The Fenian Raids, Britains attitude towards the BNA's, American Annexationists

The Fenian Raids were a series of raids by the Fenian brotherhood, based in the United States, attacking Canada. The Protestants of Ireland were allies with the British, so they fought against the USA with Canadian troops. The Canadian troops won in October of 1871.

The American Annexationists are very proud and patriotic towards their country. They believe that the Americans will eventually take over all of North America and that it is their destiny to do so. There is a painting by John Gast that displays an angel leading the Americans into Canada and clearing the animals and Canadian troops. John O' Sullivan also provided what the Americans destiny was.

The British thought of the British American Colonies as picky in a way. In the late 18th century the British offered the colonies assorted goods but the colonies preferred treatment. Britain decided to stop serving the colonies because of their picky attitude to put into simpler words.

I personally think the British North American Colonies would be pushed together from being 'cut off' from the British goods. They needed treatment as they said and together they possibly achieve that. 

the early railways, corn laws, reciprocity treaty

So, In 1862 Canada began work on a railway. The idea was gotten form the U.S.A. and how it was successful there. Over the years of 1862 and 1872 the railway was given roughly 100 million acres of land. The railways had financial difficulties as it grew. They were put in a position where public expenditure, cash grants, land grants etc were needed.July 20th 1871, the agreement was made that the transcontinental railway will begin construction in 2 years and be finished in 10 years. Every time Canada tried to sell wheat but the buyer would back out, they tried selling to the maritime countries but they also soon backed out. Canada joined with the Maritime countries to sell the wheat.

In shorter terms, the early railway projects were constantly hitting financial problems. They were constantly in need of government assistance and in the end they did fill the gaps. They were focusing on government assistance more than how realistic some of the project was.

Rebellion of 1837 Essay

How significant was the rebellion of 1837 in achieving responsible government in Upper and Lower Canada?

                The Rebellion of 1837 is a great example of how our government learns from mistakes and builds upon them. The French-Canadians wanted to have a French-Canadian government and not have a British government which is understandable. The basis of why the French-Canadians rebelled was to rid Canada of British rule, so the French-Canadians came together and rebelled against it.

                During summer of 1837, Lower Canada broke into protests. The British tried to suppress it which made it only worse. French-Canadian militias came together to rise against the British. While this was happening in Lower Canada, Upper Canada was actually abiding the laws and proving to agree with them due to the amount of immigrants from Britain. It seemed quite successful in Upper Canada.

                The Upper Canadian Governors were referred to as the Family Compact because they weren’t elected by the people, but by the Lower Canadian government. Rebels from northern United States also lent a hand in setting things straight by bringing back the rebellion in late 1837. The consequences were worse this time around with more people put in jails, more hung and over fifty people sent to Australia.

                The main causes of the rebellion were the citizens over time becoming more aware of how corrupt the system really was in Canada. So tension built and the citizens rebelled against the idea of Upper Canada and Lower Canada having two separate groups that control the entire country. Another thing that gave the advantage to the British was since Upper Canada had less people, and having most of them be British, their needs were met more than Lower Canada with around 10 times more people and the majority of them being French-Canadian.

                In Conclusion, the rebellion of 1837 was a building block of today’s government. We learned that the citizens of Canada won’t sit back and let the government push them around. They also listen to the people’s needs more than then. Before they didn’t care all too much about the population, just themselves. Now, the people within the country matter to the government more. They will always be improving.