Martial law and Special Council (1838–1840)[edit]

The second rebellion in 1838 was to have more far-reaching consequences. In 1838, Lord
Durham arrived in Canada as High Commissioner. Although skirmishes with British troops were
relatively minor during the second rebellion of 1838, the Crown dealt forcefully in punishing the
rebels. 850 of them were arrested; 12 were eventually hanged, and 58 were transported to
Australian penal colonies.[69]
In 1839, Lord Durham was called upon by the Crown to deliver a Report on the Affairs of British
North America as a result of the rebellions. The Special Council that governed the colony from
1838 to 1841 enacted many reforms with the aim of improving economic and bureaucratic affairs,
such as land ownership and the establishment of new schools. These institutional reforms
ultimately became the foundation of "responsible government" in the colony. [69]
Many American colonists who remained loyal to England left the 13 Atlantic colonies before
American independence for Canada, with many settling in communities in southern Quebec. [67] In
the 19th century, Quebec experienced several waves of immigration, principally from England,
Scotland and Ireland. At the turn of the 20th century, immigrants to Quebec came mainly from
Ireland, but large numbers of immigrants arrived from Germany and other areas of western
Europe.

Union Act[edit]
Lord Durham recommended that Upper Canada and Lower Canada be united, in order to make
the francophone population of Lower Canada a minority within the united territory and weaken its
influence. Durham expressed his objectives in plain terms. [77] His recommendation was followed;
the new seat of government was located in Montreal, with the former Upper Canada being
referred to as "Canada West" and the former Lower Canada being referred to as "Canada East".
The Act of Union 1840 formed the Province of Canada. Rebellion continued sporadically, and in
1849, the burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal led to the relocation of the seat of
government to Toronto. Historian François-Xavier Garneau, like other Canada East
francophones during the 1840s, had deep concerns about the united entity and the place of the
francophones within it.[78]
This union, unsurprisingly, was the main source of political instability until 1867. [79] The
differences between the two cultural groups of the Province of Canada made it impossible to
govern without forming coalition governments. Furthermore, despite their population gap, both
Canada East and Canada West obtained an identical number of seats in the Legislative
Assembly of the Province of Canada, which created representation problems. In the beginning,
Canada East was under-represented because of its superior population size. Over time,
however, massive immigration from the British Isles to Canada West occurred, which increased
its population. Since the two regions continued to have equal representation in the Parliament,
this meant that it was now Canada West that was under-represented. The representation issues
were frequently called into question by debates on "Representation by Population", or "Rep by
Pop". When Canada West was under-represented, the issue became a rallying cry for the
Canada West Reformers and Clear Grits, led by George Brown.[80]
In 1844, the capital of the Province of Canada was moved from Kingston to Montreal.[81]
A map of Canada East and New Brunswick in 1855.

In this period, the Loyalists and immigrants from the British Isles decided to no longer refer to
themselves as English or British, and instead appropriated the term "Canadian", referring to
Canada, their place of residence. The "Old Canadians" responded to this appropriation of identity
by henceforth identifying with their ethnic community, under the name "French Canadian". As
such, the terms French Canadian and English Canadian were born. French Canadian writers
began to reflect on the survival of their own. François-Xavier Garneau wrote an influential
national epic, and wrote to Lord Elgin: "I have undertaken this work with the aim of re-
establishing the truth so often disfigured, and of repelling the attacks and insults which my
compatriots have been and still are the daily target of, from men who would like to oppress and
exploit them all at every opportunity. I thought the best way to achieve this was to simply expose
their story".[82] His and other written works allowed French Canadians to preserve their collective
consciousness and to protect themselves from assimilation, much like works like Evangeline had
done for Acadians.[83][84]
Political unrest came to a head in 1849, when English Canadian rioters set fire to the Parliament
Building in Montreal following the enactment of the Rebellion Losses Bill, a law that compensated
French Canadians whose properties were destroyed during the rebellions of 1837–1838. [85] This
bill, resulting from the Baldwin-La Fontaine coalition and Lord Elgin's advice, was a very
important one as it established the notion of responsible government.[86] In 1854, the seigneurial
system was abolished, the Grand Trunk Railway was built and the Canadian–American
Reciprocity Treaty was implemented. In 1866, the Civil Code of Lower Canada was adopted.[87][88]
[89]
 Then, the long period of political impasse that was the Province of Canada came to a close as
the Macdonald-Cartier coalition began to reform the political system.[90]

Grande Hémorragie[edit]
In the 1820s and 1830s, rapid demographic growth made access to land in Lower Canada
increasingly difficult for young people. Crop failures and political repression in 1838-1839 placed
an additional strain on the agricultural sector in the southern part of the colony. Only slowly
did French Canadian farmers adapt to competition and new economic realities. According to
some contemporary observers, their farming methods were outdated. [91] About this time the textile
industry in New England experienced a boom. With living conditions so harsh, and work very
hard to find even in the largest city, Montreal, emigration seemed the only option for many. As
the first wave moved out in the 1850s, word of mouth soon began to move larger crowds by the
late 1870s. Mill owners hired these French immigrants to staff their mills more cheaply than
American and Irish-born workers, who were themselves displaced. [92]
When the first wave of emigrants left Quebec, the local government did not pay much attention
as the numbers were relatively small. However, when the emigration began to increase and the
provincial economy was going through a depression, leaders of the province attempted to halt
the emigration.[clarification needed] Though a small group of intellectuals believed French-Canadian culture
could be recreated or maintained on U.S. soil, many more elites warned against emigration; they
argued that cultural and moral perdition would occur south of the border. Instead they proposed
domestic colonization in Quebec and the development of the St. Lawrence River valley's
periphery.[93] Nevertheless, more than 200,000 left between 1879 and 1901. [94]

Canada (1867-present)[edit]
George-Étienne Cartier in Montreal, 1863.

