Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!utegc!utai!tjhorton From: tjhorton@utai.UUCP Newsgroups: can.francais Subject: le monde nouveau Message-ID: <3999@utai.UUCP> Date: Sun, 19-Jul-87 15:35:43 EDT Article-I.D.: utai.3999 Posted: Sun Jul 19 15:35:43 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 19-Jul-87 17:36:44 EDT Reply-To: tjhorton@ai.UUCP (Timothy J. Horton) Distribution: can Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 38 J'ai une questionne pour les etudiantes de la histoire: Quelles excentricites passes a conduissait a la situation du l'amerique du nord actuel, dominee par la langue anglais, quand les Francais et les Espagnol ont fait les efforts a prenner une piece de ce conntinent. Maybe I had better try in english: Why was it that english inhabitation dominated the formation of the New World, while both French and Spanish forces were taking chunks at the same time. Was it the social structures at the time, the home governments' policies, the state of affairs in Europe, the strengths of navies...? The reason I am asking is that had the New World been dominated by the French, the current language of technology and commerce would most probably be francais, as it was for a period of about 400 years. North American society (even California :-) would be a bastion of French hauteur: perhaps the English would be trying to sneak in in boxcars, and the Spanish (not necessarily Mexican) would be putting through "loi 101" to protect the spanish culture. No engulfing discussions about whether to include accents in computer postings :-) After all, it's funny that France is south of England, while Quebec is north of anything english. Was it that someone navigated better, or what? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy J Horton (416) 979-3109 tjhorton@ai.toronto.edu (CSnet,UUCP,Bitnet) Dept of Computer Science tjhorton@ai.toronto.cdn (EAN X.400) University of Toronto, {seismo,watmath}!ai.toronto.edu!tjhorton Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4 "Lobster quadrille, anyone?" -- Timothy J Horton (416) 979-3109 tjhorton@ai.toronto.edu (CSnet,UUCP,Bitnet) Dept of Computer Science tjhorton@ai.toronto.cdn (EAN X.400) University of Toronto, {seismo,watmath}!ai.toronto.edu!tjhorton Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4