Rebellions of 1837

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The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform and ethnic conflict. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government.

The Battle of Saint-Eustache, Lower Canada.

The rebellions occurred in two Canadian colonies:

The Lower Canada Rebellion — a larger and more sustained conflict by French Canadian and English Canadian rebels against the British colonial government
The Upper Canada Rebellion — an abortive uprising in Upper Canada against the ruling clique of the colony, known as the Family Compact.

The rebellion in Lower Canada began first, in November of 1837, and was led by Robert Nelson and Louis-Joseph Papineau. This probably inspired the much shorter rebellion in Upper Canada led by William Lyon Mackenzie in December.

Although both uprisings were eventually crushed, more moderate reformers like the political partners Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine gained more credibility as an alternative voice to the radicals. They proved to be influential when the British government sent Lord Durham to investigate the cause of the troubles. Among the recommendations in his report was the establishment of responsible government for the colonies, which meant that a key objective of the rebellions was achieved because of the incident despite the defeat.

1 In Popular Culture
2 The Mac-Paps in the Spanish Civil War
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] In Popular Culture

The 2001 movie 15 février 1839 by the Québec film maker Pierre Falardeau depicts the last days of the patriotes who were hanged on February 15, 1839.

[edit] The Mac-Paps in the Spanish Civil War

In 1937, exactly one century after the Rebellion, William Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau were to give their name to the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion or the Mac-Paps, a battalion of Canadian soldiers who fought on the Republican side in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.