rights of free entry, abode, and work in the United Kingdom; and those born in the colonies (or in foreign countries to British Colonial parents), from whom those rights were denied.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The British Nationality Act 1981, which entered into force on 1 January 1983, abolished "British Subject" status, and stripped colonials of their full British "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies", replacing it with "British Dependent Territories Citizenship", which entailed no right of abode or to work anywhere (other categories with even fewer rights were created at the same time, including British Overseas Citizen for former Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies born in ex-colonies).


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The exceptions were the Gibraltarians (permitted to retain British Nationality in order to retain Citizenship of the European Union) and the Falkland Islanders, who were permitted to retain the same new "British Citizenship" that became the default citizenship for those from the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies. As the act was widely understood to have been passed in preparation for the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (in order to prevent ethnic-Chinese British nationals from migrating to the United Kingdom), and given the history of neglect and racism those colonies with sizeable "non-European" (to use the British Government's parlance) populations had endured from the British Government since the "end of Empire", the application of the act only to those colonies in which the citizenship was changed to "British Dependent Territories Citizenship" has been perceived as a particularly egregious example of the racism of the British Government.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The stripping of birth rights from at least some of the colonial CUKCs in 1968 and 1971, and the change of their citizenships in 1983, actually violated the rights granted them by Royal Charters at the founding of the colonies. Bermuda (fully "The Somers Isles or Islands of Bermuda"), by example, had been settled by the London Company (which had been in occupation of the archipelago since the 1609 wreck of the Sea Venture) in 1612, when it received its Third Royal Charter from King James I, amending the boundaries of the First Colony of Virginia far enough across the Atlantic to include Bermuda. The citizenship rights guaranteed to settlers by King James I in the original Royal Charter of the 10 April 1606, thereby applied to Bermudians:


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: These rights were confirmed in the Royal Charter granted to the London Company's spin-off, the Company of the City of London for the Plantacion of The Somers Isles, in 1615 on Bermuda being separated from Virginia:


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: In regards to former CUKCs of St. Helena, Lord Beaumont of Whitley in the House of Lords debate on the "British Overseas Territories Bill" on the 10 July 2001, stated:


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Some Conservative Party backbenchers stated that it was the unpublished intention of the Conservative British Government to return to a single citizenship for the United Kingdom and all of the remaining territories once Hong Kong had been handed over to China. Whether this was so will never be known as by 1997 the Labour Party was in Government. The Labour Party had declared prior to the election that the colonies had been ill-treated by the British Nationality Act 1981, and it had made a promise to return to a single citizenship for the United Kingdom and the remaining territories part of its election manifesto. Other matters took precedence, however, and this commitment was not acted upon during Labour's first term in Government. The House of Lords, in which many former colonial Governors sat, lost patience and tabled and passed its own bill, then handed it down to the House of Commons to confirm. As a result, the British Dependent Territories were renamed the British Overseas Territories in 2002 (the term "dependent territory" had caused much ire in the former colonies, such as well-heeled Bermuda that had been largely self-reliant and self-governed for nearly four centuries, as it implied not only that they were "other than British", but that their relationship to Britain and to "real British people" was both inferior and parasitic).


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: At the same time, although Labour had promised a return to a single citizenship for the United Kingdom, Crown dependencies, and all remaining territories, "British Dependent Territories Citizenship", renamed "British Overseas Territories Citizenship", remained the default citizenship for the territories, other than the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar (for which "British Citizenship" is still the default citizenship). The bars to residence and work in the United Kingdom that had been raised against holders of "British Dependent Territories Citizenship" by The British Nationality Act 1981 were, however, removed, and "British Citizenship" was made attainable by simply obtaining a second British passport with the citizenship recorded as "British Citizen" (requiring a change to passport legislation as prior to 2002, it had been illegal to possess two British Passports).


