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Rebellion and Change in Upper and Lower Canada;

Immigration After 1815 Class 08

History 260

1 November 2016

Pacific Coast Fur Trade • Russian exploration of the Alaska / Northern BC Coast

� Bering’s massive expedition (1741) � Sparks early Russian trade in sea otter pelts [traded in China] � Colonization of Alaska (1780s onward)

• Russian American Company (1799) � State-chartered company granted monopoly (down to 55º) � Sustained conflict with Tlingit peoples (Alaska, northern BC)

� Attack on Sitka (1802)

• Spanish claim on Pacific Coast � First made in 1513; reinforced with Magellan Expedition (1519-21) � Concern over Russian fur trade pushes Spain to assert its claim � Overall goal = preserve control up to California

• Spanish expedition (Juan Perez,1774) � Trade with Haida and Nu-chan-ulth First Nations � No Spanish settlement presence north of California

Pacific Exploration [1760s-70s] • Significant competition between Britain and France

• Motives � Commercial � Prestige � Scientific (linked to military and commercial)

• Captain James Cook � The utmost patience and forbearance with respect to the Natives of the several lands

where the ship may touch...They are the natural, and in the strictest sense of the word, the legal possessors of the several regions they inhabit. No European Nation has a right to occupy any part of their country, or settle among them without their voluntary consent - Instructions given to Cook

• Arrival in ‘Nootka Sound’ (1778) � Extensive dealings with Nu-chan-ulth peoples

• Cook killed in Hawaii on return voyage � Crew sells sea otter pelts for massive profit � Publication of Cook’s journals sparks fur rush

Pacific Fur Trade (1780s-1820s) • Russia continues to dominate northern trade

� Does not expand presence south of 55 latitude

• Spanish shut out of Pacific Coast � War scare with Great Britain

� Spanish conflict with John Meares (1789) � Nootka Crisis and Nootka Conventions (1789-95)

• American Domination (1795-1820) � British Pacific trade disrupted by Napoleonic Wars � British trade limited by East India Company monopoly � Americans search for new markets (post-1783)

• Nature of the trade – far less systematic than land trade � Most captains came for one voyage (huge commitment)

� Lacked regular, reliable commercial information � No long-term stake in regional diplomacy

� Significant debate over level of violence

• Impact on First Nations communities � Limited overall impact (transient Euro-American presence) � Increased wealth of particular chiefs

War of 1812: Origins [1807-12] ◦ Stalemate in Napoleonic War

� Britain: Naval power, can’t beat France on land � France: Land power, can’t beat Britain at sea

◦ British trade embargo (1807) � Stop all trade with France (and occupied Europe) � Ships violating blockade could be seized � American ships the main target

◦ Sailors � British seizing US sailors, pressing into British navy

◦ Aboriginal Resistance: � Tecumseh’s War (1811)

� Sparked over Aboriginal land surrenders in American Northwest � Prophet (Tecumseh’s brother) advocates expelling ‘children of the

evil spirit’ � British gave secret support to Tecumseh

• American expansionists [“War Hawks”] � Drive Britain out of North America for good � Expectation that it would be a ‘mere matter of marching’

War of 1812: Combat and Strategy • British General (Isaac Brock) calls for preemptive invasion

� Morale (fearful of defeatism in Upper Canada) � Link to Tecumseh’s forces (and attract more aboriginal support)

• Siege of Detroit (1812) � Brock’s forces link with Tecumseh’s � Exceptional use of deception

• Queenston Heights (1812) � Effort to secure Niagara invasion route [Brock killed]

• New British general takes much more defensive strategy � American naval supremacy � Death of Tecumseh

• American invasion (1813) � Burning of York (Toronto)

• Stalemate (1813-14) � American disunity / British attack on Washington

Political Culture in Upper Canada after 1812 • Extremely anti-democratic culture after War of 1812

� Dissent/criticism taken as disloyal � To support government was to be truly loyal; to oppose it on principle was to be factious and

even subversive of good order, and hence was to menace the existence of the colony. � Emphasis on the continued vulnerability of Upper Canada

• Cult of Loyalism develops � Celebrated loyalist contributions to 1812 � Vilified lack of support from American born � Focused on minor examples of treason

• Loyalists referred to themselves as “Tories” � Deeply conservative

� Strong distrust of democracy (“Mobocrats”) � Influence of the French Revolution

� Celebrate the virtues/achievements of the British Empire and elite rule � Loyalists should monopolize power � Americans were a threat to Upper Canada’s survival

The ‘American Question’ • Election of 1816

� Loyalists win nearly every seat in government � ‘Late Loyalists’ virtually excluded

� Loyalists appointed to nearly all government positions (multiple overlaps)

• Americans deprived of rights in Upper Canada [1817] � No longer allowed to take oath of loyalty or acquire land � Major decline in American immigration

