| |
| 1817, April 28 |
| |
| In an exchange of notes, the United States and Great Britain agreed to restrict naval forces on the Great Lakes to one each on Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario and two on the upper lakes. | 1 |
| Bank of Montreal was founded. By 1840, Montreal was the country's largest city, with 40,000 people. Toronto had less than 10,000 as late as 1834. | 2 |
| |
| 1818, Oct. 20 |
| |
| Treaty between the United States and Great Britain gave Americans the right to fish on the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador and to dry fish in unsettled bays. The boundary between the United States and Canada west of the Lake of the Woods was fixed on the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains. Territory west of the Rockies was to be jointly occupied for ten years. | 3 |
| John MacLean (Iain MacGhilleathain, 1787–1848) published his famous collection of poems, including the works of others as well as his own. | 4 |
| |
| 1820–32 |
| |
| Samuel Cunard of Halifax and the Buchanan brothers (Isaac and Peter) symbolized the merchant's role in Canada's changing commercial economy. | 5 |
| The Lachine Canal was completed (1821–25), enabling vessels to partially bypass rapids of the St. Lawrence River above Montreal. The Welland Canal connected Lake Erie and Lake Ontario (1829), and the Rideau Canal linked the Ottawa River at Ottawa with Lake Ontario at Kingston (1826–32). Masons working on the Lachine Canal struck for shorter hours in 1823. | 6 |
| |
| 1821, March 26 |
| |
| The Northwest Company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company under the latter's name. Rights of exclusive trade to the company in the territory allotted to it was renewed for 21 years. | 7 |
| Bank of Upper Canada was chartered at York. | 8 |
| McGill College was founded on the basis of a gift from Montreal merchant James McGill. University of King's College had been founded in 1789 in Nova Scotia. Dalhousie College was founded in Halifax by Lord Dalhousie in 1818. | 9 |
| |
| 1824 |
| |
| Election of 1824 resulted in an Assembly in Upper Canada that for the first time opposed established policies and pushed for significant reforms. | 10 |
| Julia Catherine Hart (1796–1867) published St. Ursula's Convent; or, The Nun of Canada, the first novel by an American-born Canadian of British descent. | 11 |
| |
| 1826 |
| |
| Naturalization (or Alien) Bill was passed in Upper Canada; the law denied British citizenship to Americans who had lived in the province for less than seven years and who had not declared allegiance to the king and renounced allegiance to the United States. | 12 |
| Disguised as Indians, a group of young Tories destroyed the printing press of the radical William Lyon Mackenzie. | 13 |
| |
| 1828–32 |
| |
| First Mechanics Institutes were formed in British North America. The York Typographical Society was formed in 1832. | 14 |
| |
| 1834 |
| |
| The Scottish-born radical William Lyon Mackenzie (1795–1861) of Upper Canada became the first mayor of Toronto. Mackenzie opposed prevailing oligarchies and soon became part of a body of Canadian reformers that included Louis Joseph Papineau (1786–1871) of Lower Canada; Joseph Howe (1804–73) of Nova Scotia; and William Cooper (1786–1867) of Prince Edward Island. | 15 |
| |
| 1836, July 21 |
| |
| First Canadian railroad opened, from Laprairie on the St. Lawrence to St. Johns on the Richelieu. | 16 |
| |
| 1837 |
| |
| REBELLION IN UPPER AND LOWER CANADA. Armed rebellion of radicals, supported by discontented farmers, emerged in Upper and Lower Canada. Many rebels perished in skirmishes with the government forces, which soon put down the rebellions. Authorities eventually captured 753 men, tried 168, and sentenced 99 to death (12 were actually executed and 58 banished to Australia). This struggle had been brewing ever since 1815 and was also the result of constitutional conflict between the governors and the appointed Legislative Councils; they represented bureaucratic and vested interests (family compact in Upper Canada, château clique in Lower Canada) on the one hand, and the popularly elected Assemblies on the other. Popular leaders in Upper Canada included Robert Gourlay (expelled, 1818), William Lyon Mackenzie, and Egerton Ryerson; in Lower Canada, Louis Joseph Papineau. Grievances included control of judiciary, control of revenue, supply bills, clergy reserves, established churches, executive council. | 17 |
| The situation was worst in Lower Canada, where the British minority, represented by the governor and the Legislative Council, was opposed by the French majority in the Assembly. In 1822 it had been proposed to reunite Upper and Lower Canada, which roused a storm of protest in Lower Canada. A British parliamentary investigation was made in 1828 and led to various administrative reform proposals, but nothing came of them. In 1834 the Assembly of Lower Canada adopted the “92 resolutions,” a declaration of rights. By 1837 affairs had reached a deadlock, and the popular leaders decided to resort to force. | 18 |
| In Lower Canada the rebellion was confined to an area around Montreal. There were a number of riots and some fighting at St. Denis and St. Charles. The rebels were easily defeated, and the leaders fled to the United States. In Upper Canada the rebels, under Mackenzie, attacked Toronto (Dec. 5), but were driven off. Mackenzie fled across the border and on Dec. 13 seized Navy Island in the Niagara River, where he proclaimed a provisional government. | 19 |
| |
| Dec. 29 |
| |
| A Canadian government force crossed the river and burned the American steamer Caroline, which had been supplying the rebels; the incident triggered a famous case in international law. | 20 |
| |
| |
