Chapter 2 - The Colonists: Land and Government Flashcards
What is Upper Canada today?
Southern and eastern Ontario
Where did people go when the War of 1812 ended?
People immigrated to the colony of Upper Canada.
What was the War of 1812?
A war in which USA declared war on Britain and its colonies over trade and other issues. It strengthened Upper Canada’s ties with Britain.
What is Lower Canada today?
Quebec, along the St. Lawrence River
What was the capital city of Montreal important for?
It was important for trade because it attracted Scottish and American entrepreneurs.
What are the Maritime provinces?
New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland
Who did the Maritimes trade with?
Britain and USA
What did the Maritimes specialize in?
Fishing, forestry, and shipbuilding
Which land did the Hudson’s Bay Company claim?
All lands drained by rivers flowing in Hudson Bay
Why did fur trade expand west?
The Hudson’s Bay company claimed all lands drained by rivers flowing in Hudson Bay in the north and west.
What company became competition for the Hudson’s Bay Company?
North West Company
What did the North West Company do?
They built their own relationships with Aboriginals and explored the west.
Who are the Aboriginals?
They are the people who lived here before the Europeans came.
How did the Aboriginals suffer?
They died from diseases brought by the Europeans and starved after losing their land and access to food sources to Europeans.
Which lands did colonists generally accepted were reserved for fur trade?
The lands north and west of the Great Lakes were reserved for fur trade. If Europeans and American immigrants wanted to farm northwest, those involved in fur trade prevented them.
Were Aboriginals involved in fur trade?
Yes, most Aboriginals were involved in fur trade in some way.
What is the gentry?
Upper Class
Colony leaders were often members of which families?
Loyalist families
Who were the Loyalists?
Americans who did not support American Revolution, many of whom moved to the British colonies.
Who did colony leaders pension?
British army officers, or members of British gentry
Who did the War of 1812 and the American Revolution involve? What did the wars strengthen?
They both involved the Americans and the British. It strengthened Upper Canada’s ties with Britain.
What was the daily life of Colonists like?
- quiet
- dark
- people looked forward to going to church or being visited by a travelling member of clergy (ie. priest, minister)
- almost everyone was in debt at one point or another (farmers took years to raise a crop that could be sold, sometimes had to mortgage next year’s crop to buy supplies)
What kind of economy did most Colonists depend on?
They depended on barter economy in which they traded services and products instead of using money to purchase things.
What are absentee landlords?
People who own and rent out property but doesn’t live in the area
What are land speculators?
People who buy property at a low price and sell it at a higher price
Who was the Family Compact?
A small group of wealthy elite who controlled the government in Upper Canada
Where were colonists told they could get good, cheap farmland?
Close to towns and markets
Colonists arrived and found out that most of the good land was already owned by whom?
Absentee landlords and land speculators
What are Crown and Clergy Reserves?
Blocks of land set aside to provide income for the government (Crown) and the Anglican church (Clergy)
What fraction of all the land in Upper Canada did Crown and Clergy reserves take up?
2/7
What were Crown and Clergy reserves like?
- uncleared
- unoccupied
- no roads
- often tied up farmland, which caused available land to increase in value
What were Upper Canada’s land problems mainly the result of?
They were mainly the result of attitudes in the British government and desire to duplicate English model of land ownership in Canada.
How was land in England divided and who controlled the land?
England was divided into large estates that were controlled by aristocrats.
Why did Britain believe aristocrats would be the best rulers for colonies?
They were more likely to maintain strong ties to Britain.
What were the views of immigrants (especially from USA)?
They thought that people should succeed on their own merits and efforts, not from how much money a family has.
What did the First Nations leaders do when they were worried that their lands would be sold off by Britain?
They signed treaties to secure their land for their people, but not every attempt was successful.
What are tenant farmers?
People who farm land owned by someone else, keeping part of the food as payment
What did the British see themselves as in Canada?
They saw themselves as British people in Canada transforming new land into part of the British Empire. They still thought of Britain as their real home, not Canada.
Poorer classes wanted American-style democracy. What did Britain do to try to fight this?