• Agitation led by Robert Gourlay � Scottish immigrant / colonizer � Agrarian radical (sympathized with tenant farmers vs. landlords) � Called for ban on American immigration to be overturned � Condemned the ‘vile, loathsome and lazy vermin of Little York’

• Suppression by the government � Seditious Meetings Act (1818) bans public meetings � Gourlay arrested for ”disrupting tranquility of the colony” 1819 � Eight months of solitary confinement and deportation

Reform Movement • Reform movement emerges in 1820s

� Targets the Tory monopoly on power � Tended to support rights of American-born and ‘Late Loyalists’

• Naturalization Bill (1825) � Sparked by activity of Barnabus Bidwell in Legislative Assembly � Stripped American-born of political rights

• Reform Movement targets Naturalization Bill � Inconsistent with British political tradition � Narrow rationalization for Tory monopoly on power � Succeed in getting Naturalization Bill overturned

� Americans (including new immigrants) can have land and political rights

• Variants of Reformers � Moderates: want share of political power / break Tory monopoly � Radicals: overthrow system, put in place much stronger democracy

Radical Reformers • William Lyon Mackenzie

� Scottish immigrant (arrives in Upper Canada in 1820) � Newspaper publisher and politician � Influences:

� American Republican Democracy � Radical political movements in Great Britain

• Clear divisions between Moderate and Radical Reformers (1834-37) � Radicals take organization into the countryside � Moderates start to distance selves from rhetoric of radicals

• British government interference � New Lieutenant-Governor appointed (1836) � Takes action to prevent Reformers from winning election (Orange Order) � Further radicalizes the Reformers

• Mackenzie plans for rebellion � Organizes militia in countryside � Plans march on capital

Lower Canada • Lower Canada on verge of social/economic crisis (early 1800s) • Key issue = lack of access to land

� Population growth (500,000 by 1830s) � Seigneurial system closed off

� Becoming more oppressive for those already in it � Rents dramatically increase for newcomers to the system

� Eastern Townships dominated by Anglophones [land speculation] � Shield fringe offered no serious settlement opportunities [timber barons]

• Peasant societies and land � Goal = passing land down to children � Lack of land disrupts entire social system

• Seigneurs � Positions secured by 1791 Constitutional Act � Lost opportunities in government and military

� More determined to collect their seigneurial rights and privileges � Strong opponents of elected Assembly

� Feared that taxes would be raised on seigneuries

Lower Canada • Educated but do not join the clergy

� Doctors, lawyers, clerks, journalists � Frustrated by lack of access to political power (and patronage)

• Active in politics � Elect significant numbers to the Legislative Assembly � Form Parti Canadien (1805) � Voice complaints in language of nationalism

� Win significant credibility in struggle with British governor (1809-11)

• Louis-Joseph Papineau � Leader of the Parti Canadien as of 1815 � Continued to push for greater Legislative Assembly authority

• War of 1812 � Creates greater tension in Lower Canada’s government

• Struggle with British Governor (Lord Dalhousie) in 1820s � “rabble of illiterate and ignorant peasants led by the nose by a handful of

ambitious, dishonourable, and dishonest advocates.”

• Demands Assembly approve budget spending for the life of the monarch

Lower Canada • Canal Construction:

� Papineau and Parti Canadien reject request for canal-building grants � Anglophones control transportation industry

• Merchants and Dalhousie unite vs. Assembly � Union Bill proposed by British government [1822]

• Papineau’s Objections to Union Bill: � Lower Canada to get only 57% of the seats (82% of population) � Anglophones given effective power � English to be the language of the Assembly

• Bill withdrawn by the British (1823) � Papineau uses issue to rally support for Parti Canadien [“Patriotes”]

� “notre langue, nos institutions et nos lois”

• Growing Radicalism � Up to 1830s: relatively moderate and broad-based � 1830s onward: increasingly radical

� Attracted to American and French republicanism � Key demand = full democratization of government

� Reduce power of the Catholic Church

Rising Tension [1830s] • Montreal Massacre (1832) • Papineau and the Ninety-Two Resolutions [1834]

� Call for fundamental reform of government � Greater French Canadian representation in Government [all levels] � Elected Legislative Council � Increase in the powers of the Legislative Assembly � Included threat to break with Britain

� Purges the Patriotes of remaining moderates � Government ceases to function by 1834

� Papineau builds support in the countryside � Newspapers and reading rooms � Mass meetings (following existing pattern of rural fairs) � Boycotts organized (buy French!) � Agricultural Crisis (1834-37) creates foundation of discontent

� Britain’s response: Ten Resolutions [1837] � Completely reject Patriote platform � Increase military presence in Lower Canada � Ban all further ‘seditious’ meetings