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Prior to 2002, all British Passports obtained in a British Dependent Territory were of a design modified from those issued in the United Kingdom, lacking the "European Union" name on the front cover, having the name of the specific territorial government noted on the front cover below "British Passport", and having the request on the inside of the front cover normally issued by the Secretary of State on behalf of The Queen instead issued by the Governor of the territory on behalf of The Queen. Although this design made it easier for United Kingdom Border Control to distinguish a colonial from a 'real' British citizen, these passports were issued within the territory to the holder of any type of British citizenship with the appropriate citizenship stamped inside. The "normal" British passports issued in the United Kingdom and by British consulates in Commonwealth and foreign countries were similarly issued to holders of any type of British citizenship with the appropriate citizenship, or "citizenships", stamped inside. From 2002, the thenceforth local governments of the British Overseas Territories in which British Overseas Territories Citizenship was the default citizenship were no longer allowed to issue or replace any British Passport except the type for their own territory only with British Overseas Territories Citizen recorded inside (and a stamp from the local government showing the holder has legal status as a local (in Bermuda, by example, the stamp records "the holder is registered as a Bermudian"), as neither British Dependent Territories Citizenship nor British Overseas Territories Citizenship actually entitles the holder to any more rights in any territory than in the United Kingdom, simply serving to enable colonials to be distinguished from "real British people" for the benefit of United Kingdom Border Control.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: Since 2002, only the United Kingdom Government has issued "normal" British Passports with the citizenship stamped as "British Citizen". Since June, 2016, only the Passport Office in the United Kingdom is permitted to issue any type of British Passport. Local governments of territories can still accept passport applications, but must forward them to the Passport Office. This means that the territorial pattern of British Passport is no longer available, with all passports issued since then being of the standard type issued in the United Kingdom, with the appropriate type of British Citizenship recorded inside; a problem for Bermudians as they have always enjoyed freer entry into the United States than other British Citizens, but the United States had updated its entry requirements (prior to the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., Bermudians did not need a passport to enter the US, and Americans did not need a passport to enter Bermuda. Since then, anyone entering the US, including US citizens, must present a passport) to specify that, in order to be admitted as a Bermudian the passport must be of the territorial type specific to Bermuda, with the country code inside being that used for Bermuda as distinct from other parts of the British Realm, with the citizenship stamped as "British Dependent Territories Citizenship" or "British Overseas Territories Citizenship", and the stamp from Bermuda Immigration showing the holder has Bermudian status. From the point of view of Bermuda Immigration, only the stamp showing the holder has Bermudian status indicates the holder is Bermudian, and that can be entered into any type of British Passport with any type of British citizenship recorded, so the United States requirements are more stringent than Bermuda's, and impossible to meet with any British Passport issued to a Bermudian since the end of June, 2016.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The eleven inhabited territories are self-governing to varying degrees and are reliant on the UK for foreign relations and defence. Most former British colonies and protectorates are among the 52 member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, a non-political, voluntary association of equal members, comprising a population of around 2.2 billion people. Fifteen Commonwealth realms, including Canada and several countries in the Caribbean, voluntarily continue to share the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as their head of state.


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: These colonies and territories (known, together with Bermuda, as British North America following independence of the United States of America) were confederated to form modern Canada between 1867 and 1873 unless otherwise noted:


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: The Thirteen Colonies, which became the original states of the United States following the 1781 ratification of the Articles of Confederation:


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: These present-day countries formed part of the British West Indies prior to gaining independence during the 20th century:


title: British colonization of the Americas

text: These British Overseas Territories in the Americas remain under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom:


title: Government of Canada

text: The government of Canada () is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the "Crown-in-Council"; the legislature, as the "Crown-in-Parliament"; and the courts, as the "Crown-on-the-Bench". Three institutions—the Privy Council (conventionally, the Cabinet); the Parliament of Canada; and the judiciary, respectively—exercise the powers of the Crown.


title: Government of Canada

text: The term "Government of Canada" () more commonly refers specifically to the executive—ministers of the Crown (the Cabinet) and the federal civil service (whom the Cabinet direct)—which corporately brands itself as the "Government of Canada", formally known as Majesty's Government (). There are over one hundred ministries, departments and crown corporations and over 300,000 persons employed in the "Government of Canada". (See Structure of the Canadian federal government) These institutions carry out the programs and enforce the laws established by the Parliament of Canada.


title: Government of Canada

text: The federal government's organization and structure was established at Confederation through the "Constitution Act, 1867"—as a federal constitutional monarchy, wherein the Canadian Crown acts as the core, or "the most basic building block", of its Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The Crown is thus the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of Canadian government. The monarch, , is personally represented by a governor general (currently Mary Simon) and is head of state. A prime minister (currently Justin Trudeau) is the head of government who is invited by the Crown to form a government after securing the confidence of the House of Commons, which is typically determined through the election of enough members of a single political party in a federal election to provide a majority of seats in Parliament, forming a governing party. Further elements of governance are outlined in the rest of the Canadian Constitution, which includes written statutes in addition to court rulings, and unwritten conventions developed over centuries.