Britain tried to copy its own society in Canada, which angered those who came to Canada to escape the class system and lead to rebellions.
Most immigrants who came from British North America came from where?
Britain, USA, Europe
When did most immigrants arrive in British North America?
After the War of 1812
What is a coffin ship?
Cargo vessels which were used to carry passengers
Why did the British choose to immigrate to Canada?
Overpopulated cities and countryside
Why did the Irish/Scottish choose to immigrate to Canada?
Poor farmers were motivated by the chance to own land
What is the steerage of a boat?
The area below decks used to store cargo.
When did the British Empire abolish slavery?
1833
When did slavery come to an end?
1793, in Upper and Lower Canada before any other place in North America
When did Loyalists bring slaves with them from America?
American Revolution
During the Loyalist wave of immigration, why did many free Black Americans come to Canada?
They came to the British colonies as Loyalists and were promised land in return.
What is the Underground Railway?
A network of secret routes and safe houses for fugitives who escaped slavery
Upper Canada became a refuge for what?
Black Americans who escaped slavery
Who supported the Black American slaves and why?
The Quakers and Methodists supported them because they believed that slavery was a sin against God and humankind.
Marriages
A man may marry down (statuses) but a woman could not because the wife took on the status of her husband.
In Upper Classes, the match (men) had to be arranged with an equal or better.
What were the risks of childbirth?
Expensive and hard-to-obtain medical care, overcrowding, and poor sanitation.
What is a representative government?
A government made up of people elected by votes to make laws on their behalf
What is a responsible government?
A government subjected to the votes of the people (if people don’t like them, they can be voted off)
Was British North America a representative or responsible government?
None! British North America had a democratic government which is both representative and responsible.
What is an oligarchy?
A government ruled by a small, select group of people.
BNA government was run indirectly by _________.
Britain
Britain appointed a governor but he ruled according to the wishes of the oligarchy. The governor was usually an aristocrat so he had much more in common with the upper class than with colonists.
Why is Upper Canada and Lower Canada named what they are named?
Upper Canada: Upriver (St. Lawrence River)
Lower Canada: Downriver
What is the Constitutional Act?
An act that established the government of Upper Canada in 1791.
It divided Upper Canada from Lower Canada and gave Upper Canada an elected Legislative Assembly, a governor, and two councils.
What does the Legislative Assembly do?
It has the power to make laws.
Who was allowed to vote?
Men who owned property
The BNA government seemed democratic but who had the actual power and why?
The actual power was in the hands of the governor and the councils as they could veto any laws passed by the Legislative Assembly.
What does veto mean?
To stop with authority
What did the members of council do?
Since members of council came from the Family Compact, they had different priorities than the colonists and so they used their veto power to strike down laws they didn’t like. The councils ignored problems with land speculation and crown and clergy reserves.
Constitutional System in 1791
governor
_______| |______
↓ ↓
executive council legislative council
|___________________|
oligarchy
legislative assembly
↑
people
Constitutional System today
governor general
↑
| / senate
| /
|/
cabinet
↑
house of commons
↑
people
Who is Robert Gourlay and what did he do? (UC)
Robert Gourlay was a land agent who surveyed farmers about life in Upper Canada.
He found that many people were unhappy with the government and its policies.
He drafted a list of grievances and a petition with the colonists demanding change.
He was arrested and sent out of the colony (government did not want to listen to complaints and were not going to change their policies regardless of what the average farmer wanted).
Who is William Lyon Mackenzie and what did he do? (UC)
He took over as the leader of the people who wanted change.
He started a newspaper that usually had articles that strongly criticized the government and Family Compact and angry members of the Compact trashed his office so he sued them.
He was elected to Assembly in 1828 and became one of the most important leaders of the reform movement.
Who was the Chateau Clique?
Lower Canada’s equivalent to the Family Compact
What did the Chateau Clique control?
Government and business
Who was the Chateau Clique supported by?