Our rights must not be violated with impunity. A HOWL of indignation must be raised from one extremity of the Province to the other, against the ROBBERS, and against all those WHO PARTAKE OF THE PLUNDER – newspaper editorial (21 April 1837)

Rebellion in Lower Canada (1837) • Patriotes start to take control of countryside

� Terrorize militia captains into resigning � Set up own courts [reject authority of colonial government] � Establish paramilitary force [Sons of Liberty]

• Governor orders arrest of Patriote leaders

• Battle of St. Denis � Patriote victory, but Papineau flees � Patriotes unable to follow up early success

� Chronic lack of supplies and weapons � No military training

• British victoires at Battles of St. Charles and St. Eustache

• Lower Canada under military occupation in 1838 � Approx. 250 habitants killed � Leaders executed or exiled to Australia � Papineau escapes to USA

Rebellion in Upper Canada (1837) • Mackenzie plans for rebellion

� Prepares Declaration of Independence

• Plan of Action: � Raise support in rural Upper Canada � Put into place leadership throughout the colony

• Outbreak of Rebellion in Lower Canada � Mackenzie’s hesitation

• Plan to march on Legislature in Toronto � Confusion over the date

• Small number of rebels appear in Toronto � Alerts Loyalists to their plan

• Bond Head rallies militia after initial confusion • Mackenzie insists on pushing forward with attack

� Routed by militia � Mackenzie flees to the United States

Durham’s Report and Act of Union • Lord Durham appointed governor

� Report on cause of rebellions � Upper Canada: very sympathetic to position of moderate reformers

� Outrages Tories � Lower Canada: ‘Two Nations Warring’ � I expected to find a contest between a government and a people. I

found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state: I found a struggle, not of principles, but of races: and I perceived that it would be idle to attempt any amelioration of laws or institutions, until we could first succeed in terminating the deadly animosity that now separates the inhabitants of Lower Canada into the hostile divisions of French and English

• Viewed French Canadians as backwards

• Advocated assimilation of French Canada

Act of Union (1840) • Recommendation#1: Government Reform [Britain rejects]

� More Canadian control over own affairs � Increase powers of Legislative Assembly � Responsible government

� Legislature approves appointments � Governor had to follow wishes of assembly

• Recommendation #2: Union [Britain approves] � Merge Upper and Lower Canada into one colony with one government � Believed French Canadians couldn’t be trusted with Resp. Government

• Act of Union creates single colony with one government � Structure of government remains the same � Upper Canada = Canada West � Lower Canada = Canada East � 42 seats each in assembly

� Gave effective power to Anglophones

Immigration to British North America • The problem of source material:

� Canadian census (prior to Confederation) � Emigration records (from Britain) � Cross-border migration (from USA)

• Approx. 750,000 from British Isles settle in Canada (including Atlantic) [1815-60] � 50% Irish � 30% English � 20% Scottish

• ‘British’ born replace Americans as largest foreign-born population � Most significant population growth = Upper Canada

• Factors determining rate of immigration: � Push factors – forces compelling people to leave a particular location � Pull factors – forces attracting people to settle in a particular location � Link factors – factors facilitating the movement of people between two locations

Phase One (1783-1815) • Limited emigration from Britain

� State policy (opposed to emigration) � Cost of transportation � State of the British economy � Warfare made emigration dangerous

• Main emigration = Scottish (15,000 to British North America) � Come from Western Highlands

� Fleeing rising rents

• General characteristics of early emigrants: � Middle Class (could finance own passage) � Families rather than individuals � Gaelic-Speaking and Catholic � Establish distinct communities

� Concentrations of settlement � Extremely conservative emigration

� Seek to maintain traditional communities

Phase Two (1815-60) • Large-scale migration

� Approximately 750,000 people emigrate from British Isles to British North America

• Greater Push Factors � Overpopulation [Malthus] � High unemployment after 1815 � Commercialization of Agriculture accelerates and spreads

� Smaller farmers getting kicked off of land � Wealthier farmers unable to subdivide land � Mechanization of agriculture (reduced labour opportunities)

• Pull factors � Availability of land (especially Upper Canada) � Incentives to attract immigrants (Upper Canada, 1819)

• Link Factor � Dramatic increase in trade with British North America � Reversal of state policy opposing emigration

Phase Two (1815-1860) • English Emigration

� We know almost nothing about English emigration.

• Economic factors after 1815: � More industrial unemployment � Mechanization of agriculture (rural disorder, secret societies) � Assisted Migration

� Both state and landlord programs (impact of Poor Law)

• Scottish Emigration (after 1815) � Significant increase (170,000 from 1815-60)

� Decline in kelping industry � Accelerated commercialization of agriculture

� Differences from pre-1815 emigration: � More Protestants (Lowland instead of Highland emigration) � Dispersed pattern of settlement in British North America � Greater range of social class (lower-class peasants as well)