The
Upper Canada Rebellion was an insurrection against the
oligarchic government of the British colony of
Upper Canada (present day
Ontario) in December 1837. While public grievances had existed for years, it was the
Rebellion in
Lower Canada (present day
Quebec) that emboldened rebels in Upper Canada to openly revolt soon after. The Upper Canada Rebellion was largely defeated shortly after it began, although resistance lingered until 1838 (and became more violent) - mainly through the support of the
Hunters' Lodges, a secret anti-British, US-based militia that emerged around the
Great Lakes. They launched the
Patriot War in 1838-39. The rebellion led directly to
Lord Durham's
Report on the Affairs of British North America and to
The British North America Act, 1840 which partially reformed the British provinces into a unitary system. Some historians argue that the rebellions in 1837 should be viewed in the wider context of the late 18th and early 19th century
Atlantic revolutions. The
American Revolutionary war in 1776, the
French Revolution of 1789–1799, the
Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, the
Irish Rebellion of 1798, and the independence struggles of Spanish America (1810–1825) were inspired by similar democratic ideals, although they were tinged with
republicanism as well. The United Kingdom's
Chartists sought similar democratic goals.