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The Northwest and Hudson's Bay Companies Merge
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The First Patent Issued for a Typewriter
William Austin Burt invented the typewriter. The typewriter made writing things down a much quicker task, it increased neatness, decreased the amount of space used and made it easier to read writing. Without the typewriter many historical documents would have had to be writen by hand. -
Slavery is TRULY Abolished in British Empire.
Apprenticeship (essentially the the same thing as slavery but given a different name) for those above the age of six, was finally abolished on August 1, 1838. This meant that throughout the whole of the British Empire, it was illegal for you to own a slave. This made Canada a destination for slaves from the United States to travel to and led to the underground railroad. -
First Gatling Gun was Patented
The first gatling gun was invented by Richard Gatling on November 4, 1862. Gatling wrote that he created it to reduce the size of armies and so reduce the number of deaths by combat and disease, and to show how futile war is. Unfortunately, The Canadian troops later used the gatling gun to help win them the battle of Batoche. -
Alfred Nobel Invents Dynamite
The invention of dynamite revolutionized the way that we built roads and railways. Carving through rolling hills and majestic mountains by hand could take years or even decades, but with dynamite a small crew could complete the task more than 10 times as quickly. Without dynamite, making the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Canadian Rockies would have been even closer to the impossible than it already was. -
Canadian Confederation is Acheived
Upper and Lower Canada united with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick under the dominion of Canada. From this day forward Canada was an independant nation and no longer just a colony of Britain. On this same day John Alexander Macdonald became the very first Priime Minister of Canada. He was Prime Minister for 16 years. During this time he made arrangements to buy Rupert's Land from the HBC. He was also involved in controlling the finances of the Canadian Pacific Railway. -
United States Buys Alaska From Russia
Russia willingly gave up Alaska because they feared that if war broke out they would lose the territory. Russia sold Alaska to the US for 7.2 million dollars (when converted to the current US dollarit would cost 123.5 million dollars). If the United States had not bought Alaska, then we would currently have a border with Russia. -
Canada buys Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)
Running the HBC was very expensie and because they were begining to lose profit the HBC agreed to sell Rupert's Land to the Canadian government. No one had even bothered to ask any of the nearly 12,000 people living ion the Red River Valley, let alone the 34,000 Aboriginals in the rest of Rupet's land, if they wanted to be Canadians. This angered the Metis living in the Red River Valley which led to future conflict. -
Métis Form Provisional Government
The Metis provisional government was formed on December 8, 1869. Louis Riel became the leader of the provisional government. Louis Riel was willing to join Confederation as long as the Metis would get to continue with the rights they already possessed as well as rights every Canadian citizen shuld have. Louis Riel was a religous man who someday hoped to give his people their rights. -
The Métis List of Rights is Ammended
The Metis wanted to join Confederation if they were granted the small, list of rights, that Louis Riel and his new provisional government had agreed to. All the Metis had asked for was that they wanted things to continue living similarly to the way they were before and they wnted the same rights as any other Canadian. The Canadian government felt that the Metis had asked for too much but because the Metis had an official government the Canadians were force to make negotiations. -
Manitoba Joins Confederation
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Execution of Thomas Scott
The Metis provisional government charges Thomas Scott of treason and esecutes him by firing squad. It caused uproar among the people of Ontario because although it was done legally, they considered the execution of Thomas Sott to be murder. This led to further conflict. -
Thomas Scott
Thomas Scott immigrated to Canada in 1863. Scott was openly protestant and a member of the Orange Order. He was anti-French , anti-protestant, and he hated the Aboriginal peples. There was bound to be conflct between himself and the Metis (whom he despised).In 1869 he travelled to the Red River Colony, where he was imprisoned and then executed by the Metis during the Red River Rebellion. -
The North West Mounted Police (NWMP) were Formed
The most immediate purpose of the NWMP was to stop the whisky trade between American hunters and natives in the North West. In he long run it was meant to protect the Northwest from invasion and prevent attacks such as the Cypress Hills Massacre from happening. The North West Mounted Policeenforeced law and order in the wild Northwest. -
Louis Riel is Exiled to the United States
Louis Riel was exiled from Canada for five years even though the question to wether he had broken Canadian law for his part in the Red River Resistance had not been determined in court. His exile might have even prevented another uprising or rebellion among the Metis people. -
Louis Returns from Exile
Gabriel Dumont had become the new leader of the Metis during Louis Riel's absence. The Metis, as well as the rest of the locals, were going to have their land taken away so that it coud be sold to settlers and immigrants. Gabriel Dumont went off to go in search of Louis Riel, because he knew he would need help to negotiate with Canada. Riel had a wife and two children and was working as a teacher when Gabriel Dumont had found him. -
Lawrence Clarke
He spread false rumors of an impending attack from the Canadian government. These rumors convinceed the Metis that they needed to fight for their rights they had to. These actions also led the the Northwest Rebellion in 1885 becausee the government understood the actions of the Metis as a threat. If Lawrence Clark had not spread the rumors, perhaps the Northwest Rebellion would not have occured in the first place. -
The Start of the Northwest Uprising (Battle of Duck Lake)
The NWMP met up with the Metis at Duck Lake to negotiate. Angry words wer exchanged and two of the Metis negotiators were shot,then both sides opene fire and thus the Northwest Uprising had begun. -
Period: to
The Northwest Rebellion
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Battle at Fish Creek
Gabriel Dumont, who had convinced Riel that the Canadian troops should be attacked before they arrived at Batoche, ambushed Middleton's force at Fish Creek. Fewer than 300 Metis stopped the advance of 1600 militia soldiers (they did not kill them all, they just slowed them down). -
The Battle of Batoche Begins
The Canadian troops surrounded Batoche on May 9, 1885. Gabriel Dumont had the great idea of hiding people in rifle pits so they could attack the Canadian troops while remaining under cover from the all directions. They hid in the rifle pits and used their supplies as cover. The people in the rifle pits were constantly at risk and every time they slept there was a chance that you wouldn't make it to the next day. Conclusively the rifle pits were the historical equivelent to trench warfare. -
The Métis at Batoche Run Out of Ammunition
After 3 days of fighting the Metis ran out of ammunition so they resorted to firing nails and rocks from their guns. -
The Battle of Batoche Ends
The Metis were being attacked from all sides and they were greatly outnumbered. Louis knew they no longer stood a chance. More than half of the Metis forces at Batochehad been injured and about 35 Metis and First Nations been killed. Admiting defeat, Louis Riel surrenderers to the Canadian forces as to prevent the death of any more. Gabriel Dumont however, reacted quite differently when he heard the news from his post at Batoche. He and several Metis decided to flee to the United States.
