Under Miles MACDONELL, Selkirk's choice as governor, an advance party was sent from Scotland to Hudson Bay in July 1811 and finally arrived on the Red River on 29 August 1812. A second group joined them in October. Macdonell established his base near the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers (now downtown WINNIPEG) with a subsidiary centre 130 km south at Pembina (North Dakota).

The settlers had difficulty becoming self-sufficient, and only the assistance of resident NORTH WEST COMPANY traders and local freemen enabled them to survive. Naturally bellicose and fearing that new settlers would strip the area of food supplies, Macdonell attempted to monopolize the region's provision trade through the PEMMICAN PROCLAMATION of 8 January 1814, by which he prohibited the export of provisions from the region. This threat to the NWC's transcontinental transportation system, which took provisions, especially PEMMICAN, from the area to supply its canoe brigades, led the NOR'WESTERS and their MÉTIS allies to retaliate.

In early 1815 the Nor'Westers seduced many colonists back to Canada by promising better land. Macdonell was arrested, the remaining inhabitants withdrew, and the settlement was burned. Later that year the colony was reoccupied under Colin Robertson, and Robert SEMPLE replaced Macdonell as governor. Continual complaint with the NWC led in 1816 to the SEVEN OAKS INCIDENT, after which the Nor'Westers again evacuated the colony. Meanwhile, Selkirk had recruited new settlers among the DE MEURONS, discharged mercenary soldiers, and was leading this group to Red River when he learned of Seven Oaks.

On August 13 he seized the NWC's FORT WILLIAM, which lay on his route, and on 10 January 1817 sent a force to retake Fort Douglas. When Selkirk finally arrived that July, he distributed land and restored the settlers' confidence, promising them schools and clergymen. Roman Catholic priests arrived in 1818, but not until 1820 did a Protestant missionary come, and John West was Anglican rather than Gaelic-speaking Presbyterian, a source of grievance to the Scots settlers for years.

Population grew slowly but steadily, composed largely of Métis (French-speaking Roman Catholics) and "mixed-bloods" or "country-born" (English-speaking Protestants), the former slightly more numerous than the latter. Despite continual conflicts over language, religion and class, a promising multiracial society was developing. The roots of its problems were economic, because of the colony's isolation. The HBC attempted to control commerce, although its limitations were made clear by the HBC's prosecution in 1849 of Pierre-Guillaume Sayer for illicit fur trading (see SAYER TRIAL) : the outcome was, in effect, free trade for the Métis.

Perhaps equally critical was the inability of the colony to provide suitable employment for an increasingly literate population, leading the younger generation to become extremely restive. When in the wake of CONFEDERATION (and without consultation with the colony's inhabitants or guarantees of their rights) arrangements were made to transfer the colony and RUPERT'S LAND to Canada, the stage was set for the RED RIVER REBELLION. The colony was reluctantly admitted to Canada as the province of Manitoba, its boundaries limited to the existing areas of settlement north of 49° lat.