HISTORY 30: Possible Essay Topics & Questions



HISTORY 30: Possible Essay Topics & Questions

The following list presents a number of research topics that you might consider for your major paper. You are welcome to choose another topic if it is not listed here. Two key points to remember:

• Please come and discuss your paper with me as soon as possible. The earlier you start the more likely you are to produce a superior paper.

• These topics are simply that, topics. It is up to you to develop a significant research question concerning this topic. Remember the key words of ‘synthesis’ and ‘evaluation’ - avoid simple narration.

Topics:

1. Louis Riel and the Métis

2. The Manitoba schools question

3. The Maritimes entry in Confederation

4. Immigration policy and the West

5. Woman and farm life in Canada

6. Agricultural policy in Canada

7. The National Policy and industrial development

8. Heartland and hinterland in Canada

9. Regional protest in Canadian state formation

10. Union development in Canadian history

11. Native Treaty rights in the nineteenth and twentieth century

12. Japanese internment

13. The Winnipeg general strike

14. Canada at War (Boer, World War I, World War II, Korean, etc.)

15. Canada's role as a peacekeeper

16. The Canada-Russia hockey series of 1972

17. Social Reform and the welfare state

18. Provincial-Federal relations

19. US-Canada relations

20. The protection of Canadian identity (CBC, NFB, etc.)

21. The Cold War

22. The Quiet Revolution in Quebec

23. Trudeau and the rise of Liberalism

24. The public and private sphere in Canada

25. The BNA Act and the 1982 Constitution

26. Ethnic minorities influence on social and political power

27. Religion in late-nineteenth-century Canada

28. Local markets versus staple industries.

29. Amateur sport in Canada

30. The Massey Commission

31. Bilingualism in Canada

32. The October Crisis

Questions:

33. In 1534, Cartier discovered a thriving native population in the St. Lawrence Valley. By 1606, this population had disappeared. Why?

34. Was the Fur Trade mutually beneficial for natives and newcomers?

35. Was the Conquest a positive or negative development for French Canada?

36. Compare the Loyalist experience in Upper Canada and the Maritime Colonies.

37. Did the Act of Union of 1841 solve the problems identified in Lord Durham’s Report?

38. Discuss the political, economic, and social impact of the 1832 and 1834 cholera epidemics in Upper and Lower Canada and the Maritimes.

39. Much has been made about who was Canada's greatest prime minister.  Who was the greatest domestic political leader prior to Confederation and explain your selection?

40. Did the pre-Confederation development of British Columbia differ significantly from the pre-Confederation development of Upper Canada?

41. How did British North America respond to the American Civil War?

42. Discuss the arguments against Confederation in Canada West, Canada East, and the Maritime Colonies.

43. Were the Red River Rebellion (1869) and the North West Rebellion (1885) justified?

44. Has Canada’s treatment of its Inuit population been better or worse than its treatment of more southerly aboriginal peoples?

45. Was the Liberal government of Alexander Mackenzie a failure?

46. Was John A. Macdonald's National Policy harmful or beneficial to the West?

47. Compare and contrast the lives of women in rural and urban areas of Canada in the nineteenth century.

48. Why was the Manitoba Schools Question so significant to the entire nation?

49. Assess the popularity and legacy of the Prohibition Movement in Canada.

50. Compare the promises made to one aboriginal group during the treaty-making process and the treatment experienced due to the Indian Act.

51. What was the significance of the Naval Debate of 1909-10? What did it say about Canada's internal and external situations?

52. In Quebec, women gained the right to vote provincially in 1940, about a generation after women in English Canada. Why the delay?

53. Is the concept of regionalism useful to understanding Ontario’s history?

54. Compare W.L Mackenzie King’s views on conscription during the First World War to his policy during the Second World War.

55. What was the state of the Canadian military in the inter-war period?

56. Who was E.P. Taylor and what influence did he have on business in Canada?

57. Did the experience of prairie natives during the Great Depression differ from the rest of prairie society?

58. How did the western provinces respond to the failure of the Rowell-Sirois Commission?

59. Why did Canadians go to war in 1939?

60. What impact did the Second World War have on First Nations?

61. Did the Second World War have a significant impact on the lives of women?

62. How did the federal government’s treatment of returning veterans after the Second World War compare to its treatment of veterans following the First World War?

63. What effects did the airplane have on Canadian society?

64. Why did Newfoundland enter Confederation in 1949?

65. Discuss the social role of one Canadian newspaper in the location of its publication.

66. What impact did John Grierson and the National Film Board have on Canadian culture?

67. What impact, if any, did the Cuban Missile Crisis have on Canadian foreign policy?

68. Why did Pierre Elliot Trudeau succeed in patriating the Constitution where Louis St-Laurent had failed?

69. Given the political, social and cultural climate of Quebec in the 1950s, explain how the Rocket Richard Riots of 1954 were about more than just hockey.

70. What was the impact of the Massey Commission on Canadian culture?

71. How revolutionary was Quebec's quiet revolution?

72. Discuss the causes of the rise of Quebec separatism.

73. Compare the northern development policies of any two of the following: a) the federal government; b) Ontario; c) Quebec; d) Saskatchewan; e) British Columbia.

74. What was the impact of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism on Canadian culture?

75. What was the impact of the federal government’s 1969 White Paper on Indian Policy?

76. What effect has technology had on women’s participation in the workforce?

77. What impact did Trudeau have on French-English relations in Canada?

78. Why has the Liberal Party declined in Western Canada?

79. Is the Liberal Party Canada’s “natural ruling party”?

80. Has Canada’s role in world affairs fulfilled Laurier’s prediction that “Canada will fill the twentieth century”?

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