Colonial+Government+and+the+Need+for+Reform+(Part+1)

__SITUATION:__

Upper Canada (Ontario)

Settlers were unhappy with:
 * THE GOVERNMENT: the **Family Compact**, a group of aristocrats who ran Upper Canada (they were mostly related, hence the nickname)
 * their projects to improve the colony (ie. canals) benefited the businessmen and not the settlers
 * THE LACK OF LAND DEVELOPEMENT [[image:http://www.monkeyslunch.com/zenphoto/albums/illustration/editorial/mcKenzie_web.jpg width="183" height="204" align="right" caption="William Lyon Mackenzie" link="http://www.monkeyslunch.com/zenphoto/albums/illustration/editorial/mcKenzie_web.jpg"]]
 * land speculators had purchased much prime land, and were selling it at ridiculously high prices
 * unused land owned by absentee landowners living in Europe or by the State and Church

They were led by **William Lyon Mackenzie** (//not// William Lyon Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister during World War II, but his grandfather). He ran a newspaper, //The Colonial Advocate// which critized the Family Compact and governmental system. He was elected a member of the Legislative Council, where he tried to bring on the change that would put elected men in power to run the colony, with other **Reformers**.

Lower Canada (Quebec)

Settlers were unhappy with: >  They were led by **Louis-Joseph Papineau**, the leader of the **Patriote party**. He was once a supporter of British rule, but as discrimination increased, he turned his ample oratory skills to protests and reform instead.
 * THEIR REPRESENTATION: both government & business were in the hands of the British despite English citizens being less than 25% of the population
 * the governor and his council of businessmen or wealthy seigneurs, know as the **Château Clique**//,// passed laws that didn't benefit the //habitants//
 * the French speaking citizens were trapped in the seigneurial system and were desperately poor - money to the church, rent to the seigneurs, taxes, etc.
 * an attempt to join Upper Canada and Lower Canada into one with English as the sole official language was seen as an attack on French society
 * most French believed the Catholic Church had sold itself out to the British
 * they also believed the cholera-infected displaced Irishmen landing on their shores were deliberately moved by the English in a attempt to kill off the French-Canadians with disease

__JAMES CRAIG__ was appointed governor in 1809. He was //very// anti-French.
 * He arrested those who criticized the government, and closed a reformist newspaper
 * He also made the proposal to unite the colonies.

Finally, Papineau and his followers became so fed up that they made a list of demands, the "**Ninety-Two Resolutions**." It was rejected outright with Britain's Ten Resolutions, denying the Assembly's rights, and so the Patriotes declared rebellion.

__RESULT__

The two groups of reformers, in each colony of Canada, were close, though they differed in goals They decided to revolt simultaneously, forcing Britain to split its force. Unfortunately, a few things were lost in translation, and so Lower Canada rebelled first, in 1832. The Catholic Church encouraged loyalty to Britain, a deciding factor in the Patriotes' downfall. Several skirmishes, St. Denis, St, Charles, St. Eustache, led to the arrest or death of many Patriotes. By December 1837, the revolution in Lower Canada was dead. Still, the Quebecois have a lingering resentment against Britain, and Papineau is a local hero.
 * In Upper Canada, Mackenzie wanted to follow the American example
 * In Lower Canada, Papineau wanted to seize control to implement the downfall of the Chateau Clique

BY NICHOLAS & CLARE :)

Check your understanding: What were Upper Canada's settler's unhappy with? What were Lower Canada's settler's unhappy with? What happened as a result of the settler's unhappiness? When did the revoulution in Lower Canada end? What resulted from the Lower Canada revoulution that still exists today?

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