Rebellion of the Red river

The Rebellion of the Red river , between 1869 and 1870, is the generic term to describe the Provisional government made up by the Métis and their chief Louis Riel in the colony of the Rouge river, located in current the province of the Manitoba, with the Canada.

The Rebellion was the first crisis of importance which the new Canadian government had to face after the creation of the Canadian Confédération in 1867. This one had acquired the Ground of Rupert of the Compagnie of Hudson Bay in 1869, had pronounced the annexation of the future province of Manitoba without consulting the population of it and had named governor the anglophone William McDougall; this one had to face the opposition of the French-speaking colonists still mainly . McDougall undertook a cadastral statement territory before even as this one was officially transferred under Canadian sovereignty, the pieces being delimited according to the system of Canadian cantons square into force in the close Ontario, without respecting the provision of the fields of the mongrels, formed in narrow bands perpendicular to the river. Moreover the mongrels which do not have documents of title and are despoiled their grounds.

The Mongrels, under the control of Riel, are initially opposed to the operations land surveying, then dispute the annexation of their territory by McDougall before precise commitments is not undertaken. In October 1869, they constitute a National committee charged to assume the defense of their interests. Riel seizes by surprised the Fort Garry, built with the confluence of the Red River and the Assiniboine, and controls the colony.

After McDougall declared that the area was not any more under control of the Company and that Canada had required the adjournment of the transfer of sovereignty, the Mongrels founded their provisional government (9 - December 10th 1869) which, always under the direction of Riel, undertook to negotiate directly with the Canadian government in order to give to the Assiniboine the statute of province. This provisional government draws up with the assistance of the clergy a list of rights which will be incorporated in the Manitoba Act .

It is for this period that the men of Riel stopped the members of a faction procanadienne which had been raised against the provisional government. Among them was the orangist Thomas Scott, in favor of the annexation without condition, which was quickly considered and carried out by Firing squad for various minor offenses. This execution starts again the opposition between Ontarian mongrels and colonists. Canada and the provisional government did not arrive less at one agreement, and in 1870 the colony could enter the Confederation as a province of Manitoba. The law of integration includes also certain particular requests for Riel, in particular of the separate French-speaking schools for the Métis children as well as the protection of the Catholicisme.

After the conclusion of the agreement, Canada sent a military forwarding consisted of elements of the militia of High-Canada and regular forces British under the command of the Colonel Garnet Wolseley, in order to establish the federal authority on Manitoba. With measurement of its progression towards the West, the public opinion in Ontario was indignant more and more at the reserved fate with Scott, and many were the Ontarians to ask that forwarding was used to stop Riel and crush what they regarded as a rebellion. Although Riel fled before the arrival of the Canadian troops with Fort Garry, this one marked officially the end of the rebellion.

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