The Canadian Act Of Union In 1840

Extended Essay
History
The Canadian Act of Union in 1840
To what extent was the Act of Union a step towards peace for Canada?

Timothy Chua
Pacific Academy
Candidate Number: 001515-0067
Word Count: 3,076
Pages: 13
1 ABSTRACT: TO WHAT EXTENT WAS THE ACT OF UNION A STEP TOWARDS PEACE FOR CANADA? The essay introduces a very fresh British North America outlining some causes of the mass immigrants coming in, mentioning Loyalists, and Pioneers arriving from Europe. The text mentions ethnic conflict and rebellion taking place within Quebec and explains the solution for this brought up by Lord Durham within his famed Durham Report. It then mentions the passing of Lord Durham’s proposal, and questions if its passing was a good thing or not. The
The Family Compact was a small group of men, rather a brotherhood, who misused their economic and political power for 30 years. The setup made corruption and bad decision making very probable. The Family compact was responsible for the deaths of many, thanks to illegal profiteering on immigration, bad management of funds, and failure to provide the people onboard immigration ships with the supplies that they required. With the family compact gone, the newly unified Canada and her Responsible Government was able to start with the termination of the major financial problem that held down Upper Canada. Unification of the Canadas also granted the Catholic Church ownership of French educational and health institutions. This granted a noticeable increase in cash flow, taking into account Church donations. The Act of Union also put a damper to the Rebel group’s movement. The rebels had no major issues or opposition with the establishment of the Responsible government, and with the French being suppressed by the English population there was no longer a situation with ethnic conflict. The English easily overwhelmed the French in size, and started swaying the outcomes of public opinions, decisions, and other important social segments. It was now a peaceful ethnic domination, with the English placing the French in a position with much less clashing. The
The removal of the boundary between Upper and Lower Canada would set both the French and English populations to merge together, placing the French as a minority to the ever growing English numbers. With the swaying of social opinions and overall public decisions, it would be better to describe the merge as a British take over, and not the start of co-existence. For the French, this was the sparking of new distaste against the English. Fortunately, it did not lead to a full scale rebellion. This being what the British wanted, and what the French would find at the short end of the stick. The French peoples would continue to deal with this suppression, as it would also come into play for economics, thanks to their English counterparts. The French peoples were also subordinated to the Catholic Church, who were now able to cross to the other half of the Province, as it opposed democratic and liberal ideas, in favor of the existing British Monarchy. The existing English presence even contributed to the spread of Elitist and conservative ideals, which placed all peoples on an unbalanced hierarchy, setting a high risk for a new conflict. The Land ownership laws of both Upper and Lower Canada that existed prior to the Act of Union were also revised, displacing a significant amount of property owners, butchering the ownership system at that time. The act of Union