Editing History of Canada (section)

===Rebellions and the Durham Report===
{{Further|Rebellions of 1837|Durham Report}}
[[File:L'Assemblée des six comtés à Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu, en 1837 by Charles Alexander 1891.tif|thumb|Leaders of the [[Patriote movement]] and their followers during the [[Assembly of the Six Counties]] in 1837.]]
The [[rebellions of 1837]] against the [[British Empire|British colonial government]] took place in both Upper and Lower Canada. In Upper Canada, a band of Reformers under the leadership of [[William Lyon Mackenzie]] took up arms in a disorganized and ultimately unsuccessful series of small-scale skirmishes around Toronto, [[London, Ontario|London]], and [[Hamilton, Ontario|Hamilton]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/explore.php?Lang=1&tableid=11&tablename=theme&elementid=2__true |title=The 1837–1838 Rebellion in Lower Canada |website=McCord Museum's collections |date=1999 |access-date=December 10, 2006}}</ref>

In Lower Canada, a more substantial rebellion occurred against British rule. Both English- and French-Canadian rebels, sometimes using bases in the neutral United States, fought several skirmishes against the authorities. The towns of [[Chambly, Quebec|Chambly]] and [[Sorel, Quebec|Sorel]] were taken by the rebels, and Quebec City was isolated from the rest of the colony. Montreal rebel leader [[Robert Nelson (insurrectionist)|Robert Nelson]] read the "[[Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada]]" to a crowd assembled at the town of [[Napierville, Quebec|Napierville]] in 1838.<ref name=Elinor/> The rebellion of the ''[[Patriote movement]]'' was defeated after battles across Quebec. Hundreds were arrested, and several villages were burnt in reprisal.<ref name=Elinor>{{cite book|first1=Allan |last1=Greer|title=The Patriots and the People: The Rebellion of the 1837 in Rural Lower Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/patriotspeoplere0000gree|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-6930-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/patriotspeoplere0000gree/page/6 6]}}</ref>
[[File:Incendie Parlement Montreal.jpg|thumb|left|The [[burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal]] in 1849. Painting by [[Joseph Légaré]], c. 1849.]]
The British government then sent [[John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham|Lord Durham]] to examine the situation; he stayed in Canada for five months before returning to Britain, bringing with him his [[Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839)|Durham Report]], which strongly recommended [[responsible government]].<ref name=Responsible/> A less well-received recommendation was the amalgamation of Upper and Lower Canada for the deliberate assimilation of the French-speaking population. [[The Canadas]] were merged into a single colony, the [[United Province of Canada]], by the 1840 [[Act of Union (1840)|Act of Union]], and responsible government was achieved in 1848, a few months after it was accomplished in Nova Scotia.<ref name=Responsible>{{cite web|title=1839–1849, Union and Responsible Government|url=http://www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/constitution/constitution11_e.html|publisher=Canada in the Making project|year=2005|access-date=April 11, 2010}}</ref> The parliament of [[United Canada]] in Montreal was [[Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal|set on fire by a mob of Tories]] in 1849 after the passing of an indemnity bill for the people who suffered losses during the rebellion in Lower Canada.<ref name="FrancisFrancis2009b">{{cite book |first1=R. D. |last1=Francis |first2=Richard |last2=Jones |first3=Donald B. |last3=Smith|title=Journeys: A History of Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GbbZRIOKclsC&pg=PA147|year= 2009|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-17-644244-6|page=147}}</ref>

Between the [[Napoleonic Wars]] and 1850, some 800,000 immigrants came to the colonies of British North America, mainly from the [[British Isles]], as part of the [[Great Migration of Canada|great migration of Canada]].<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis | url = http://www.minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/04-05/essay.cfm | title = The Industrial Revolution | access-date = November 14, 2007 | first1= Robert Jr. |last1=Lucas | year = 2003 | quote = it is fairly clear that up to 1800 or maybe 1750, no society had experienced sustained growth in per capita income. (Eighteenth-century population growth also averaged one-third of one per cent, the same as production growth.) That is, up to about two centuries ago, per capita [[real income|incomes]] in all societies stagnated at around $400 to $800 per year. | author-link = Robert Lucas, Jr. | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080516211911/http://minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/04-05/essay.cfm | archive-date = May 16, 2008 }}</ref> These included [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]]-speaking [[Highland Scots]] displaced by the [[Highland Clearances]] to Nova Scotia and Scottish and English settlers to the Canadas, particularly Upper Canada. The Irish Famine of the 1840s significantly increased the pace of [[Irish Catholic]] immigration to British North America, with over 35,000 distressed Irish landing in Toronto alone in 1847 and 1848.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Mark |last1=McGowan|title=Death or Canada: the Irish Famine Migration to Toronto 1847|publisher=Novalis Publishing Inc|year= 2009|page= 97|isbn=978-2-89646-129-5}}</ref>