French Canada: The Rise and Decline of a "Church-Nation"‪.‬

French-Canadian Catholic nationalism (2) was at first an outgrowth of the incorporation of a conquered New France within the British Empire; later on it was sustained by the ideological rivalry between French and English Canadians in defining the country they shared. As a conquered people, French Canadians were subjects of an alien sovereign, who, moreover, was head of the established Anglican Church. But, paradoxically, the British Crown, symbol of the imperial fie, was long seen as an ally in helping to protect the French-Canadian nation. In other words, French-Canadian nationalism was not directed against British domination; rather its goal was la survivance of French Canada, and with regard to that aim the Crown played a benevolent and crucial role. In the background, but playing an influential role, interactions with the American neighbor were also instrumental in nourishing French-Canadian nationalism. From the Catholic Church's viewpoint, the powerful neighbor personified one of the many threats to French-Canadian culture while it nonetheless remained attractive, for economic reasons, to thousands of French Canadians. One purpose of those promoting clerical nationalism was to find a middle ground where economic development would be fostered without damaging their tightly-knit society. This nationalism, if unrealistic, was not strictly speaking reactionary: it did not want to preserve a pre-industrial society even though it was no doubt genuinely conservative. It sought rather to slow the pace of industrialization and urbanization in the province of Quebec and to encourage some sort of French-Canadian control over the economy.