title: Government of Canada

text: Constitutionally, the 's Privy Council for Canada is the body that advises the sovereign or their representative on the exercise of executive power. This task is nearly exclusively carried out by a committee within the 's Privy Council known as the Cabinet who collectively set the government's policies and priorities for the country. It is composed of ministers of the Crown and is chaired by the prime minister. The sovereign appoints the members of Cabinet on the advice of the prime minister who, by convention, are selected from the House of Commons or, less often, the Senate. During its term, the government must retain the confidence of the House of Commons, and certain important motions, such as the passing of the government's budget, are considered as confidence motions. Laws are formed by the passage of bills through Parliament, which are either sponsored by the government or individual members of Parliament. Once a bill has been approved by both the House of Commons and the Senate, royal assent is required to make the bill become law. The laws are then the responsibility of the government to oversee and enforce.


title: Government of Canada

text: In Canadian English, the term "government" is used to refer both to the whole set of institutions (executive, legislative and judicial powers) that govern the country (just as in American English, whereas in British English, the term used is "state") and to the executive branch (just as in British English, whereas the term in American English would be "administration"). When the word is capitalized, as in "Government of Canada", it always refers to the executive branch.


title: Government of Canada

text: In press releases issued by federal departments, the government has sometimes been referred to as the current Prime Minister's government (e.g. the "Trudeau Government"). This terminology has been commonly employed in the media. In late 2010, an informal instruction from the Office of the Prime Minister urged government departments to consistently use, in all department communications, such phrasing (i.e., "Harper Government," at the time) in place of "Government of Canada." The same cabinet earlier directed its press department to use the phrase "Canada's New Government."


title: Government of Canada

text: Canada is a constitutional monarchy, wherein the role of the reigning sovereign is both legal and practical, but not political. The Crown is regarded as a corporation sole, with the monarch, vested with all powers of state, at the centre of a construct in which the power of the whole is shared by multiple institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority. The executive is thus formally referred to as "-in-Council"; the legislature as the "-in-Parliament"; and the courts as the "-on-the-Bench".


title: Government of Canada

text: Though the person who is monarch of Canada (currently ) is also the monarch of 14 other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, nevertheless reigns separately as of Canada, an office that is "truly Canadian" and "totally independent from that of the monarch of the United Kingdom or the other Commonwealth realms."


title: Government of Canada

text: Royal assent is required to enact laws. As part of the royal prerogative, the royal sign-manual gives authority to letters patent and orders in council. Much of the royal prerogative is only exercised "in-council", on the advice of the Cabinet; within the conventional stipulations of a constitutional monarchy, the sovereign's direct participation in any of these areas of governance is limited. The royal prerogative also includes summoning, proroguing, and dissolving Parliament in order to call an election, and extends to foreign affairs, which include: the negotiation and ratification of treaties, alliances, international agreements, and declarations of war; the accreditation of Canadian diplomats and receipt of foreign diplomats; and the issuance of passports.


title: Government of Canada

text: On the advice of the Canadian prime minister, the sovereign appoints a federal viceregal representative—i.e. the governor general (currently Mary Simon)—who, since 1947, is permitted to exercise almost all of the monarch's royal prerogative, though there are some duties which must be specifically performed by the monarch themselves (such as assent of certain bills).


title: Government of Canada

text: The executive power is vested in the Crown and exercised "in-Council", meaning on the advice of the Privy Council; conventionally, this is the Cabinet, which is chaired by the prime minister and comprises ministers of the Crown. The term "Government of Canada", or more formally, "Majesty's Government" refers to the activities of the "-in-Council". The day-to-day operation and activities of the Government of Canada are performed by the federal departments and agencies, staffed by the Public Service of Canada, and the Canadian Armed Forces.


title: Government of Canada

text: One of the main duties of the Crown is to ensure that a democratic government is always in place, which includes the appointment of a prime minister, who heads the Cabinet and directs the activities of the government. Not outlined in any constitutional document, the office exists in long-established convention, which stipulates the Crown must select as prime minister the person most likely to command the confidence of the elected House of Commons, who, in practice, is typically the leader of the political party that holds more seats than any other party in that chamber (currently the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau). Should no particular party hold a majority in the House of Commons, the leader of one party—either the party with the most seats or one supported by other parties—will be called by the governor general to form a minority government. Once sworn in, the prime minister holds office until their resignation or removal by the governor general, after either a motion of no confidence or defeat in a general election.


title: Government of Canada

text: The executive is defined in the "Constitution Act, 1867" as the Crown acting on the advice of the Privy Council for Canada, referred to as the "-in-Council". However, the Privy Council—consisting mostly of former ministers, chief justices, and other elder statesmen—rarely meets in full. In the construct of constitutional monarchy and responsible government, the advice tendered is typically binding, meaning the monarch "reigns" but does not "rule", with the Cabinet ruling "in trust" for the monarch. However, the royal prerogative belongs to the Crown and not to any of the ministers.


