CONFEDERATION, 1867: Creating the Dominion of Canada

This compressed account of the growth of the Confederation movement which led to the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867 will make stateside readers (at whom it is aimed) realize how little they know of their neighbor's past. Even if the tension between French and English settlers which led to political stalemate in the Province of Canada during the mid-19th century comes as no surprise; another regional conflict between the Maritime Provinces and their neighbors to the west (the political maneuvers that finally overcame it) will be unfamiliar to most readers here, as will the fact that Canadians feared invasion by American based Fenians. Richard Walton's Canada and the U.S.A. (1972) puts these developments into a context that's easier for outsiders to grasp; however Bliss' focus on the negotiations directly preceding unification has supplemental value.