EDEE 280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Great Coalition, Italian Unification, American Civil War
23 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Geography, History and Citizenship
-Confederation
1) Political and economic situation
-Queen Victoria’s policy of free trade and colonial self-determination (1846)
-Victoria reigned for a very long time and started at a very young age
(had a lot against her). One of the most important monarchs the world has
ever seen. Nobody had confidence in her at first but she proved everybody
wrong by passing policies that changed Britain. Monarch imposed her (king
died and she was the heir to the thrown). Was very insecure and unconfident.
Married prince Albert who was low ranking loyal and poor. Wasn't her
decision to get married to him (parliament found her a suitor). If she
marries someone who's poor, the parliament could still have control.
The government didn't allow food to be shipped to Ireland freely (no such thing
as free trade). She implemented free trade in 1846 for a number of reasons
including so that food can be sent to Ireland to feed the most poor and starving
people (Irish potato famine). In 1846, it was already too late but it was the
fastest she was able to do it. Before free trade, we traded with Britain (timber
and industrial finished goods) all of a sudden in 1846 we were allowed to trade
with any country we wanted (forever changed Canada).
-Political instability
-10 governments in 10 years (government isn't doing anything for it’s people)
-4 parties (conservative in QC, liberal in QC, conservative in Ontario,
liberal in Ontario)
-Coalitions and confederations (confederation = when all provinces come
together to resolve a political problem).
-Capital of Canada
-Bytown is renamed Ottawa (1855) (Ottawa chosen because other places in
Canada were too close to the border) and
-Queen Victoria designated Ottawa as capital (1857): Ottawa was
nothing before 1857
-Railway: the gov couldn't agree on when to build it, where to build it and how to
built it
-Transcontinental railway completed (1885): railway physically
connected all the Canadian provinces
-A fragile economy: when Britain decided that its colony should trade
freely we were in a lot of trouble (dependent on Britain).
-Corn laws repealed (1846): corn is a synonym for agriculture and wheat and
Britain had a set of corn laws that made it difficult for agriculture to be traded or
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
moved even within its empire. Corn laws had to be removed so that
Victoria can get food to Ireland. By repealing them we got free trade.
-Beginning of free trade
-Reciprocity agreement (1856-66): trade agreement with the US (fair exchange
of goods). Our relationship with the US started in 1856 and ended in 1866 and
started agin in 1920 after the first world war. When they declared their
independence (we hated them, they hated us; because we were British).
-End of north-south trade
-American civil war (1861-65): we managed to side with the right and wrong side
at the same time. Fought between the grey south and the blue north. Fought
because a number of issues. One issue was the most important: the
emancipation, abolition or end of slavery. Regarding slavery we sided with
the north and history indicates we were on the right side of that issue. We
abolished slavery in 1833 and it took the american states another 30 years to
finally and completely abolish slavery (social issue).
-Opposing sides
-North
-South
-Dividing issues
-Social
-Political: Washington wanted to become more powerful (bigger federal
government and smaller state governments)
-Economic: the north did not want to trade freely it wanted to industrialize. The
south had less of an industrial base and wanted to trade with whomever it could.
The south produced a lot of raw material not only but especially cotton. Britain
had the biggest clothing manufacturing industry in the world. More
clothes in Britain than in the rest of the world at the time. Needed so much
cotton (paid the highest price) but made the biggest profit. The south
wanted to trade cotton freely with Britain. The north wanted to force the south
to sell its cotton to them.
-South secedes (1861): the south separated (became independent).
The reason why the war began.
-Lee surrender to Grant (1865): Lee was the southern general surrendered to the
northern general; Grant. The north won and because they won slavery was
abolished, the government was centralized in Washington (became more
powerful) and free trade ended. Because free trade ended, the south was forced
to trade with the north. The south punished the British by no longer trading with
them. Because we were British, the north (who won the civil war) decided not to
trade with us anymore because we sided with the south. We ended up trading
with ourselves (trade between Ontario and Quebec = interior market).
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Queen victoria"s policy of free trade and colonial self-determination (1846) Victoria reigned for a very long time and started at a very young age (had a lot against her). One of the most important monarchs the world has ever seen. Nobody had confidence in her at first but she proved everybody wrong by passing policies that changed britain. Monarch imposed her (king died and she was the heir to the thrown). Married prince albert who was low ranking loyal and poor. Wasn"t her decision to get married to him (parliament found her a suitor). If she marries someone who"s poor, the parliament could still have control. The government didn"t allow food to be shipped to ireland freely (no such thing as free trade). She implemented free trade in 1846 for a number of reasons including so that food can be sent to ireland to feed the most poor and starving people (irish potato famine).
