Rebellions of 1837–1838
Rebellions of 1837–1838 | |||||||
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Part of Atlantic Revolutions | |||||||
The Battle of Saint-Eustache, Lower Canada | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Château Clique | |||||||
Upper Canada Family Compact |
Hunters' Lodges Republic of Canada | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
George Augustus Wetherall |
The Rebellions of 1837–1838 (
Atlantic context
Some historians contend that the rebellions in 1837 ought to be viewed in the wider context of the late-18th- and early-19th-century Atlantic Revolutions. The American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, the French Revolution of 1789–99, the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the rebellions in Spanish America (1810–1825) were inspired by republican ideals,[1][2][3] but whether the rebels would have gone so far as to usurp the Crown remains a subject for historical debate. Great Britain's Chartists sought the same democratic goals. Historians have tended to view the two Canadian rebellions and the subsequent US
Rebellions
There were two types of rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada. Many of the rebels (including Mackenzie) fled to the United States. Mackenzie established a short-lived "Republic of Canada" on Navy Island in the Niagara River, but withdrew from armed conflict soon thereafter. Charles Duncombe and Robert Nelson, in contrast, helped foment a largely American militia, the Hunters' Lodge/Frères chasseurs, which organized a convention in Cleveland in September 1838 to declare another Republic of Lower Canada. The Hunters' Lodges drew on the American members of the radical Equal Rights Party (or "Locofocos").[8] This organization launched the "Patriot War", which was suppressed only with the help of the American government.[9] The raids did not end until the rebels and Hunters were defeated at the decisive Battle of Windsor, nearly a year after the first defeat near Montgomery's Tavern.
Similarities
The constitutions of Upper and Lower Canada differed greatly, but shared a basis on the principle of "
The governments in both provinces were viewed by the Reformers as illegitimate. In Lower Canada acute conflict between the elected and appointed elements of the legislature brought all legislation to a halt, leaving the Tories to impose
In the midst of this crisis of legitimacy, the Atlantic economy was thrown into recession, with the greatest impact being on farmers. These farmers barely survived widespread crop failures in 1836–37, and now faced lawsuits from merchants trying to collect old debts. The collapse of the international financial system imperiled trade and local banks, leaving large numbers in abject poverty.
In response, Reformers in each province organized radical democratic "political unions". The Political Union movement in Britain was largely credited with the passing of the
Differences
Since the time of
The Lower Canada rebellion was widely supported by the populace, due to economic and political subordination of the French Canadians, resulting in mass actions over an extended period of time, such as boycotts, strikes and sabotage. These drew harsh punitive reprisals such as the restriction of civil liberties, the burning of entire villages, and imprisonment or exile of hundreds of men[15] by government troops and militias, which had been concentrated in Lower Canada to deal with the crisis. By contrast, the Upper Canada Rebellion was not as broadly supported by local populations, was quickly quelled by relatively small numbers of pro-government militias and volunteers and was consequently less widespread and brutal by comparison.[citation needed]
Aftermath
Those rebels who were arrested in Upper Canada following the 1837 uprisings were put on trial, and most were found guilty of
The root cause of resentment in Upper Canada was not so much against distant rulers in Britain, but rather against the corruption and injustice by local politicians—the so-called "Family Compact". However, the rebels were not really convicted because their views aligned with the liberalism of the US, and thus caused some kind of offence to the Tory values of the Canadian colonies. Rather, as revealed in the ruling of
After the rebellions died down, more moderate reformers, such as the political partners
In geopolitical terms the Rebellions and the subsequent Patriot War altered the landscape of relations between Britain and British colonial authorities on one hand, and the American government on the other. Both nations were dedicated to a peace policy due to a budding financial crisis and to a sense of perceived disadvantage which both felt equally. Both were legitimately concerned about the disruption in relations which radical ideas might foment through further rebellion and raids. An unprecedented level of cooperation occurred in diplomatic and military circles. Far from the Rebellions being entirely domestic events, the administration of American president Martin Van Buren had little choice but to implement mitigating measures on US soil to prevent escalation. As they evolved into the Patriot War, the Rebellions contributed to the construction of more recent Anglo-American and Canada-US relations.[20]
Legacy
In 1937, exactly one century after the Rebellion, the names of William Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau were applied to the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion or the Mac-Paps, a battalion of officially unrecognised Canadian volunteers who fought on the Republican side in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. In memory of their heritage, the group fought to the rallying cry "The Spirit of 1837 Lives on!"[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ Ducharme, Michel (2010) Le concept de liberté au Canada à l'époque des Révolutions atlantiques (1776–1838) McGill/Queens University Press: Montreal/Kingston. The book was awarded the John A. MacDonald award for best book 2010 by the Canadian Historical Association
- ^ "The Last Chapter of the Atlantic Revolution: The 1837–38 Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. 116 (2): 413–430. 2006.
