Canada East (french: links=no, Canada-Est) was the northeastern portion of the United

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the ...

. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new colony, known as the Province of Canada, was created by the Act of Union 1840 passed by the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

, having effect in 1841. For administrative purposes, the new Province was subdivided into Canada West and Canada East. The former name of "Lower Canada" came back into official use in 1849, and as of the

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Dominio ...

of 1867 it formed the newly created province of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

. An estimated 890,000 people lived in Canada East in 1851.

Geography

It consisted of the southern portion of the modern-day

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nor ...

. Formerly a British colony called the Province of

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec ...

, based on Lord Durham's report it was merged with the Province of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North Americ ...

(present-day southern portion of the Province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

) to create the United Province of Canada.

Language

Canada East was primarily a French-speaking region. Due to heavy immigration following the American Revolutionary War, the population of English-speaking residents of Canada West soon outstripped Canada East. Under the Act of Union 1840 the seats in the lower

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

were evenly divided between East and West. There was no provision under the Act for representation by population.

Politics

From 1841 to 1843, the terms Canada East and Canada West were used. The former names of the two colonies, ''Lower Canada'' and ''Upper Canada'', had no constitutional status. From April 25, 1849, the Canadian Parliament enacted an interpretation act, which once again gave legal meaning to the terms ''Lower Canada'' and ''Upper Canada'': :The words "Lower Canada," shall mean all that part of this Province hat is, the United Province of Canadawhich formerly constituted the Province of Lower Canada. :The words "Upper Canada," shall mean all that part of this Province which formerly constituted the Province of Upper Canada.

1866 Fenian raids

There was a danger of Fenian raids along the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: ...

south and east of Montreal. The British government did not want a repeat of the rebellion of 1837 and 1838, for fear of losing two more colonies to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Economy

The most important farm products were potatoes, rye, buckwheat, maple sugar and livestock. When it came time to confederate, the Francophones were nervous because they did not want to lose their French heritage. They were afraid that it would be overwhelmed by the English. At the time of Confederation (1867), Montreal was the largest city of the British North American colonies, with a population of 107,225. Some of the richest people in Canada lived in Montreal. By the late 1850s all the land of Canada West had been bought. The next frontier was west of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

. However, this land was owned by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

. Most in Canada East resisted the takeover of this land, as it would have changed the balance of the seats in the legislature. The St. Lawrence River was full of ice for half the year. For that half of the year, goods had to be transported on American railways. People supported construction of a railway through Canada East to Halifax to provide an all-British route for trade and defence. By the 1860s, the Grand Trunk Railway was about $72 million in debt. Its annual income was about $200. Partly because of this, the Province of Canada pulled out of the negotiations for the

Intercolonial Railway The Intercolonial Railway of Canada , also referred to as the Intercolonial Railway (ICR), was a historic Canadian railway that operated from 1872 to 1918, when it became part of Canadian National Railways. As the railway was also completely ow ...

. Only 20% of Canada East's residents lived in cities. The rest were farmers, ''

habitant Habitants () were French settlers and the inhabitants of French origin who farmed the land along the two shores of the St. Lawrence River and Gulf in what is the present-day Province of Quebec in Canada. The term was used by the inhabitants ...

s'' as they called themselves. They built their own stone houses and wooden furniture. Their clothes were homemade and their food was grown on the farms. Lumber was the most important natural resource of Canada East. In the woods, hundreds of workers cut down trees, then floated the logs down the St. Lawrence River during the spring floods. Sawmills turned the logs into planks and boards to sell to markets in the United States. Factories in the District of Canada East made windows, shingles, washboards, and door frames.

References

External links

canadiana.ca
Early Canadiana on-line {{Authority control Province of Canada History of Quebec by location States and territories established in 1841 States and territories disestablished in 1867