onflict between the Assembly and the Legislative Council had left a sour taste in the mouths of the people. Politically, most colonists wanted an elected government which would represent t!
             he majority of the population. Rebellion was not actively pursued by the colonists, nor can it be considered entirely an ethnic conflict. They were a frustrated and desperate people seeking responsible government and an end to colonial rule.
             Following the War of 1812 , the British government began to actively encourage migration to the colonies. Immigration was supported by British merchants who hoped that the new arrivals would increase the manpower of the economy and somewhat combat the French Canadian political majority3. French Canadians viewed the British immigrants as "a mortal threat"4 to the survival of their culture:
             They must rid themselves of their beggars and cast them by thousands on
             our shores...they must send us pestilence and death.
             Asiatic cholera was brought to the Canadas in 1832 with the large influx of immigrants. Thousands of people across Lower Canada died, many of them French. Despite warnings of cholera, Governor Aylmer kept trade open and bungled public health all in an effort to appease the merchants6. Many French Canadians, including Papineau, suspected that the cholera epidemics were part of a British conspiracy to decimate their population and to make them a minority.
             Lack of available land, combined with the rapid growth of the French Canadian population and the large influx of immigrants, made it difficult for many settlers to farm. The traditional habitants methods of establishing new farms for succeeding generations was in jeopardy7. Many, desperate for land and work, emigrated to the United States.
             In Lower Canada there was a racial divide amongst the settlers. This ethnic disunity added to the bitterness of the Rebellion8, with the serious fighting occurring in areas where there was consider...