Rebellions of 1837–1838

The Rebellions of 1837–1838 (French: Rébellions de 1837) were two armed uprisings that took place in Lower and Upper Canada in 1837 and 1838. Both rebellions were motivated by frustrations with lack of political reform. A key shared goal was responsible government, which was eventually achieved in the incidents' aftermath. The rebellions led directly to Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America and to the Act of Union 1840 which joined the two colonies into the Province of Canada. The report and subsequent developments eventually led to the Constitution Act, 1867, which created the contemporary country of Canada and its government.

The Lower Canada Rebellion was more widespread and was more brutally suppressed. After Upper Canada Rebellion was suppressed, fighting continued sporadically for months. Many of the rebels fled to the United States. Rebel leader William Lyon Mackenzie established a short-lived "Republic of Canada" on Navy Island in the Niagara River but withdrew from armed conflict soon thereafter.

Charles Duncombe and Robert Nelson helped establish a militia mostly composed of American radicals, the Hunters' Lodge/Frères chasseurs. Those two groups held a convention in Cleveland in September 1838 to declare another Republic of Lower Canada. The Hunters' Lodges drew on the Americans in the radical Equal Rights Party (or "Locofocos"). This organization launched the "Patriot War", which governments of the Upper and Lower Canadas suppressed with the help of the U.S. government. The raids ended when the rebels and Hunters were defeated at the decisive Battle of Windsor, almost a year after the Patriot's first defeat at Navy Island.