Note: Although this image is of a Canadian National Railway Car, the CN was first offered the opportunity to construct an Inter-Colonial Railway, which they declined. Currently the CNR and CPR work in cooperation to provide rail service across Canada. The rail did not reach Frenchman Butte till the early 1900's after the Riel Resistance was over, however the rail construction was hastened in 1885 due to the events of the resistance.
In 1867 a great colonial reform was carried out, the Confederation
of the North American Provinces of the British Empire. By this Act
the names of Upper and Lower Canada were changed respectively to
Ontario and Quebec. The first Dominion Parliament met in the autumn
of the same year, and lost no time in passing an Act to construct
an Inter-Colonial Railway affording proper means of communication
between the maritime and central provinces.
In 1869 the Hudson Bay territory was acquired from the Company which
held it, and after the Red River Insurrection, headed by a half-breed,
Louis Riel, had been successfully crushed by the Wolseley Expedition,
the territory was made part of the Federation. In 1871 British
Columbia became part of the Dominion, on condition that a railway
was constructed within the following ten years which should extend
from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains and connect with the existing
railway system.
The great Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, opening
out the West to all-comers.
The rise and growth of the Imperialistic spirit has been greatly
influenced by the literature on the subject, which dated its
commencement from Professor Seeley's _Expansion of England_ in 1883.
This was followed by an immense number of works by various writers,
the chief of whom, Rudyard Kipling, has popularized the conception
of Imperialism and extended its meaning:
"Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone,
But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown."
The Empire was not, however, to be consolidated without war and
bloodshed.
-- Queen Victoria, by E. Gordon Browne (Primary source documents / Timeline)
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