title: Government of Canada

text: The stipulations of responsible government require that those who directly advise the Crown on the exercise the royal prerogative be accountable to the elected House of Commons and the day-to-day operation of government is guided only by a sub-group of the Privy Council made up of individuals who hold seats in Parliament, known as the Cabinet.


title: Government of Canada

text: The monarch and governor general typically follow the near-binding advice of their ministers. The royal prerogative, however, belongs to the Crown and not to any of the ministers, who only rule "in trust" for the monarch and who must relinquish the Crown's power back to it upon losing the confidence of the commons, whereupon a new government, which "can" hold the lower chamber's confidence, is installed by the governor general. The royal and vice-royal figures may unilaterally use these powers in exceptional constitutional crisis situations (an exercise of the reserve powers), thereby allowing the monarch to make sure "that the government conducts itself in compliance with the constitution." Politicians can sometimes try to use to their favour the complexity of the relationship between the monarch, viceroy, ministers, and Parliament, as well as the public's general unfamiliarity with such.


title: Government of Canada

text: The Parliament of Canada (), defined section 17 of the "Constitution Act, 1867" is the federal legislature. It is bicameral in nature and comprises two chambers—the elected House of Commons (lower house), and the Senate of Canada (upper house), whose membership is nominated by prime ministers—and the "-in-Parliament", who grants royal assent to bills passed by both chambers.


title: Government of Canada

text: A parliamentary session lasts until a prorogation, after which, without ceremony, both chambers of the legislature cease all legislative business until the governor general issues another royal proclamation calling for a new session to begin. A session begins with a speech from the throne, whereby the governor general or the monarch delivers the governing party's prepared speech of their intentions for the session. After a number of such sessions, each parliament comes to an end via dissolution. Since a general election will typically follow, the timing of a dissolution is usually politically motivated, with the prime minister selecting a moment most advantageous to his or her political party. However, the end of session may also be necessary if the majority of the House of Commons revoke their confidence in the prime minister's ability to govern, such as through a vote of no-confidence or if the government's budget is voted down (a loss of supply). While the "Canada Elections Act" mandates that members of Parliament stand for election a minimum of every four-years, no session has ever been allowed to expire in such a fashion.


title: Government of Canada

text: The Crown does not participate in the legislative process save for signifying approval to a bill passed by both chambers of Parliament, known as the granting of royal assent, which is necessary for a bill to be enacted as law. All federal bills thus begin with the phrase:


title: Government of Canada

text: Members of the two chambers of Parliament must also express their loyalty to the Crown and thus to Canada by reciting the Oath of Allegiance, which must be sworn by all new parliamentarians before they may take their seats. Further, the Official Opposition is formally termed Majesty's "Loyal Opposition", to signify that, though they may be opposed to the incumbent Cabinet's policies, they remain dedicated to the apolitical Crown.


title: Government of Canada

text: As a democratic tradition, the elected House of Commons (), while the lower house, is the dominant branch of Parliament and, as such, the Senate and Crown rarely oppose its will. Any spending bill must originate in the House of Commons and the prime minister holds office by virtue of commanding its confidence. The 338 members of the House of Commons, known as (MPs) are directly elected by Canadian citizens, with each member representing a single electoral district for a period mandated by the "Canada Elections Act" of no more than four years (though the "Charter of Rights and Freedoms" mandates a maximum of five years).


title: Government of Canada

text: Members of the governing party sit on the government benches, located on the speaker's right and members of the opposition parties on the left, with the Cabinet of Canada and prime minister, and shadow cabinet and leader of the Opposition across from one another (known as frontbenchers).


title: Government of Canada

text: The upper house of the Parliament of Canada, the Senate (), is a group of 105 individuals appointed by the Crown on the advice of the prime minister. Appointees must be a minimum of 30 years old, be a subject of the monarch, and own property with a net worth of at least $4,000, in addition to owning land worth no less than $4,000 within the province they represent. Senators serve until a mandatory retirement age of 75.


title: Government of Canada

text: The principle underlying the Senate's composition is equality amongst Canada's geographic regions: 24 for Ontario, 24 for Quebec, 24 for the Maritimes (10 for Nova Scotia, 10 for New Brunswick, and four for Prince Edward Island), and 24 for the Western provinces (six each for Manitoba, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta). Additionally, senators are appointed from two geographic areas not part of any senatorial division. Newfoundland and Labrador (since 1949 the "newest" province, although "oldest" English settlement), is represented by six senators. Since 1975 each of Canada's territories is represented by 1 senator—the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and (since its formation in 1999) Nunavut.


title: Government of Canada

text: The Crown is responsible for rendering justice and is thus traditionally deemed the "fount of justice". However, the monarch does not personally rule in judicial cases; instead the judicial functions of the royal prerogative are performed in trust and in the Crown's name by officers of the judicial system.


