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The emergences of Canada's two solitudes began after
James Wolfe led the British to victory over the
French colonialists at the
Plains of Abraham in 1759.[1] With James Wolfe victory came the end of the
Seven Years' War and the signing of the
Treaty of Paris (1763), France ceded almost all of its territory in mainland North America.[2] The new British rulers left alone much of the religious, political, and social culture of the French-speaking habitants, guaranteeing the right of the Canadiens to practice the Catholic faith and to the use of
French civil law (now
Quebec law) through the
Quebec Act of 1774.[3] This lead to the linguistic divisions of
Lower Canada and
Upper Canada.[4] Which left the autonomy needed for French Canadian merchants to form a fur trade union with new Scottish settlers.[1] This union culminated in the form of the
North West Company that was in direct competition with the British
Hudson's Bay Company.