Who were known as the 'United Empire Loyalists'?

Discover Canada places the Loyalists at the heart of one of the most important migrations in early Canadian history. The guide records: In 1776, the 13 British colonies to the south of Quebec declared independence and formed the United States. North America was again divided by war. More than 40,000 people loyal to the Crown, called "Loyalists," fled the oppression of the American Revolution to settle in Nova Scotia and Quebec. So the answer the test wants is built directly out of the guide's own description: settlers who fled to Canada during and after the American Revolution.

The Loyalists were strikingly diverse. Discover Canada notes that The Loyalists came from Dutch, German, British, Scandinavian, Aboriginal and other origins and from Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Jewish, Quaker and Catholic religious backgrounds. Among the Loyalists with Aboriginal origins, the guide names Joseph Brant, who "led thousands of Loyalist Mohawk Indians into Canada." Around 3,000 black Loyalists — "freedmen and slaves" in the guide's words — also came north seeking a better life, and in 1792 some moved on to help establish Freetown in Sierra Leone, a new British colony for freed slaves.

The Loyalist migration mattered far beyond the immediate refuge it offered. The settlers reshaped the demographics of the British colonies that survived the American Revolution, and they help explain why provinces such as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick grew rapidly, and why English-speaking communities took root throughout what is now Ontario.

The phrase "United Empire Loyalists" is a name Discover Canada ties to a specific event — the American Revolution after 1776 — and a specific population — the 40,000+ people who refused to leave the British Empire and resettled instead in what is now Canada. Knowing this is part of the test's check on whether new citizens have read the guide's account of how Canada was settled and why English-speaking communities emerged in the Maritimes and central Canada.

The Loyalist story also fits a wider Discover Canada theme of accommodation. The guide stresses Loyalist diversity — Dutch, German, British, Scandinavian and Aboriginal origins, plus Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Jewish, Quaker and Catholic religious backgrounds — as part of building Canada's pluralist tradition.