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In
Lower Canada, an English-speaking elite
largely excluded the French-speaking
majority from power. In December 1837,
the Patriotes, mostly lightly-armed farmers
led by Louis-Joseph Papineau, launched
an insurrection. British troops defeated
them in bitter fighting along the Richelieu
River and at St. Eustache near Montréal.
A second uprising south of Montréal
in 1838 also ended in defeat
In
December 1837, Upper Canadian radicals
led by William Lyon Mackenzie, frustrated
with political patronage and corruption,
tried and failed to seize Toronto. Many
rebels fled to the United States, where
they organized several raids against
Upper Canada in 1838. The rebellions
led to the Act of Union, which joined
Upper and Lower Canada into the province
of Canada in 1841.
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