What Was Confederation?
There were only four North American British Colonies:
Quebec
Ontario
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
The Confederation was the process to unite the North American-British Colonies.
French-English relations
From 1840 to 1867, the French and English were joined into one union in British North America
The French feared the loss of their language and culture – working with English Canadians towards Confederation would give French Canadians more strength in collaboration.
Canadian-American relations
At the time, many Americans believed in manifest destiny – the idea that Americans are destined to take over all of North America
British North American colonists feared Americans were going to annex (take over) their land
Indigenous relations
The Confederation would place the federal government in charge of “Indians and land reserved for Indians.”
Having a unified country gave the federal government more power to assimilate the natives and force them to adopt English Canadian culture and language.
Economic reasons
After the American Civil War, the United States ended free trade with Canada.
Prime Minister John A. Macdonald developed the “National Policy”, which included three main points:
Protective Tariffs (Taxes)
Tariffs were placed on American goods, making them more expensive than Canadian goods when they crossed the border
Effect: Encouraged Canadians to buy Canadian goods
Build a national railroad
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was constructed in 1885
Effects:
Connected eastern and western Canada
Greatly improved movement of goods and people
Gave Canada a greater sense of unity
Encourage immigration to Western Canada
The Dominion Land Act was passed in 1872
Made it easy for settlers to buy land
A person could buy 64 acres for 10$
Having Canadians settle in the west would help establish it as part of Canada, so America can’t dispute it (Manifest Destiny)
Effect: Not many people settled into Western Canada at first
Winters were long and cold
Summers were hot and dry
Drought and Isolation
British North America Act (BNA Act)
Canada became a country on July 1, 1867, after Parliament passed the British North American Act
Sir John A. Macdonald was the Prime Minister in 1867 and said that Canada had been carpented together - meaning that it had been pulled together to create a country
