Until this great work is completed, our dominion is little more than a geographical expression - Sir John A. Macdonald

Travel through the eras of  history and the development of the various nations that make up Canada today.

Family Compact | Lower Canada Reform | Upper Canada Reform | William Lyon MacKenzie | Louis Joseph Papineau | The Maritimes | Durham Report

This was a period of the development of colonial systems, revolt against these systems which represented the elites of the various societies in Upper and Lower Canada, and the revolt against these systems. The resultant reform by British authorities of the colonial governments was different then their response during the American Revolution and led towards the principle of responsible government. Without these events the formation of a administrative, merchant and profession class, ready and able to participate in the machines of government may have been delayed for a few decades and by the 1860's American ambitions for manifest destiny may have found fertile ground in an alienated, British North America. As matters developed this period led to a pro-British, anti-American society which scrambled to form a united from when threatened by American power during the US Civil War.