Why was the Red River Settlement founded in 1812?

The Red River Settlement was founded in 1812 by Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of Selkirk, a Scottish philanthropist.12

Lord Selkirk established the colony primarily as a humanitarian response to the hardships faced by the Scottish Highland peasantry. He believed that emigration was the most reasonable solution to the widespread impoverishment and eviction of farm families caused by enclosure in Scotland.13

To facilitate this, Selkirk became a major shareholder in the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and secured a grant of approximately 116,000 square miles of land in the Red and Assiniboine river valleys, a region known as Assiniboia. While the settlement was intended to provide a new home for displaced Scots, its presence in the region led to significant conflict with the North West Company and the local Métis population, who feared the settlers' intensive farming practices would threaten their livelihoods and the fur trade economy.23