Like most young revolutionary states, young Quebec underwent a Crisis of Apathy through the first decade of its existence. Nation pride was definitely present in the early republic, it was just believed that full independence was unattainable in the long run for the small francophone country.
Soon, the nation's leadership had split itself into three camps: those proposing closer ties with the US or RoM, those suggesting falling into France's sphere of influence, and those who wished to use Quebec's current independence as a bargaining chip for better representation within the British Empire.
By early 1845, the former two of the three factions had grown to deeply dislike the Pro-British faction, who had developed a nasty habit of blocking any and every bill to come before parliament. Something, they thought, had to be done to cut all possible hope of British forgiveness.
And so, like the United States and Republic of Michigan before them, Quebec picked a fight with the home country. Unlike the Yankees and Michiganians, however, the Quebecois chose carefully. A cheap, quick, and victorious colonial war would do just fine.
So in the spring of 1845 the Pro-USA/France coalition pushed through the Labrador Declaration over Pro-British protests. The Labrador Declaration simply stated that any foreign occupation force in Labrador was illegal and subject to forcible expulsion. More importantly, the declaration would claim the whole of the St. Lawrence as Quebec's territorial waters. Needless to say, the British were not pleased.
In effect, this was a declaration of war. Not only did it vow to push the British out of Labrador – which they had been occupying since the close of the Canadian Revolutions just to spite the Quebecois – but it also promised to cut Britain's only connection to its colonies in Upper Canada.
To give their declaration teeth, the Quebecois next would sign the Coast Guard and Frontier Police Acts into law. For the following months Parliament poured the nation's treasury into the purchase and fitting out of old civilian craft. As the new Coast Guard began to take shape, so did the Frontier Police; a odd mix of fur-trappers and dragoons. By 1847 the new Coast Guard had 250 boats (few actually deserved the title “ship”) patrolling the St. Lawrence and 1,900 Frontier Police were headed up into Labrador.
The First Labrador War began, not with a bang, but with a whisper. As it turns out, Labrador is a rather large place. Certainly large enough to effectively hide 250 Englishmen from 2 regiments of Dragoons.
The war would continue for eighteen months before much of anything happened. When something finally did happen, it was far from the spectacular display of bravado that the Quebecois were hoping for – a lone British soldier was separated from his 30 man survey, and then bumped into two companies of Frontier Police, who were then lead to the surveyor's encampment, the survey crew then surrendered without much of a fight. Thus ended the “glorious” First Labrador War.
Although the conflict was little more than a joke, it did have the intended effect -thanks mostly to Quebec's excellent propaganda department. It seemed, at first, that Quebec would be spared the obligatory “War of 1812-esq” trial of national will. As it turns out, however, the First Labrador War was merely the first of several confrontations with Great Britain.
The Second Labrador War would come the following spring, when the Quebecois Coast guard seized a sizable shipment of British arms bound up the St. Lawrence for Upper Canada. The ill-fated British punitive naval expedition was soon dispatched to “leverage” the Quebecois into returning the arms. The flotilla was quickly met with heavy resistance in the form of the Quebecois Coast Guard.
The ensuing conflict was another drawn-out affair, albeit far more violent then the last. The Quebecois strategy involved little more than overrunning the British warships with their more numerous converted civilian craft. The British planned on running the gauntlet to Quebec city, where they would then land in Pointe-Lévy and begin bombardment of the city proper. Both plans would be put to the test at the battle of Île d'Orléans, where 18 British warships ran into eight dozen Quebecois coast guard vessels.
Although the British possessed better ships, better arms, and better sailors, they simply could not compete with the endless waves of smaller, more maneuverable Francophone vessels. One by one the mighty warships fell to spar torpedo or fire. By daybreak the wreckage of 68 vessels clogged the Saint Lawrence. Quebec had won its first confrontation with Britain, at the cost of some 1,900 sailors.
This costly victory, combined with a bloody defeat against the British in Labrador, brought both parties back to the negotiation table. After a series of informal letter the Quebecois were convinced that a return to the status quo would be beneficial for both parties.
The only major result of the Labrador Wars was the downfall of the British Faction in Quebec's government. The American Faction would face a similar fate with the outbreak of the Stater Civil War two years later. With all viable alternatives gone, the Quebecois would be forced to stand on their own.
----------- Translated from L'alcool, et l'insensé: Une histoire de la Révolution du Québec by André Gagnon
-----
Not so sure if that one measures up, but there it is.
I guess Michigan is next.