Church and wealthy French-Canadian land owners
How People in Lower Canada Saw the Power Structure in Lower Canada
Petty Nobility
(administrators)
↑
Bourgeoisie
(merchants)
↑
The People
(colonists and artisans)
How People in Lower Canada Saw the Power Structure in Upper Canada
Petty Nobility
(administrators)
↑
Bourgeoisie
(merchants)
↑
The People
(colonists, Eastern townships)
ENGLISH
▲
Clergy Seigneurs
↑
Petit Bourgeoisie
(lawyers, notaries, doctors)
↑
The People
(habitants, artisans)
FRENCH
Economic Woes in Lower Canada
- population increased → available land decreased → soil became less fertile
- when crops began to fail, they had to import wheat from Upper Canada
- farmers could only grow enough food to feed their families and not enough to sell
- many people turned to forestry but not everybody had a share in the profits
- seigneurs wanted in on the profits so they got
more forest land → more people became upset
Why did feelings of nationalism in Lower Canada strengthen?
French Canadians opposed British rule
- they felt that they needed to protect their
language (French) and religion (Roman
Catholicism)
- more and more English people immigrated to
Lower Canada making the French a minority
They were frustrated that they had no voice in government, even though they paid taxes which paid government salaries.
What were the 3 issues for reform in Lower Canada
- discrimination against the French
- lack of representation in government
- taxes
Who was Louis-Joseph Papineau? (LC)
- leader of the radical reformers
- seigneur and lawyer
- originally supported British rule as he and others though that it would bring good changes
- when it didn’t, he took action becoming the
leader of the Parti Canadien, who lobbied for
reform
What group were Wolfred Nelson and Edmund O’Callaghan part of?
a rebel group called the Patriotes
REBELLION IN LOWER CANADA
- full rebellion against the government began with the attempted arrest of Papineau who escaped to the US
- Wolfred Nelson lead the Patriotes in battles against British troops
- Patriotes lost, by December 1837, the rebellion
in LC was over - Patriotes prepared for a second rebellion after being encouraged by US supporters in 1838
- disorganized, poorly planned, lost again
- Papineau was exiled
- rebellion officially ended
REBELLION IN UPPER CANADA
- when soldiers were sent to LC, Mackenzie decided to strike
- plan: seize weapons and ammo, take governor as prisoner, set up a new government
- poorly organized rebels ran away from battle
- Mackenzie fled to the US
What did William Lyon Mackenzie want for Upper Canada?
He wanted American-style democracy as well as closer ties to the US.
- this distanced him from other colonists who the US as an enemy
- most people just wanted a better government
What happened to captured rebels? (3)
They remained imprisoned and according to British legal code, fighting against the government meant the death penalty.
Some rebel leaders, including Mackenzie and Papineau, were pardoned while others were publicly executed by hanging.
Others were transported to Australia in cramped ships, chained to walls to be used as slaves.
When did the Act of Union join Lower Canada with Upper Canada and what were the results?
The Act of Union joined LC and UC in 1840.
- radical ideas purged
- English became the language of government
- most French Canadians were unhappy with the
Act of Union
What other things did Durham propose? (3)
- Canada would still be a colony of Britain
- Britain would control external affairs and military
- changing the structure of colonial government, removing the power of the Legislative Council to make laws
What was the Durham Report?
An important document in Canadian history that recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be joined under a responsible government, and all colonies of BNA be joined together.
Why didn’t Lower Canada like the Durham Report?
They felt that Durham wanted to force the French to assimilate into English Canada.
Who was Lord Sydenham and what was he in charge of?
He was Lord Durham’s successor as governor. He was in charge of making sure unity happened in spite of LC’s protests.
When did Lower and Upper Canada officially join together and what was it called?
1841, the Province of Canada
- capital: Montreal
- happened without the support or participation of the French
- all government documents were to be in English
Lord Durham
a young British aristocrat and reformer in Britain as governor of the Canadas
- arrived to Canada in spring 1838 and told the Family Compact and Chateau Clique that things were going to change
- treated rebels leniently and pardoned most of them
- ignored many British laws
- ruled without Councils and Assembly → DICTATORSHIP
- many complained about him to Britain especially those who had lost property during rebellions
How is Lord Durham known today?
English Canadians: a founder of Canadian democratic
government
French Canadians: a racist who wanted to erase French
culture