title: Government of Canada

text: The Supreme Court of Canada—the country's court of last resort—has nine justices appointed by the governor general on recommendation by the prime minister and led by the chief justice of Canada, and hears appeals from decisions rendered by the various appellate courts (provincial, territorial, and federal).


title: Government of Canada

text: The Federal Court hears cases arising under certain areas of federal law, and works in conjunction with the Tax Court of Canada.


title: Government of Canada

text: The powers of the parliaments in Canada are limited by the Constitution, which divides legislative abilities between the federal and provincial governments. In general, the provincial legislatures may only pass laws relating to topics explicitly reserved for them by the constitution, such as education, provincial officers, municipal government, charitable institutions, and "matters of a merely local or private nature," whereas any matter not under the exclusive authority of the provincial legislatures is within the scope of the federal parliament's power.


title: Government of Canada

text: Thus, the federal Parliament alone can pass laws relating to, amongst other things, Canada's postal service, census, military, criminal law, navigation and shipping, fishing, currency, banking, weights and measures, bankruptcy, copyrights, patents, First Nations, and naturalization.


title: Government of Canada

text: In some cases, federal and provincial jurisdictions may be more vague. For instance, the federal parliament regulates marriage and divorce in general, while the solemnization of marriage is regulated only by provincial legislatures. Other examples include the powers of both the federal and provincial parliaments to impose taxes, borrow money, punish crimes, and regulate agriculture.


title: Government of Canada

text: An emphasis on liberalism and social justice has been a distinguishing element of Canada's political culture. Individual rights, equality, and inclusiveness (i.e. a just society) have risen to the forefront of political and legal importance for most Canadians, as demonstrated through: support for the "Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;" a relatively free economy; and social liberal attitudes toward women's rights, homosexuality, abortion rights, euthanasia, cannabis use, and other egalitarian movements. Likewise, there is a sense of collective responsibility in Canadian political culture, as is demonstrated in general support for universal health care, multiculturalism, foreign aid, and other social programs. Peace, order, and good government, alongside an implied bill of rights are founding principles of the Canadian government.


title: Government of Canada

text: At the federal level, Canada has been dominated by two relatively centrist parties practising "brokerage politics:" the centre-left leaning Liberal Party of Canada and the centre-right leaning Conservative Party of Canada (or its predecessors). In the Canadian political spectrum, the historically predominant Liberals have positioned themselves more-or-less at the centre, with Conservatives sitting to their right and New Democrats occupying the further left. Smaller parties, such as the Green Party of Canada and the Quebec-nationalist Bloc Québécois, have also been able to exert their influence over the political process by representation at the federal level. Far-right and far-left politics, in terms of Canadian politics, have never been a prominent force in Canadian society.


title: Government of Canada

text: Polls have suggested that Canadians generally do not have a solid understanding of civics. This has been theorized to be a result of less attention being given to the subject in provincial education curricula, beginning in the 1960s. By 2008, a poll showed only 24 per cent of respondents could name the monarch as head of state. Likewise, Senator Lowell Murray wrote five years earlier that "the Crown has become irrelevant to most Canadians' understanding of our system of Government." As John Robson of the "National Post" opined in 2015: "Intellectually, voters and commentators succumb to the mistaken notion that we elect 'governments' of prime ministers and cabinets with untrammelled authority, that indeed ideal 'democracy' consists precisely in this kind of plebiscitary autocracy."


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The Berenstain Bears is a children's literature franchise created by the late Stan and Jan Berenstain and continued by their son, Mike Berenstain, who assumed partial authorship in 2002, and full authorship in 2012 following Jan's death. The books feature a family of anthropomorphic grizzly bears who generally learn a moral or safety-related lesson in the course of each story.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Since the 1962 debut of the first Berenstain Bears book, "The Big Honey Hunt", the series has grown to over 400 titles, which have sold approximately 260 million copies in 23 languages. The Berenstain Bears franchise has also expanded well beyond the books, encompassing television series and a wide variety of other products and licenses. While enjoying decades of popularity and receiving numerous awards, the series has been criticized for its perceived saccharine tone and formulaic storytelling.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Stanley Berenstain and Janice Grant met in 1941, on their first day of drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, where they formed an immediate bond. After being separated during World War II, during which Stan served in the Army as a medical illustrator and Janice worked as a drafter for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and an aircraft riveter, they were reunited and married in 1946. While initially working as art teachers, the Berenstains pursued a joint career in cartooning and gradually found success working together on illustrations, humorous sketches and cover art for publications including "The Saturday Review of Literature", "Collier's", "McCall's", "Good Housekeeping", and "The Saturday Evening Post". In 1951, they published "Berenstains' Baby Book", a humorous how-to aimed at adults and based on their experiences raising their infant son Leo in downtown Philadelphia. Nearly two dozen other books followed; described by Stan as "cartoon essays", the titles included "Marital Blitz", "How To Teach Your Children About Sex Without Making A Complete Fool of Yourself", and "Have A Baby, My Wife Just Had A Cigar!"