- ^ Wim Klooster, Revolutions in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History (2009)
- .
- ^ Romney, Paul (1999). Getting it Wrong: How Canadians Forgot their Past and Imperilled Confederation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 57–71.
- ^ Michel Ducharme, "Closing the Last Chapter of the Atlantic Revolution: The 1837–38 Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Oct 2006, Vol. 116 Issue 2, pp 413–430
- ^ Schrauwers, Albert (2009). Union is Strength: W.L. Mackenzie, the Children of Peace, and the Emergence of Joint Stock Democracy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 181ff.
- S2CID 142863197.
- ^ Kinchen, Oscar A. (1956). The Rise and Fall of the Patriot Hunters. New York: Bookman Associates. pp. 31–48.
- ^ McNairn, Jeffrey (2000). The Capacity to Judge: Public Opinion and Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada 1791–1854. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 23–62.
- .
- .
- .
- .
- ^ Allan Greer (1993). The Patriots and the People: The Rebellion of 1837 in Rural Lower Canada. University of Toronto Press. p. 4.
- ^ Peppiatt, Liam. "Chapter 34: The Jails of the County". Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto Revisited.
- ^ Fierlbeck, Katherine (1 July 2007). "Canada: more liberal than Tory? A new book puts the country's bedrock beliefs under a microscope. (The Canadian Founding: John Locke and Parliament) (Book review)". Literary Review of Canada (July 2007). Toronto: Literary Review of Canada, Inc. Archived from the original on 2 May 2008. Retrieved 8 February 2009.
- ^ John George Lambton Earl of Durham (1839). Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America: Text of the report. Clarendon Press. pp. 294–295.
- ^ John George Lambton Earl of Durham (1839). Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America: Text of the report. Clarendon Press. p. 296.
- S2CID 155365033.
Further reading
- Brown, Richard. Rebellion in Canada, 1837–1885: Autocracy, Rebellion and Liberty (Volume 1) ((2012) excerpt volume 1; Rebellion in Canada, 1837–1885, Volume 2: The Irish, the Fenians and the Metis (2012) excerpt for volume 2
- Buckner, Phillip. 2020. "The Canadian Civil Wars of 1837–1838." London Journal of Canadian Studies.
- Ducharme, Michel (2006). "Closing the Last Chapter of the Atlantic Revolution: The 1837–38 Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. 116 (2): 413–430.
- Dunning, Tom (2009). "The Canadian Rebellions of 1837 and 1838 as a Borderland War: A Retrospective". Ontario History. 101 (2): 129–141. .
- Greer, Allan. The patriots and the people: the rebellion of 1837 in rural Lower Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 0-8020-6930-4 (2003) excerpt and text search
- Schull, Joseph. Rebellion: The Rising in French Canada, 1837 (1996)
Primary sources
- Greenwood, F. Murray, and Barry Wright (2 vol 1996, 2002) Canadian state trials – Rebellion and invasion in the Canadas, 1837–1839 Society for Canadian Legal History by University of Toronto Press, ISBN 0-8020-0913-1
External links
- Chart of British Regiments serving in the Canadian Rebellions of 1837–1838
- The Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada: A Collection of Documents. Edited by Colin Read and Ronald J. Stagg and Published by the Champlain Society, 1985.