Shortly after the ending of the Seven Years War between France and England, and after England assumed European control of North America, a number of North America’s First Nations, including the Anishinaabe, rose up against the French. After all, unlike France, most of them had not signed a treaty with the British.

In response England through its monarch King George issued a famous Proclamation commonly referred to as the Royal Proclamation of 1763. This proclamation is now part of the law of Canada. It has been called by the Supreme court of Canada, a defining moment in Canadian history. I shall return to it again and again. The Supreme Court also said it provided the impetus for the Robinson Treaties.

As the Mr. Justice Jamal of Supreme Court said, in the Ristoule case in 2024 dealing with the Robinson Treaties

“In the Proclamation, the Crown unilaterally asserted sovereignty over what is now Canada, but also affirmed pre-existing Aboriginal title and ownership of unpurchased lands. The Proclamation created special rules for the purchase and sale of “Lands of the Indians” to prevent fraud and abuse, prohibited private parties from purchasing such lands, and stipulated that they could only be surrendered to the Crown.”

One of the effects of the Proclamation was that colonial governments, in what is now Canada and the United States, were forbidden to survey or grant any unceded lands. This particularly riled the Americans who were expecting to develop and open up the west for American enterprise and government.  The Americans saw it as British interference. They hated this constraint and it was an important cause of the American Revolutionary War. The Americans wanted to control the continent.

As a result of the Royal Proclamation, colonial governments were forbidden to allow British subjects to settle on Indian lands or to allow private individuals to purchase them.  There was an official system of public purchases developed in order to extinguish Indian title. The English did not want anyone asserting claims to ownership which might lead to  a dubious foundation in law for such titles  as this would provide an insecure foundation for development. Settlers and business people all wanted secure title to land, or they would not invest in it.

Added to that, even the King of England realized he had no authority to simply take land from other nations in either English law or international law.  This meant that England would have to establish a sound legal basis for obtaining title from Indigenous people. This is part of the treaty making process and an important part of the motivation for treaty making by Europeans and later Canadians. Modern Canadians often forget about this context when they complain about treaties. In the view of the British and Canadian governments this secure foundaton was very important.

Americans had fewer scruples. They believed that conquest, if necessary, would provide a secure foundation.  However, its Indian Wars were horrendously expensive and the English and later the Canadians blanched at the thought of following the American lead. After 1776, Americans were spending about 1/4 of their federal budget on these wars

Added to that, even when King George wanted to assert jurisdiction over parts of Canada, as he did, he had to wrestle with this problem. Frankly, he also did not have the military strength to just take it all. So, King George had problems and the Royal Proclamation was his way of dealing with some of those problems. As a result, King George asserted jurisdiction but also recognized the limitations of doing so.