title: Berenstain Bears

text: In the early 1960s, the Berenstains sought to enter the field of writing for young children. For their first children's book, they chose to cast bears as the main characters, primarily because "bears are furry and appealing." Stan also observed that female bears are "terrifyingly good mothers" while the males are "lousy fathers". (The Berenstains did not consider the similarity to their last name in making the choice) In their 2002 memoir, they said that they knew from the start that their book would "have three characters: a bluff, overenthusiastic Papa Bear who wore bib overalls and a plaid shirt and ...a wise Mama Bear who wore a blue dress with white polka dots ... and a bright, lively little cub."


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The Berenstains' first bear story, titled "Freddy Bear's Spanking", arrived on the desk of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, who had found phenomenal success in 1957 with "The Cat in the Hat" and was now editor of a Random House series called "Beginner Books". Geisel took on the manuscript, but spent the next two years ruthlessly challenging the Berenstains to make improvements to the writing and structure and to connect with their characters on a deeper level. He asked questions such as "What kind of pipe tobacco does Papa Bear smoke?" and urged them to analyze the relationship between Papa Bear and Small Bear, to which Stan responded, mystified, "Well, he's the father, and he's the son"; however, Jan attributed the inspiration for the characters' dynamic to the 1931 film "The Champ".


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The book was finally published in 1962 under the title "The Big Honey Hunt", with no plans to revisit the bears in a sequel. Geisel had told the Berenstains to feature a different animal in their next story, as "there are already too many bears ... Sendak's got some kind of bear. There's Yogi Bear, the Three Bears, Smokey Bear, the Chicago Bears ... for your next book you should do something as different from bears as possible." They had started work on a new project featuring a penguin when Geisel called and told them: "We're selling the hell out of the bear book." The second bear book, "The Bike Lesson", appeared in 1964, featuring the names Stan and Jan Berenstain instead of Stanley and Janice; Geisel had changed the credit without consulting them. Geisel was also responsible for adding the name "Berenstain Bears" to the covers of the book.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Over the next several decades, Stan and Jan collaborated on hundreds of books from their home studio outside Philadelphia. After developing a storyline together, one of them (usually Stan) would develop a first draft, which the other would then refine into an 1100-word manuscript. They also worked together on the illustrations. In 2002, the couple released a memoir of their career titled "Down A Sunny Dirt Road".


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Their sons Leo and Mike also entered the family business. Mike became a published author and illustrator starting in 1976, and Leo published a book of short stories in 1992. In the 1990s, the men worked on the Berenstain Bears "Big Chapter Book" series (published under the names Stan and Jan Berenstain). Following Stan's death from lymphoma in 2005, Mike collaborated with his mother on writing and illustrating Berenstain Bears installments, while Leo has been involved with the business side of the franchise. Jan Berenstain died in February 2012 following a stroke. Mike Berenstain continues to write and illustrate new books in the series.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The Berenstain Bears, who reside "in a big treehouse down a sunny dirt road deep in Bear Country", consists of Papa Bear, an over-eager, bumbling carpenter; wise Mama Bear, a housewife and perfectionist; and their children, Brother Bear (originally Small Bear), and later additions Sister Bear and Honey Bear. Sister Bear was introduced in the 1974 book "The Berenstain Bears' New Baby." Honey Bear's imminent arrival was announced in early 2000 in "The Birds, the Bees, and the Berenstain Bears", along with a reader contest to name the new bear; her birth was featured later that year in "The Berenstain Bears and Baby Makes Five".


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The early Beginner Books about the bears generally follow a basic formula, so described by the Berenstains: "Papa sets out to instruct Small Bear in some aspect of the art of living and ends up badly the worse for wear, with Small Bear expressing his appreciation for the fine lesson Papa has taught him." According to "The Washington Post" Paul Farhi, "The action usually starts when the kids face a problem. They turn to Papa, who offers a "solution" that only makes the problem—or the kids' fears about it—even worse. Enter Mama, who eventually sets everyone straight."


