Rebellion of 1837

Dannicah S. Blk 2. 3 Rebellion of 1837 After learning about the rebellion of 1837 and constantly taking notes, I realized the rebellion was not successful in overturning the government but it did unite both Upper and Lower Canada together. This was able to take away any differences of the two cultures, English and French. The impact did not happen immediately as intended though. In fact it caused the government to get back at the reformers and concentrate more on their punishment such as transportation, hanging, flogging and deaths for the rebels, instead of working on fixing the colony.

You can tell that Canada had a serious political problem that was in desperate need to be improved. When the Chateau Clique and the reformers squared off against each other, the British did nothing to ease tension. They appointed James Craig, an anti-French as governor just to arrest those who criticized the government and brought soldiers to intimidate the French. The French Canadians disapproved of the British democracy and found it very difficult to accept. There were numerous reasons why many French Canadians resented the government.

Three important ones were because of how discriminative economically and politically the government was of their language and culture, how they were given unequal taxation, and for their lack in power over the government. Although, this all happened in Lower Canada. The rebellion in Upper Canada was to bring an American style democracy because they, as well as the people in Lower Canada, believed that their government were discriminative against the French. The reason why I believe the rebellion in both Lower and Upper Canada was unsuccessful because they did not have any reasonable impact on any British colonies immediately.

To begin with, the Rebellion in Upper Canada failed miserably because of their lack of military experience. Many rebellions were killed during battle and several were arrested. Some even fled to America, they were no match for the British. This rebellion would have been more successful if the Catholic Church participated but church leaders advised parishioners to stay loyal to the British. The rebellion in Lower Canada ended quickly. The rebellion in Upper Canada also did not turn out so good as well since the British military overpowered them.

Even though Mackenzie, leader of the Upper Canada rebellion, took time to train his rebels and plan, the whole event all just led to deaths and arrest of many patriots. Mackenzie also escaped to America where he gained supporters there. In the end the British government continued to rule of Canada where they focused on discussing major punishment for the rebels. In my opinion, the leaders who led the rebellion of both Upper and Lower Canada were very similar. They could motivate emotions with words but they had no idea how to organize their supporters into affective forces.

Eventually, Britain’s ways of administrating the colonies would have to change. John Lambton, the Earl of Durham, a reformer politician, realized the whole cause of the rebellion was the conflict between the English and French. He then proposed that Upper and Lower Canada should be united. In conclusion, the whole Rebellion was not successful as planned since the impact did not happen immediately but when Lower and Upper Canada was united it developed a new country. However, both leaders of the Rebellion returned to Canada eventually and were considered heroes by some and other as troublemakers.