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Compare And Contrast Civil War And North West Rebellion

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The North West Rebellions and the American civil war were both rebellions that occurred in the second half of the 19th century. Although both rebellions were vastly different in their size, timescale and scope, they all had the basic premise of rebellions to preserve the status quo, where peoples wished to maintain their previous rights, privileges and power from a central government. The North West Rebellion was a 5-month long insurgency in what is now Saskatchewan, in early 1885. The insurgency was fought by First Nations and Métis militants against the Canadian government, and had a lasting impact on the development of the Canadian west and the future of First Nations and Métis peoples. The North West Rebellion had its origins in the Red …show more content…

In addition, the Métis were gradually stripped of their cultural and language rights by the Canadian government. This, combined with the increasing marginalization of the Plains Indians tribes by white settlers, was a catalyst for disaster. In 1884, the Métis leader Louis Riel returned from exile in the USA to Canada, where he gathered together a group of Métis militants and formed a provisional government to press their case to the Canadian government. They provisional government passed a “Revolutionary bill of Rights”, which asserted the Métis right to possess their own land and preserve their cultural rights. To further pressure the Canadian government, the Métis took over the community of Duck Lake, which caused Canada to mobilize their troops and break down all negotiations. The Plains Cree, led by Chief Big Bear, angered by Canadian attempts to make them settle, clashed violently with government forces in the area, and joined the rebellion along with the Assiniboine. Prompted by the threat of rebellion, the Canadian government deployed 3000 troops down the half-completed CPR, …show more content…

Both rebellions tell the same narrative, a group of peoples (such as the Métis or the Southern landowners) who wished to maintain their previous economic and political power in a country that was rapidly changing due to the vast socioeconomic upheaval that was the industrial revolution. Both groups felt that the central government was taking away their political rights and marginalizing them from government; moreover, both attempted to preserve their own institutions that they felt the central government was attempting to take away from them, such as language and cultural rights or slavery and southern institutions. In the end, the only way they felt they could maintain the status quo was by taking up arms against a central government. All attempts of negotiation between the government and the rebels broke down, and a state of war prevailed until eventually, the central government won over due to their superior resources, industries and manpower. The rebellion, ultimately unsuccessful, ended in the complete abolishment of all the rights that they had fought for and instead prompted the government to further tighten control over these rebelled peoples. In the end, both the rebellion and the peoples that rebelled were crushed and their social, economic and political power was ended, with laws such as the scrip system with the

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