After a number of failed rebellions in Ireland, Irish nationalists attempted an invasion of Canada in 1866. Called Fenians (from the Irish name of their movement "Sinn Fein"), they did not really expect to capture all of Canada, but hoped to win enough military victories to force Britain to go to the bargaining table to give Ireland its independence. Many of the Fenians had fought in the American Civil War which had just ended in 1865. Although close to 5000 Fenians gathered in the United States, just 800 could cross the border before the American government stopped any more from going to Canada. This small force met a contingent of Canadian militia of about the same size at the hamlet of Ridgeway near Fort Erie on the Niagara River (now in southern Ontario). The Fenians won the battle, but then retreated back to the United States when they realized no more help would be coming.

While the military threat of the Fenians had proved to be weaker than it could have been, the colonial government of Canada (what is now the provinces of Ontario and Quebec) had been shocked. There was also concern about the slow reaction of the Americans to stop the Fenians. It was known that some Americans would have welcomed a Fenian success. So the combined fear of the Fenians and the Americans was an important cause (although not the only one) in the creation of the

Confederation of Canada in 1867. After much debate and argument, only four provinces joined-- Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The people of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were not given the chance to vote, Quebec voted in favour of union with just over 50 percent, while only in Ontario did confederation win a solid majority of the vote. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland kept their colonial status. The new state was called the Dominion of Canada, with its first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-1891). The term "dominion" showed Canada was no longer a colony, but it was not a fully independent country either, as Britain still controlled foreign affairs.

The expansion of Canada to the west led to conflict with the Metis led by Louis Riel. The Metis had been given no say in their future. When the Hudson Bay Company sold its land rights to the Canadian government in 1870--including what are now the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and most of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories--the Metis land had been sold along with them. Under Louis Riel, the Metis formed what amounted to an independent republic on the Red River. But when a British-Canadian army under General Garnet Wolseley arrived, Riel fled to the United States while large numbers of Metis moved farther west.

In 1873, an open battle was fought between a group of American whiskey traders and wolf hunters and the Assiniboine band of Little Soldier, near the Cypress Hills in what was now Canadian territory. This fight led to the creation of the Northwest Mounted Police Force (later renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP) to watch over these newly acquired western territories.

In 1885, the Northwest Rebellion broke out. Riel was back among the Metis living in Alberta and Saskatchewan. He was joined by bands of Plains Cree. The plains Indians had suffered small pox epidemics and starvation with the disappearance of the bison, but many bands still refused to go onto reservations. One of the most important Cree leaders was Big Bear. The Metis leader Gabriel Dumont won a number of fights, but was finally defeated at Batoche by a Canadian force under the British General Middleton.