WHY did Confederation happen?

The first settlers in Canada were both French and English. During these early settlement years the land was divided into colonies which were called the British colonies. However, in the 1860s there were many problems amongst the colonies. At that time, the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec) faced problems due to a division amongst the English and French speaking people. Each colony also needed to develop a larger market to sell its products and a railroad was part of this. The reason that the railroads were needed was because they wanted to increase the trading among different colonies. Colonies were going bankrupt trying to put in railroads alone so joining together they would have enough money. During this time there was also a military threat from the United States. The Americans were thinking of expanding. Americans wanted to invade Canada and would take over. There were 5 major spots where the colonies were scared of being invaded - British Columbia because of the gold rush and the land in the west was perfect for farming and a major spot for settlers. If the colonies joined together they would form a larger military force to protect their land, their economies would improve as they could trade amongst one another and finally becoming part of a larger nation might help to solve the dispute between the English and French in the Province of Canada. As you can see there were many good reasons for the Canadian Confederation.