Essay Example on There were many factors that led to the establishment of the Canadian Confederation

The idea of manifest destiny and US expansion are also examples of external factors Manifest destiny was the belief that the United States had the God-given right to expand their land to the west They believed that all of the North American continent belonged to the United States This ideology caused many conflicts with indigenous people Mexico and now Canada The United States planned to annex Canada after the Civil War This became a fear of Canada This fear of annexation played a major role in the establishment of the Canadian Confederation The Corn Laws were taxes or duties and restrictions on imported food and grain in Great Britain The repeal of the Corn Laws is an external factor that led to the Canadian Confederation The British colonies Upper and Lower Canada were being charged less import taxes than the grain growers who were not apart of the British Empire In 1846 the Corn Laws were repealed The repeal of the Corn Laws impacted the establishment of the confederation When the Corn Laws were cancelled this caused Canadian farmers to lose their price advantage over American producers

The two sides were Canada East and Canada West Canada East were the French and Canada West were the English There were two main issues that created the political deadlock These issues were transportation and representation Canada West wanted to grow the transportation to increase trade which would increase the economy They were also willing to spend government money in order to complete this plan Canada East was not as progressive They wanted to keep their existing ways of life They believed that a better connection to Western Canada would change their identity Eastern Canada was not as willing to spend tax money on improving the transportation For representation Western Canada desired representation by population to make it more fair while Eastern Canada wanted to keep equal representation These disagreements led to a temporary joining together of the each of the parties leaders They agreed upon representation by population The two parties eventually came to an agreement a brought them closer to a confederation Another internal factor that led to the establishment of the confederation was the railway There was a need to connect the railways between the two canadas Nova Scotia and New Brunswick The goal was to increase trade with the railway and create a quicker more efficient way of moving troops in case of a war The railway would also increase communication and and businesses There was not enough money to complete this railway so this also became a reason for a confederation