Lower Canada - Definition and Overview

Lower Canada was a British colony in North America, at the downstream end of the Saint Lawrence River in the southern portion of the modern-day province of Quebec. It was one of the two colonies of the Canadas. The colony was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791 by the partition of the British colony, the Province of Quebec.

It consisted of part of the former French colony of New France, ceded to Great Britain after that empire's victory in the French and Indian Wars. Other parts of New France ceded to Britain became the colonies of Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, and later New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Lower Canada was eventually merged with Upper Canada to form the single colony of the Province of Canada with the Act of Union; it was then also called, unofficially but widely, Canada East. After Canadian Confederation of 1867, it would become the province of Quebec.