Rebellions of 1837 - Atlantic Context

Atlantic Context

Historians have tended to view the two Canadian Rebellions and the subsequent American Patriot War in isolation, without reference to each other, and without reference to the republican impetus they shared. Recent reconsiderations have emphasized that this was a purposeful forgetfulness by the Reformers after the Rebellions, as they attempted to repudiate the bald republicanism of William Lyon Mackenzie, yet steer an acceptable course to national independence under the guise of "responsible government." Ducharme (2006) puts the rebellion in 1837 in the context of the late-18th- and early-19th-century Atlantic revolutions. He argues that Canadian reformers took their inspiration from the republicanism of the American Revolution. The rebels believed that the right of citizens to participate in the political process through the election of representatives was the most important right, and they sought to make the legislative council elective rather than appointed. Rebellion in Upper (and Lower Canada also) broke out when it became clear that the reformers' struggles could only be settled outside the framework of existing colonial institutions. The British military crushed the rebellions, ending any possibility the two Canadas would become republics. By taking this broader connection into account, we can also see the ties to the Chartist Newport Uprising of 1839 in Wales, suppressed by Sir Francis Bond Head's cousin, Sir Edmund Walker Head.