Red River Rebellion

The Red River Rebellion or "Red River Resistance" are the names given to the events surrounding the actions of a provisional government established by Métis leader Louis Riel in 1869 at the Red River Settlement in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba.The Rebellion was the first crisis the new government faced following Canadian Confederation in 1867. The Canadian government bought Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869 and appointed an English-speaking governor, William McDougall, who was opposed by the French-speaking inhabitants of the settlement. McDougall sent out surveyors before the land was officially transferred to Canada and had them arrange the land according to the square township system used in Ontario. The Métis, led by Riel, prevented McDougall from entering the territory. After McDougall declared that the Hudson's Bay Company was no longer in control of the territory and that Canada had asked for the transfer of sovereignty to be postponed, the Métis created a provisional government, and then reformed it by accepting an equal number of anglophone representatives. Riel undertook to negotiate directly with the Canadian government to establish Assiniboia as a province.
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