Role Of Pre-Confederation In Canada

The Canadian Confederation was the process of establishing a new government within Canada during the 1860s. This was when three British colonies became the four provinces that would join under one government called the Dominion of Canada which was formed on July 1st, 1867. The provinces in the Dominion consisted of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. This event in history became important to Canadian society and was a turning point that lead to the current Canada. Even with this knowledge, the question rises: Why was Confederation so important to Canada? What lead to it? Was it truly necessary in Canadian history? In this paper, the importance of the Canadian Confederation will be discussed through its context and the events and

English and French Canadians have had one of the most complicated and intriguing relationships throughout all of history. Even though they share the prosperous country of Canada, they could not be more divided as a nation. Factors such as language, culture and political beliefs have separated these two vast majority of Canadians for a very long time. Throughout the last century, French-English relations have slightly improved over time, yet there is still an unstable peace between the two peoples. This will be clearly demonstrated throughout this essay, which will explore three critical time periods that changed French-English relations in Canada. Between the years 1914 and 1929, relations amongst the English and the French are shown to be very unstable and unpleasant, due to the events which occurred in that timeframe. Later on between the years 1930 and 1945, relations improved slightly because much was learned from the previous time period. In the years after, the unstable peace and division between French and English Canada, even to this day, was established.

Confederation itself was an incredible display of Canadian compromise and tolerance. George Brown (1867) congratulated Canada on confederation, impressed with the Canadian's ability to compromise between two separate peoples, the French and English, who have vastly different religions, cultures, laws, and languages, something European countries like Holland and Belgium, Austria and Hungary, and Russia and Poland have been historically unable to accomplish successfully. The Constitution specifically protects important French aspects including freedom of religion, language guarantees in Quebec, and French civil law.

As most Canadians may know, the land we know now as Canada was once the property of Britain and France- the countries that originally colonized Canada. After Canada was officially formed in 1867 and even prior to that event, there was much division among the Anglophone and Francophone populations, though a strong desire for freedom from the British Empire ran on both sides.

Canada was rushed into Confederation way too soon and has had problems due to this. Although through these past hundred fifty years, Canada has survived and is still going strong. Confederation started on July 1st, 1867 when three British Colonies came together to become four provinces. Although Canada went through Confederation, it is not a confederate association; it is a federal state which is not the supposed meaning of Confederation. Canada has evolved majorly since Confederation back in 1867.

British empire was in control of Canada, “a deep and complex transformation.” (Calloway, 112) British empire envision North America with field of action while the French spent the next two decade revenging on their loss with the Seven Years’ War and Treaty of Paris. Even though the French did not succeed in North America, eventually they migrated towards large swaths of Canada, The Great Lakes, and Mississippi Valley using their social systems and culture to survive. “The Interior French”, (Calloway, 123) were French-Canadian who lived beyond the Great Lakes country. They had formed an alliance within the Indians and having a good reputation with dealing goods. Louisiana went to Spain eventually, a few French migrated to Louisiana as a Peace of Paris. More settlers were French in Louisiana during the Spanish era instead of the French. Louisiana changes hand in Paris a couple times in 1763.

Canadian confederation was a process in which the British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into one government of Canada, on July 1 1867. However Canadian confederation did not just happen like that there were causes that lead to confederation. The causes which lead to confederation are; political deadlock, American civil war, the railway, cancellation of reciprocity treaty, and Britain creating her colonies self-sufficient. So today in this essay I will be discussing about the causes of confederation.

Conflict between Canada and the First Nations has been going on since the Europeans first arrived. After their arrival the First Nations way of life was hindered severely; The Europeans brought many diseases that the Aboriginal people were unfamiliar with and had no resistance to, or cure for. “By the 16th century about 80% of Canada's Native population had died from the various diseases (Renneboog, 5).” The Europeans also came to Canada with the intentions of taking all of the land for themselves, disregarding the people who occupied the land before them. Over time the Europeans had manipulated the First Nations to their will and the Aboriginals were discriminated for their different complexion, culture, customs, and way of life. But

Whereas the Upper Canada Rebellion was highly centralized on the fact that the “Upper Canadians” wanted an equal or separate state(Carmen,3),what distances this from the american revolution is the fact that this was not a national undertaking but a francophone-upper canadian bid for independence not a “Canadian” one.Although the Upper Canadian Rebellion did call on all people living in Upper Canada,it really was centralized to the UppeR Canada region,the reason the rebellion stayed so centralized,is due to both a language barrier and foreign influence in Lower Canada. Lower Canada,which extends into Quebec was a mostly French area of influence ,with mostly French language speakers(Library and Archives Canada), this language barrier made for a distinct sense of division between the Upper Canadian anglophones and the Lower Canadian francophones,this division made for a distrust of each side,so as a result it was impossible to gain support from the “opposite” Canada.This differs from the American Revolution because in the American Revolution,the language barrier was almost nonexistent, and the patriotism was spread throughout the nation and did not localize itself in only one

Since 1867, when Canada became a country, French and English relations have been one of the biggest issues in Canada. Throughout the decades, the debates and clashes between the French and the English Canadians led to increasing tension that threatened separation and disorder throughout the country. Through history, there were many occasions which weakened the bond of the two denominations. There are three defining moments that worsened the French and English relations. One of these events is the conscription crisis in World War I, which was a major political crisis that caused tension between the two groups.

During the years before Confederation, there was much happening in the colonies that would eventually unite to become the Dominion of Canada in 1867. The Fathers of Confederation were the architects of the plan that resulted in the proposal that would bring the individual British American colonies together under a Federalist system. There were three main conferences which were held and to be included as a Father of Confederation. These conferences were The Charlottetown Conference - 1864, The Quebec Conference - 1864, and The London Conference - 1866.

The U.S. wanted to take over the lands of Canada, and they were trying to convince the people of Canada, many of whom were American immigrants, that this would be a good idea. 4. Political Deadlock Canada West and Canada East had an equal number of representatives

The birth of Canada was unlike other nations; it wasn’t achieved by war or revolution. There were leading causes for confederation both inside and outside of Canada. Internal

There were two major problem that would grow in Canada. Those problems included religious and cultural differences between the native people and the new immigrants from Britain. The biggest conflicts happened between the Roman Catholic French and the English-speaking colonists. The natives to Canada were growing angry at Great Britain. Great Britain knew that in order to keep their new colony,

The economic domination of U.S cultural started to be a concerned to Canada. Canadian's wanted to protect their identity. Canada wanted to be away from the Britain to be a self-govern