colony · North America and Oceania
Red River Colony
Origins
In 1811 the Hudson's Bay Company granted Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, about 300,000 square kilometres of Rupert's Land for a farming colony. Scottish settlers, many displaced by the Highland Clearances, arrived in 1812 under Governor Miles Macdonell. The rival North West Company and its Métis allies saw the colony as a threat to the pemmican supply of the fur trade.
Rule and society
Conflict culminated in the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816, in which Governor Robert Semple and about twenty colonists were killed. After Selkirk's heirs sold it back to the Company in 1836, the district was governed by the Council of Assiniboia. Its population was mostly Métis and English-speaking country-born families living by farming, freighting and the buffalo hunt.
Decline and legacy
When the Company sold Rupert's Land to Canada without consulting residents, the Métis under Louis Riel formed the Provisional Government of Assiniboia in 1869. Negotiations led to the creation of Manitoba as a province of Canada in 1870.
On the connections map
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- Red River Colony was part of Rupert's Land1812 CE – 1870 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Red River Colony. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/red-river-colony
- MLA
- “Red River Colony.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/red-river-colony. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Red River Colony.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/red-river-colony.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Red River Colony’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/red-river-colony (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