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The litany of issues confronted by the Berenstain Bears over their fifty years of publication includes bullying, messiness, poor sportsmanship, visiting the dentist, online safety, and childhood obesity, among countless others. The Berenstains often drew inspiration from their own family experiences, which Stan credited for the series' continued relevance: "Kids still tell fibs and they mess up their rooms and they still throw tantrums in the supermarket ... Nobody gets shot. No violence. There are problems, but they're the kind of typical family problems everyone goes through." The couple also pointed out, in response to criticism of the characterization of Papa and Mama Bear, that the characters were heavily inspired by Stan and Jan Berenstain themselves.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The "Berenstain Bears" series had sold over 240 million copies by 2003. Of their books, 35 are in the Publishers Weekly top 250 titles of all time, and 15 are in the top 100 children's paperbacks. The series has received praise and awards for its contributions to children's literature as well as condemnation for promoting outdated gender roles, simplistic and unrealistic messages, and not keeping up with the times.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Critics of the series have called it "syrupy", "unsatisfying", "infuriatingly formulaic", "hokey", "abominable", and "little more than stern lectures dressed up as children's stories".


title: Berenstain Bears

text: In a 1989 editorial titled "Drown the Berenstain Bears", "The Washington Post" columnist Charles Krauthammer lamented the popularity of the books, writing that "it is not just the smugness and complacency of the stories that is so irritating", but the bears themselves, particularly "the post-feminist Papa Bear, the Alan Alda of grizzlies, a wimp so passive and fumbling he makes Dagwood Bumstead look like Batman". He described Mama Bear as "the final flowering of the grade-school prissy, the one with perfect posture and impeccable handwriting ... and now you have to visit her every night. The reason is, of course, that kids love them. My boy, 4, cannot get enough of these bears."


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Upon the death of Stan Berenstain in 2005, "The Washington Post" published an "Appreciation" piece which many "Post" readers found surprisingly unappreciative in its tone. Written by Paul Farhi, who had previously rebuked the Berenstain Bears as the most popular example of a lamentable and misguided "self-help" genre aimed at children, the 2005 piece revived his earlier sentiments:


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Subsequent letters from readers condemned Farhi for expressing such harshness toward the recently deceased; one wrote, "In the name of fairness, please be sure to allow the Berenstain family the opportunity to someday retort in Farhi's obituary." Readers also defended the books' "warmth" and their enduring popularity among young children.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: "Slate"s Hanna Rosin drew criticism for the writing of Jan Berenstain's death, "As any right-thinking mother will agree, good riddance. Among my set of mothers the series is known mostly as the one that makes us dread the bedtime routine the most." (Rosin subsequently apologized and admitted she "was not really thinking of [Berenstain] as a person with actual feelings and a family, just an abstraction who happened to write these books".)


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The Berenstain Bears series has been awarded the Ludington Award from the Educational Paperback Association for their contribution to children's literature, the Drexel Citation from Drexel University, several Philadelphia Literary Children's Roundtable Honors, and many other state reading association awards. Following Jan Berenstain's death in 2012, acclaimed children's author Jerry Spinelli said that "the Berenstains made a wonderful and lasting contribution to children's literature". Author and professor Donna Jo Napoli said, "Those bears have helped so many children through so many kinds of challenges that kids face, in such a cheerful and kind of energetic way." "The Washington Post"s Alexandra Petri wrote that the books were "timeless, timely, and kind-hearted, like all the best literature", and acknowledged the "Post"s 1989 piece by saying, "This is one of the times the kids have the right idea and Charles Krauthammer does not."


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Since the Berenstain Bears' creation, the characters have been widely licensed for a broad array of products. The franchise exploded in size in the 1980s, when King Features began aggressively promoting the Bears to marketers amidst a surge in popularity following a series of animated television specials. As of 1983, the Berenstain Bears had been licensed to approximately 40 companies for more than 150 types of products, with projected annual sales of $50 million.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The Berenstain Bears first appeared on television in five animated specials on NBC, airing as follows:


