Canada’s History

Before contactThe First Peoples

When Europeans arrived they found every region occupied by native peoples they called Indians, because the first explorers believed they had reached the East Indies. Some of these peoples lived by hunting and gathering, others by raising crops, all of them off the land.

Warfare was common as groups competed for land, resources, and prestige. Large numbers of Aboriginals later died of European diseases to which they lacked immunity. Yet in the first 200 years of coexistence, Aboriginals and Europeans formed strong economic, religious, and military bonds that laid the foundations of Canada.

1000 AD – 1542The First Europeans

Labrador and the island of Newfoundland were also reached by the Vikings who colonized Greenland from Iceland 1,000 years ago. Their settlement at l'Anse aux Meadows survives as a World Heritage site.

European exploration began in earnest in 1497 with John Cabot, an Italian immigrant to England, who was the first to map Canada's Atlantic shore and set foot on Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island. English settlement, however, did not begin until 1610. A generation later Jacques Cartier crossed the Atlantic three times, between 1534 and 1542, claiming the land for King Francis I of France.

The St. Lawrence River was first explored by Cartier, the first European to set eyes on present-day Quebec City and Montreal. Two captured guides spoke in his hearing the Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village"; the name Canada began appearing on maps by the 1550s.

1604 – 1759Royal New France

In 1604, French explorers Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain founded the first European settlement north of Florida, first on St. Croix Island (in what is now Maine), then at Port-Royal in Acadia (today's Nova Scotia). Champlain built a fortress in 1608 at the site of present-day Quebec City.

Champlain made allies of the Algonquin, Montagnais and Huron, historic enemies of the Iroquois — five (later six) First Nations in confederation, who fought the French settlements for a century before the two sides made peace in 1701. French and Aboriginal people worked together in the vast fur-trade economy, driven by European demand for beaver pelts. Leaders such as Jean Talon, Bishop Laval, and Count Frontenac built a French Empire reaching from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1670 the Hudson's Bay Company received from King Charles II of England sole trading rights across the whole watershed draining into Hudson Bay, and for the next 100 years it competed with Montreal-based traders. The skilled canoe-men of the trade were called voyageurs and coureurs des bois, and they formed strong alliances with First Nations. Heroes of the era included Count Frontenac, who refused to surrender Quebec to the English in 1690 — "My only reply will be from the mouths of my cannons!" — and Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, who won victories over the English from James Bay to Nevis in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile the English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, dating from the early 1600s, grew richer and more populous than New France. France and Great Britain fought through the 1700s for control of North America, and in 1759 the British defeated the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City — the end of France's empire in America. Both commanders were killed leading their troops: Brigadier James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm.

1763 – 1791British Rule and Accommodation

After the war, Great Britain renamed the colony the Province of Quebec. Its Catholic, French-speaking people, the habitants or Canadiens, strove to keep their way of life within an English-speaking, Protestant-ruled empire.

The British Parliament passed the Quebec Act of 1774, one of Canada's constitutional foundations, the better to govern a French Roman Catholic majority. It allowed religious freedom for Catholics and let them hold public office (not then allowed in Britain), and restored French civil law while keeping British criminal law.

When the 13 colonies to the south declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States, more than 40,000 Loyalists fled north to settle in Nova Scotia and Quebec. Their origins were Aboriginal, British, Dutch, German, Scandinavian and more; their backgrounds Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Methodist, Presbyterian and Quaker. Joseph Brant led thousands of Loyalist Mohawk into Canada, and some 3,000 black Loyalists, freedmen and slaves, came north in search of a better life. In 1792, black Nova Scotians given poor land left to establish Freetown, Sierra Leone, a new British colony for freed slaves.

Sir Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester), Governor of Quebec, upheld the rights of the Canadiens, threw back an American invasion of Quebec in 1775, and supervised the Loyalist migration of 1782–83. Democratic institutions then grew up gradually and peacefully: Halifax elected the first representative assembly in 1758, followed by Prince Edward Island in 1773 and New Brunswick in 1785.

The Province of Quebec was divided by the Constitutional Act of 1791 into Upper Canada (later Ontario), mainly Protestant, English-speaking and Loyalist, and Lower Canada (later Quebec), heavily French-speaking and Catholic. For the first time the Canadas were granted legislative assemblies elected by the people, and the name Canada became official. British North America was the collective name for the two Canadas and the Atlantic colonies.

1793 – 1850sAbolition and a Growing Economy

In the late 1700s the British Parliament saw the emergence of a movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. Upper Canada, under Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, became in 1793 the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition. Britain prohibited the buying and selling of slaves in 1807 and abolished slavery throughout the Empire in 1833.

Thousands of slaves escaped the United States and settled in Canada by way of the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network, following "the North Star." John Graves Simcoe was also the founder of the City of York (now Toronto). Mary Ann (Shadd) Carey, an outspoken anti-slavery activist, helped found and edit The Provincial Freeman in 1853, becoming Canada's first woman publisher.

