Vocab
When a powerful country extends its power and influence over other countries or territories, often by acquiring colonies and controlling their government, economy, and resources
What is imperialism
European colonizers used these documents in Rwanda to label people as Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa, turning flexible identities into strict ethnic categories.
Identity Card
As the HBC expanded, this First Nations group became key middlemen, travelling long distances and expanding trade far beyond Rupert’s Land.
Who were the Cree?
Under Canadian law, only certain Indigenous people were recognized as having specific legal rights and benefits. These included the right to live on a reserve, access health care and education services, and be governed under the Indian Act. Recognition required meeting specific criteria set by the government, and those who qualified were officially called this.
What is a Status Indian?
The TRC produced this set of recommendations aimed at promoting healing, justice, and improving Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples.
What are the 94 Calls to Action?
A way of thinking that assumes the European experience is the only or the best way to achieve something
What is eurocentrism
This strategy was used by European powers in Africa when they created borders and governments without considering existing cultures, often giving one group more power than others.
Divide and Rule
When Europeans first arrived in North America, they were outnumbered by First Nations, but they had tools and weapons — like muskets — that were far more powerful and desirable than traditional Indigenous weapons.
What were advanced European weapons?
From 1850 to 1996, the Canadian government and churches ran these institutions to force Indigenous children to abandon their culture and adopt European ways.
What are Residential Schools?
Created in 2008, this commission documented the history and lasting impacts of residential schools, gave survivors a chance to share their stories, and raised public awareness about this dark chapter in Canadian history.
What is the TRC?
A war between Britain and France, along with their colonies. It resulted in Britain gaining control of Canada.
What is the 7 Years War
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Rwanda’s president, Juvénal Habyarimana, was shot down, creating chaos across the country.
What ignited the genocide?
In 1670, Britain granted this company control over all land whose rivers drained into Hudson Bay, a region called Rupert’s Land.
What is the Hudson’s Bay Company?
The pain and psychological effects experienced by Indigenous people in residential schools didn’t stop with them — it was passed down to their children and grandchildren.
What is intergenerational trauma?
After the genocide, Rwanda set up these community-based justice systems where neighbours judged one another and sought truth and reconciliation.
What are Gacaca courts?
Created by The Royal Proclamation to separate settlers from First Nations.
What is the The Proclamation Line
Over 100 days, neighbours turned against neighbours, killing up to 1 million people with simple weapons — influenced by what they heard on the radio.
What does this demonstrate about the impact of propaganda?
In the 1700s, both the French and British were competing for land, trade, and fur in what is now Canada. With forts built, Indigenous trade established, and resources limited, this major conflict eventually erupted between the two powers.
What is the Seven Years’ War?
Residential schools were created to “kill the Indian in the child” and used religion, dress, and play to force Indigenous children to abandon their culture. This process of forcing children to adopt European ways is called what?
What is Assimilation?
The Rwandan Genocide shows what can happen when the world doesn’t act and old colonial divisions cause conflict.
What is the lesson of the genocide?
A law created in 1876 by the Canadian government to control and change the lives of First Nations people.
What is the Indian Act
During the Rwandan Genocide, UN peacekeepers could not intervene, and the UN delayed sending reinforcements — even cutting troop numbers after violence began.
What demonstrates how limited the UN’s role was?
Between 1871 and 1921, eleven agreements were made as part of a “cash for land” policy. First Nations often saw the money as a gift for sharing the land, while declining buffalo and fur-bearing animals made the agreements more urgent.
What are the Numbered Treaties?
Created in 2008, this commission documented the history and lasting impacts of residential schools, gave survivors a chance to share their stories, and raised public awareness about this dark chapter in Canadian history.
What is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)?
Rwanda banned ethnic labels, created a national day of remembrance, and built memorials to teach about the genocide.
What are ways Rwanda promotes unity?