Multitudes of factors contributed to form the Canadian Confederation. From small political negotiations to full fletched conflicts, here are the seven major events that lead to its creation
• Changes in British Attitudes Towards British North America
• The American Civil War
• The Creation of the North-West Mounted Police
• The construction of the Transcontinental Railway
• Fenian Raids
• The Red River Resistance
• The Doctrine of Manifest Destiny
Changes in British Attitudes towards British North America
This factor is the most crucial event in the creation of the Canadian Confederation. The British realized that having separate colonies became costly to maintain so to counteract this problem, the existing colonies created their own government/federation to declare independence. This also
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A total of four raids occurred in attempts to invade Canadian territory. They strongly believed that if they took over the Canadian territory, they’d overthrown their government and political systems. After their fourth raid, they were overwhelmed by the British and with a crushing defeat. In the end, this affected the Confederation by showing Canadians that they should improve their military manpower to be better protected against future conflicts.
The Red River Resistance
The next major event was the Red River Resistance. In this event, Sir John Macdonald sent out surveyors to divide the Canadian land because the Hudson’s Bay Company had sold Rupert’s land to the Canadian government. This sparked an outrage with the Métis because they wanted to keep their current laws. Due to conflicts and arguments about the land, a surveyor was executed by the Métis leader which worsened the situation. In return for the surveyor’s death, the British Canadians ordered the death of the Métis leader which ended the conflict. The remaining Métis joined Canada and renamed their land to Manitoba.
The Doctrine of Manifest
The Red River Colony was a part of Rupert 's land, the Metis were afraid of losing their rights and land. Since Louis Riel was
When Confederation happened New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were thinking of joining with the other Maritime provinces to make their own confederation but John A. MacDonald convinced everyone to unify with Ontario. Many people living in the Maritimes didn’t want to join because they were worried about many things like not having an equal voice with Ontario and Quebec. They thought they had enough natural resources like fishing and mining and didn’t need the other provinces. There were positive and negative consequences of Confederation for the people in the Maritimes.
The Dominion of Canada purchased the Northwest Territory from Hudson Bay Company. Prime Minister John A. MacDonald decided a Federal Police Force was needed to establish governing authority in this huge territory. Reports of American Whiskey traders, especially those at Fort Whoop-Up, and the events that culminated the Cypress Hills Massacre was a big concern to bring law and order to this region. Planning began in the late 1800s. Creating a permanent force to safeguard Canada’s borders, posts and land.
with confederation we will have more taxes which means more money for the colonies together. we could do a lot more like building a railway connecting Canada west and east together, then we could transport goods and let people travel between colonies a lot faster. we also will be able to expand to the west and build
The Articles of Confederation provided the United States with a predominantly ineffective government that could not deal with problems at home and abroad. The country was unable to regulate commerce and effectively deal with foreign nations from 1781 to 1789. Although there were some advantages to the first constitution, the issues caused by the document greatly outweighed the benefits. The Articles of Confederation limited America’s ability to deal problems within its own borders and with foreign nations.
The Métis attacked the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) on the way to rescue arms and ammunition stored in Duck Lake. The government declines a Chiefs offer by not giving food to the Natives. The Cree immediately raids a fort for supplies. The Natives and Métis did not even try to negotiate in other ways, the Red River Army continues to attack until they are defeated by the Canadian Militia, the uprising went for 99 days, 88 people were killed and cost the Canadian government 5 million dollars. What Riel did matches the definition of Rebellion, he had organized attacks and went against the Canadian government with an armed
The people wanted a responsible government and the people were already rebelling before the initial Rebellions of 1837-1838. They were putting up campaigns to entice citizens to help in the charge to reform the country. Merchants in Upper Canada were expanding their trade, the fastest easy to transport goods was by water. The Canadas were building canals to make transportation faster, Lower Canada was slower than Upper Canada, they said that transportation wouldn't get better if lower Canada didn't spend more on canals. In Lower Canada, the seigneurial system was a good way of developing the colony, but when the seigneurs started to realize the British merchants in Lower Canada made more than the seigneurs, the seigneurs started to look up to the merchants, they started to raise the rent on their land.
The Articles of Confederation established a poor government. Many problems caused the government to be weak. One major problem with the Articles of Confederation was that the government had no power to collect taxes. This effect the government, because the government couldn't get money to pay the debts the US had or even for the army. This document had just formed a weak, poor government that had no power.
In 1869, the Metis rised a rebellion against the transfer of their territories from the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Dominion of Canada , and Louis Riel was their leader. After years of leadership and success , in 1884 Louis Riel was involved in another rebellion , but this was quickly crushed by the military might of the Canadian government , and Louis Riel surrendered. The Metis were defeated on May 12, 1885. Louis Riel was found guilty of treason ( which means the crime of betraying one’s country) and hanged as a traitor on November 16, 1885, Regina, Canada. The execution of Louis Riel was a huge defeat for the Metis.
Yukon joined the Confederation in 1898 after a gold rush movement boomed. The Canadian government named a second northern territory "Yukon" to show Canada controlled the territory. Saskatchewan also joined the Confederation in the same year with Alberta. Saskatchewan and Alberta was originally planning to unite as one province. However, members of the Confederation considered it was too large for a government to administer.
But Charles’ view of what occurred is told in a way in which shows that he has his own opinion on the matter, yet is also able to understand the reason of the Natives and Half-breeds actions and the lack of understanding with the government. Firstly, to some, the Canadian government in 1885 were considered leaders, to some enemies to other, but to Charles Mulvaney were a group of people with faults. ” It was forwarded to the Ottawa and contemptuously thrown aside. This was a fatal error in policy, which was yet to cost our country a heavy price in blood and treasure.” And “Had the Half-breeds but felt secure that the farms they had by hard work reclaimed from the wilderness would be safe from the clutches of the land-grabber, there would have been no rebellion” .
There weren't many representatives of the Metis in the North-West Territories Government. This was one of the reasons why the rebellion started. After the Metis could become representatives during 1880, the Federal Government didn’t talk about/look over the petitions the Metis made. The Metis wanted a title and didn’t want to be driven out like in Manitoba. This led to the Red River Resistance.
One of the major problems with the Articles of Confederation is that power was established state by state and limited power to a central government. The Constitution fixed this by balancing powers between the states and the Federal government. Also they created three branches of government: legislative, judiciary, and executive. Other solutions to the Articles of Confederation made by the Constitution were levying taxes by Congress, Congress having the right to control trade between states and countries, amendments became easier to ratify, and the executive branch had the power of checks and
The Articles of Confederation were put into effect to form some semblance of a central government, to keep peace between the states and to keep individual states from conducting foreign diplomacy on their own. Unfortunately the articles were flawed and gave the existing government little to no power. Federalism was the number one weakness of the Articles of Confederation. Without a separation of powers this type of government was bound to fail. Levying taxes was a much needed change to the Articles of Confederation.
In the essay, “Federalism, Nationalism, and Reason”, Pierre Trudeau addresses the history and origins of self-determination and nationalism and its central role in federal statehood, he then discusses the interactions of federalism and nationalism in a Canadian context. Trudeau posits major arguments that will be assessed in this review. First, he postures that that the federal state is driven by self-determination and nationalism, which ultimately makes it unstable due to its foundation in emotionalism rather than reason. Second, Trudeau outlines the historical factors that resulted in the separatist narrative in Quebec and claims that Canadian nationalism cannot combat Quebec’s regional nationalism. Trudeau begins the essay with a historical