In the decades immediately before Canadian Confederation in 1867, French-speaking

Quebeckers, known at that time as Canadiens, remained a majority within Canada East.
Estimates of their proportion of the population between 1851 and 1861 are 75% of the total
population, with around 20% of the remaining population largely composed of English-speaking
citizens of British or Irish descent.[95] From 1871 to 1931, the relative size of the French-speaking
population stayed much the same, rising to a peak of 80.2% of Quebec's population in 1881. The
proportion of citizens of British descent declined slightly in contrast, from a peak of 20.4% of the
population in 1871, to 15% by 1931. Other minorities made up the remainder of the population of
the province.[96]
After several years of negotiations, in 1867 the British Parliament passed the British North
America Acts, by which the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia joined to form
the Dominion of Canada. Canada East became the Province of Quebec. Canada remained self-
governing locally, but the British continued to control its external affairs.

George-Étienne Cartier, creator of the Quebec state and premier of Canada East.

After having fought as a Patriote at the Battle of Saint-Denis in 1837, George-Étienne

Cartier joined the ranks of the Fathers of Confederation and submitted the 72 resolutions of
the Quebec Conference of 1864[97] approved for the establishment of a federated state -Quebec-
whose territory was to be limited to the region which corresponded to the historic heart of the
French Canadian nation and where French Canadians would most likely retain majority status. In
the future, Quebec as a political entity would act as a form of protection against cultural
assimilation and would serve as a vehicle for the national affirmation of the French-Canadian
collective to the face of a Canadian state that would, over time, become dominated by Anglo-
American culture. Despite this, the objectives of the new federal political regime were going to
serve as great obstacles to the assertion of Quebec and the political power given to the
provinces would be restricted. Quebec, economically weakened, would have to face political
competition from Ottawa, the capital of the strongly centralizing federal state. [98] On July 15,
1867, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau became Quebec's first Premier.

Growth of Montreal[edit]
Urban expansion characterized Montreal around the time of Confederation, as rural French
Canadians moved to the city to find work. Immigrants flocked to Montreal, Canada's largest city
at the time, and so did many people from other parts of Canada. Major business and financial
institutions were established in Montreal, including the headquarters of several national banks
and corporations. Prominent businessmen included brewer and politician John Molson Jr.,
jeweller Henry Birks, and insurer James Bell Forsyth. Montreal's population grew rapidly, from
around 9000 in 1800, to 23,000 in 1825, and 58,000 in 1852. [99] By 1911, the population was over
528,000. The City of Montreal annexed many neighbouring communities, expanding its territory
fivefold between 1876 and 1918. [100] As Montreal was the financial center of Canada during this
era, it was the first Canadian city to implement new innovations, like electricity,
[101]
 streetcars[102] and radio.[103]

The funeral of Thomas D'Arcy McGee in 1868 drew a crowd of 80,000 out of a city
population of 110,000.
 

Montreal Stock Exchange, 1903.

 

Wagon for Christie's Biscuits in Montreal, 1904.

 
 

1908 newspaper advertisement for a movie theatre on Ste.-Catherine Street, Montreal.

Influence of the Catholic institutions[edit]

Many aspects of life for French-speaking Quebeckers remained dominated by the Catholic
Church in the decades following 1867. The Church operated many of the institutions of the
province, including most French-language schools,[104] hospitals, and charitable organizations.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Quebec was the Bishop of Montreal, and from 1840 to 1876
this was Ignace Bourget, an opponent of liberalism. Bourget eventually succeeded in gaining
more influence than the liberal, reformist Institut Canadien. At his most extreme, Bourget went so
far as to deny a Church burial to Joseph Guibord, a member of the Institut, in 1874. A court
decision forced Bourget to allow Guibord to be buried in a Catholic cemetery, but Bourget
deconsecrated the burial plot of ground, and Guibord was buried under army protection. [105] The
conservative approach of the Catholic Church was the major force in Quebec society until the
reforms of the Quiet Revolution during the 1960s. In 1876, Pierre-Alexis Tremblay was defeated
in a federal by-election because of pressure from the Church on voters, but succeeded in getting
his loss annulled with the help of a new federal law. He quickly lost the subsequent election. In
1877, the Pope sent representatives to force the Quebecois Church to minimize its interventions
in the electoral process.[106]
Catholic women started dozens of independent religious orders, funded in part by dowries
provided by the parents of young nuns. The orders specialized in charitable works, including
hospitals, orphanages, homes for unwed mothers, and schools. In the first half of the twentieth
century, about 2-3% of Quebec's young women became nuns; there were 6,600 in 1901 and
26,000 in 1941. In Quebec in 1917, 32 different teaching orders operated 586 boarding schools
for girls. At that time there was no public education for girls in Quebec beyond elementary
school. The first hospital was founded in 1701. In 1936, the nuns of Quebec operated 150
institutions, with 30,000 beds to care for the long-term sick, the homeless, and orphans.
[107]
 Between 1870 and 1950, thousands of young girls were sent to Quebec City, to the reform
school (1870–1921) and the industrial school (1884–1950) of the Hospice St-Charles, both
operated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.[108]

Convent belonging to the Grey Nuns (Soeurs Grises), Montreal, 1867.

 


Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, in 1862.