Canadian Revolution

Reputation as well behaved british colony

Northern territories remained loyal during the american revolution and wanted nothing to do with it

Northern territories ended up having their own armed revolution

Canada was a series of british colonies at this point

• Split into upper canada - focused on Toronto

• And lower canada -focused on Montreal

  • Majority french speaking population

• They both wanted wide sweeping reforms to the colonies

  • Both colonies were run by closed off and oligarchic collectives

  • Lower canada- Chateau Clique

    • Mostly Englishmen who wanted the french speakers to integrate into an English way of life

    • The population did not like them

    • Louis Joseph Papineau was he main critic

      • Leader of a group called the patriots

      • 1832- After some protesters in Montreal were shot by british soldiers, he sent a list of demands to british gov

      • Britain, along with the Chateau Clique decided they would not enforce any reforms

      • Tensions rose over the next 5 years

      • C.C attempted to arrest him

        • Fled to the US

        • His supporters started to resist gov attempts to round people up at protests

        • Turned into a full scale revolt against british rule

  • Upper canada

    • Family compact

    • Hostile to democracy

    • Both groups had critics

    • In upper canada- William Lyon Mackenzie

      • After seeing the uprising of lower canada, Mackenzie and his followers followed suit

        • They did well at first however the revolutionaries were defeated by local militia men soon after the declaration of the republic of canada by M

American volunteers

• Some americans took interest in the cause of the rebels

• They were sympathetic as they had just come off their own fight for independence from a government that was not treating them fairly

• Some americans formed groups - the Hunter brothers that helped with crossing the border and invading canada

• British troops killed americans, inflaming tensions

  • Both britain and america did not want war

  • They came to an agreement to suppress the amount of americans travelling to canada to aid efforts

By the end of 1838, rebellion in lower canada had been completely crushed

• Britain wanted to prevent another revolt

  • Durham report

    • They sent lord Durham to observe the conditions then recommend fixes

    • One of the rec's was the unification of upper and lower

    • Created canada as we know it