France and Britain had been arch enemies for centuries. New France (Quebec) was taken over by the British. Ben Franklin had a newspaper in Montreal. You’d think there’d be some influence and rationale for Quebec to secede from Britain and join the US during the war of independence, but it didn’t. Why not?
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Many Quebecois did join the rebels. In fact they even created an entire regiment that fought at Saratoga and Yorkstown. But two things prevented large-scale rebellion :
1) Quebecois at this time were militantly Catholic, and saw joining a predominantly Protestant English country as a threat to the Clergy. The rebels institution of freehold tenure threatened the seigneurial system – which also threatened the power of the church. So clergy encouraged Quebecois to stay loyal to Britain or neutral.
2) the British Empire retained virtually impenetrable forts at Quebec City, and where the St Lawrence River connects with the Great Lakes near modern day Kingston. The Americans didn’t have road connection to this area and couldn’t field a powerful enough army to move it through very inhospitable bush to capture Quebec. They tried and it didn’t work, the troops were half starving and they had to retreat.
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