In the 1830s and so forth, why did the French-Canadians in Quebec foment the Patriotes rebellion (even if there were new lands like northern Quebec or the Prairies to flee to from British rule) whereas many Afrikaners merely fled the Cape Colony (in the Great Trek) and not so much rebelled against the British?
Interesting comparison.
Canadian geography I think played a huge role in why Francophone Quebecers didn't launch a 'great trek'. Northren Quebec was just not an option in the 1830s -the land's too rocky and the growing season too short to have viable agriculture. Further, the agriable land that is there, in the Saguanay and around Abitibi-Témiscamingue is really really really hard to get to with 1830s technology.
Second the placement of British colonies. To get to the prairies Franco-Quebecers would have to go through Ontario, an area already dominated by the British in the 1830s, and like Northren Quebec Northren Ontario is not easy to pass through.
More importantly in 1811 the British set up their own prairie colony, the Red River colony, in what is now Manitoba. So unlike the Afrikaners who on the vedt were free of the British, once francophones go out to the prairies they would still be under British rule.
Many franophones did head west in the 1830s-1890s which helps explain the pockets of french language groups in Manitoba, Saskachewan and Alberta. But never on the scale of the great trek.
Also, many francophones emigrated to the north east united states to work in textile mills. As a result francophones had a way of escaping british rule and gain access to new economic opportunities without treking way into the wilderness.
You have to understand that the rebellion of 1837 didn't happen in a vacuum, and that the rebellion in Lower Canada was not formented by French-Canadians alone - a simultaneous rebellion broke out in Anglophone Upper Canada, and the 'Patriotes' were a multinational force. Their red, white and green flag (which has ironically come to represent hardline French-Canadian nationalism) was actually supposed to represent the unity between English, French and Irish speakers, and had several prominent Anglophones and Irish immigrants who were influenced by their 1798 rebellion as their leaders.
The rebellion also took place within the context of what historians call the period of Atlantic Revolutions, which include the Haitian, Latin American, American and French revolutions, and also the Irish rebellion of 1798. It was a revolt with republican ideals that was likely inspired by several of the previously named revolutions (I had one professor who did some pretty interesting research into the influence of the Irish republican rebellion of 1798 on the Upper and Lower Canadian rebellions) against an unaccountable government dominated by a clique of wealthy individuals.
The Patriotes did not set out to begin an armed rebellion in the first place; Louis-Joseph Papineau, the Parti Patriote's leader, had agitated for political reforms that would allow for increased political participation and an elected government, however the British government rejected his proposals immediately before the outbreak of the rebellion.
