Upper Canada

Province of Upper Canada
1791–1841
Union Flag (1801 version)[1][2]
Anthem: "God Save the King/Queen"
Map of Upper Canada (orange) with 21st-century Canada (pink) surrounding it
Status	British colony
Capital	Newark 1792–1797 (renamed Niagara 1798, Niagara-on-the-Lake 1970) York (later renamed Toronto in 1834) 1797–1841
Common languages	English
Religion	Church of England (Official) [3]
Government	Family Compact
Sovereign
• 1791–1820	George III
• 1820–1830	George IV
• 1830–1837	William IV
• 1837–1841	Victoria
Lieutenant-Governor; Executive Council of Upper Canada
Legislature	Parliament of Upper Canada
• Upper house	Legislative Council
• Lower house	Legislative Assembly
Historical era	British Era
• Constitutional Act of 1791	26 December 1791
• Act of Union 1840	10 February 1841
Area
1836[4]	258,999 km2 (100,000 sq mi)
Population
• 1823[4]	150,196
• 1836[4]	358,187
Currency	Halifax pound
Preceded by Succeeded by Province of Quebec (1763–1791) Province of Canada
Today part of	Canada  ∟Ontario

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First Nations Pays d'en Haut 1500s–1763 Province of Quebec 1763–1791 Upper Canada 1791–1841 Canada West 1841–1867 Ontario 1867–present
Upper Canada Topics
Legislative Assembly The Family Compact The Reform Movement Upper Canada Rebellion Agriculture Work and labour organization Corporations Imprisonment for debt Book & newspaper publishers Orange Order
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The Province of Upper Canada (French: province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Quebec since 1763. Upper Canada included all of modern-day Southern Ontario and all those areas of Northern Ontario in the Pays d'en Haut which had formed part of New France, essentially the watersheds of the Ottawa River or Lakes Huron and Superior, excluding any lands within the watershed of Hudson Bay. The "upper" prefix in the name reflects its geographic position along the Great Lakes, mostly above the headwaters of the Saint Lawrence River, contrasted with Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) to the northeast.

Upper Canada was the primary destination of Loyalist refugees and settlers from the United States after the American Revolution, who often were granted land to settle in Upper Canada. Already populated by Indigenous peoples, land for settlement in Upper Canada was made by treaties between the new British government and the Indigenous peoples, exchanging land for one-time payments or annuities. The new province was characterized by its British way of life, including bicameral parliament and separate civil and criminal law, rather than mixed as in Lower Canada or elsewhere in the British Empire.^{[5][failed verification]} The division was created to ensure the exercise of the same rights and privileges enjoyed by loyal subjects elsewhere in the North American colonies.^[6] In 1812, war broke out between Great Britain and the United States, leading to several battles in Upper Canada. The United States attempted to capture Upper Canada, but the war ended with the situation unchanged.

The government of the colony came to be dominated by a small group of persons, known as the "Family Compact", who held most of the top positions in the Legislative Council and appointed officials. In 1837, an unsuccessful rebellion attempted to overthrow the undemocratic system. Representative government would be established in the 1840s. Upper Canada existed from its establishment on 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841, when it was united with adjacent Lower Canada to form the Province of Canada.