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The first special starred Ron McLarty, Gabriela Glatzer, Jonathan Lewis, and Pat Lysinger as Papa, Sister, Brother and Mama, respectively. Most reprised their roles in the subsequent specials.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: From 1985 through 1987, an animated series titled "The Berenstain Bears Show" aired as part of CBS' Saturday-morning cartoon block. The series was nominated in 1987 for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming; it was also nominated that year for a Humanitas Prize in the category of Non-Prime Time Children's Animated Show.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: A second TV series, also called "The Berenstain Bears", debuted on PBS in 2003. The series was produced by the Canadian company Nelvana and consisted of 40 30-minute episodes adapted from the books. However, the series are considered separate adaptations and were never aired together. Even though the 2003 series is not a remake but a continuation of the episodes, some characters' personalities changed while other characters no longer appeared. (However, new characters appeared.) The original specials and TV series have a rustic design and interaction with other forest animals, while the Nelvana series completely embraced rural life with slower timing. Although Canadian laws required Nelvana to employ only Canadian writers and artists, the Berenstains provided detailed reviews of each script. They also sought to exert their influence on some details, according to Stan. "Our bears don't wear shoes, and Papa wouldn't wear his hat in the house ... And we try to keep complete, total banality out of the stories." Common practicalities of animation did force some minor costume changes from the books, such as eliminating polka dots and plaids. (This issue also occurred in previous animated series and specials. Only a limited amount of polka dots was allowed in the five specials.) The show's theme song is performed by Lee Ann Womack.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: In 2011, 20 episodes of the Nelvana series were dubbed in the Native American Lakota language and began airing on public television in North and South Dakota under the title ("The Compassionate Bear Family"). The translated series was a collaboration of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and the nonprofit Lakota Language Consortium, with Mike Berenstain and Nelvana waiving all licensing fees for the venture. "The Berenstain Bears" is the first animated series to be translated into a Native American language in the United States.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Several computer games and other software adaptations of the "Berenstain Bears" books have been released, including the following:


title: Berenstain Bears

text: In late 2002, an exhibit titled "The Berenstain Bears Celebrate: The Art of Stan and Jan Berenstain" opened at the James A. Michener Art Museum in the Berenstains' home of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and timed to coincide with the release of the Berenstains' memoir "Down A Sunny Dirt Road", the exhibit provided a retrospective of the couple's artwork, influences and techniques, as well as the evolution of their famous bears. The exhibit was subsequently hosted by the Rockwell Museum in 2003.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: In 2005, the Lied Discovery Children's Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, opened "Growing Up With the Berenstain Bears", an exhibition offering children the chance to experience life-size versions of Bear Country landmarks. The Youth Museum Exhibit Collaborative and the Berenstains themselves assisted in the exhibit's development. The exhibition visited eight other museums in the United States and Canada before returning to Lied Discovery Children's Museum in 2010.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, is host to a permanent exhibit, "The Berenstain Bears – Down a Sunny Dirt Road". Opened in 2008, the original exhibition features interactive 3D playsets such as Mama Bear's Quilt Shop, Papa Bear's Woodworking Shop, and Dr. Bearson's Dentist Office.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The off-Broadway musical "The Berenstain Bears LIVE! in Family Matters, the Musical" debuted in June 2011 at MMAC (Manhattan Movie and Arts Center) in New York City, after having toured the country in an earlier version. Originally scheduled to run from June to September 4, the show was extended through October and subsequently moved to the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre for an open-ended run. The show was produced by "Berenstain" fan "Matt Murphy", whose previous work included "Memphis" and "Altar Boyz". "Improper Magazine" called it "a genuinely enjoyable and enriching experience for kids", while "The New York Times" said that "little theatergoers will enjoy the actors" but the story was "a bit too tidy and tame".


title: Berenstain Bears

text: A planned "Berenstain Bears" feature film adaptation was announced in 2009 by Walden Media and director Shawn Levy, whose company 21 Laps would produce the film. The project was envisioned as a comedy with both live action and computer-animated elements, and an original storyline that would combine details from several "Berenstain" books. "I'd like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn't oblivious to the fact that they're bears", Levy said. Comparing it to the film "Elf", Levy said he thought the "Berenstain Bears" film would be "witty but never sarcastic". As of January 2012, the project was reportedly in the script phase, but the company's option has since expired.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: In 2007, the Berenstain Bears became the "spokesbears" for Prevent Child Abuse America. Said PCA America President and CEO Jim Hmurovich: "This is a great example of a socially conscious and child-focused business taking a stand on an issue that has great consequences for all of us. This helps us begin having a more honest conversation about how each of us has a role to prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation's children."


title: Berenstain Bears

text: The Berenstains were approached by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who asked them to write an anti-smoking book for children. They declined, but the idea did lead to a 1988 book about peer pressure, "The Berenstain Bears and the Double Dare". In 1997, they published "The Berenstain Bear Scouts and the Sinister Smoke Ring"; Florida governor Lawton Chiles purchased 600,000 copies of the book to distribute to children as part of his anti-smoking campaign.


title: Berenstain Bears

text: Beginning in 2008, a number of "Berenstain Bears" titles of a specifically religious nature have been released by Mike Berenstain. These include "The Berenstain Bears: God Loves You", "The Berenstain Bears Say Their Prayers" and a "Berenstain Bears" Bible – Complete New International Reader's Version written at a third-grade reading level. The titles are part of a series called "Living Lights" and are published by the Christian company Zondervan and HarperCollins.