The first companies in Canada, formed under the French and British regimes, competed for the fur trade. The Hudson's Bay Company came to dominate the northwest from posts — Fort Garry (Winnipeg), Fort Edmonton, Fort Langley, Fort Victoria — that later became cities. Financial institutions first opened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and 1832 brought the Montreal Stock Exchange. For centuries the Canadian economy rested on farming and on exports of natural resources: fur, fish, and timber.

1812 – 1814The War of 1812

After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), the Royal Navy ruled the waves. American resentment at British interference with their shipping, plus the belief that conquering Canada would be easy, led the United States to invade in June 1812. The British defence was supported by Canadian volunteers and by First Nations, among them Shawnee under Chief Tecumseh.

Major-General Sir Isaac Brock captured Detroit in July, then was killed at Queenston Heights, near Niagara Falls, defending against an American attack — a battle the Americans lost. At Chateauguay in 1813, 460 soldiers under Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry, mostly French Canadiens, turned back 4,000 American invaders. That same year Laura Secord walked a dangerous 19 miles (30 km) to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of a planned attack, helping secure victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams.

The Americans burned Government House and the Parliament Buildings in York in 1813; Major-General Robert Ross retaliated in 1814, leading an expedition from Nova Scotia that burned the White House and other public buildings in Washington, D.C. He was killed in battle soon after and buried in Halifax with full military honours. By 1814 the American attempt to conquer Canada had failed.

Britain then paid for a costly defence system, including the Citadels at Halifax and Quebec City, the naval drydock at Halifax, and Fort Henry at Kingston. One legacy of the war is today's Canada–U.S.A. border, and the war ensured Canada would remain independent of the United States. The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon in 1815, chose Bytown (Ottawa) as the endpoint of the Rideau Canal, playing a direct role in founding the national capital.

1837 – 1864Rebellion and Responsible Government

In the 1830s, reformers in Upper and Lower Canada believed progress toward full democracy was too slow; some wanted American republican values or even to join the United States. Armed rebellions broke out in 1837–38 outside Montreal and in Toronto, but the rebels lacked public support and were defeated by British troops and Canadian volunteers. A number were hanged or exiled, some later returning to Canada.

Lord Durham, an English reformer sent to report on the rebellions, urged merging Upper and Lower Canada and granting responsible government — meaning that to govern, the Crown's ministers need the backing of a majority of elected representatives. He also urged that the Canadiens assimilate into English-speaking Protestant culture, showing a complete lack of understanding of French Canadians.

In 1840 the two became the Province of Canada. Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine and Robert Baldwin, reformers, worked with British governors toward reform, as did Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia became the first colony to attain full responsible government in 1847–48, and in 1848–49 Governor Lord Elgin introduced it to United Canada — under which a government that loses a confidence vote must resign. A champion of democracy and French language rights, La Fontaine became in 1849 the first leader (similar to a prime minister) of a responsible government in the Canadas.

1864 – 1867Confederation, 1867

Between 1864 and 1867, with British support, representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada worked together to create a new country; they are known as the Fathers of Confederation. They built two levels of government — federal and provincial — and split the old Province of Canada into Ontario and Quebec, each province electing its own legislature with control over areas such as education and health.

The British Parliament passed the British North America Act in 1867, and July 1, 1867 saw the official birth of the Dominion of Canada. July 1 was celebrated as Dominion Day until 1982; today it is Canada Day.

1867 – 1885Building a Nation: The West

Canada's first Prime Minister, in 1867, was Sir John Alexander Macdonald, a Father of Confederation. He was born in Scotland on January 11, 1815, came to Upper Canada as a child, and became a lawyer in Kingston, Ontario. Parliament has recognized January 11 as Sir John A. Macdonald Day, and his portrait appears on the $10 bill. Sir George-Etienne Cartier, a Montreal railway lawyer, was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec, leading Quebec in and helping negotiate the entry of the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, and British Columbia.

When Canada took over the vast northwest from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, the 12,000 Metis of the Red River were not consulted. An armed uprising led by Louis Riel seized Fort Garry, the territorial capital. Ottawa sent soldiers to retake it in 1870; Riel fled to the United States and Canada created Manitoba, a new province. Elected to Parliament, Riel never took his seat. A second rebellion in 1885 in present-day Saskatchewan led to his trial and execution for high treason — a decision strongly opposed in Quebec. Many see him as a hero, defender of Metis rights, and father of Manitoba.

After the first uprising, Macdonald founded in 1873 the North West Mounted Police (NWMP), to pacify the West and help in negotiations with the Indians. Fort Calgary, Fort MacLeod and other centres were founded by the NWMP, with headquarters at Regina. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP, or "the Mounties") are today Canada's national police force and among its best-known symbols. Major General Sir Sam Steele rose from the ranks of the Mounties, while Gabriel Dumont was the Metis' greatest military leader.

British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised a railway to the West Coast. On November 7, 1885, the last spike was driven by Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), who directed the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and was born in Scotland. Financed by British and American investors and built by European and Chinese labour, the CPR's "ribbons of steel" fulfilled a national dream. Afterward the Chinese faced discrimination, including the race-based Head Tax; the Government of Canada apologized in 2006.

1890s – 1914Moving Westward

Canada's economy grew and industrialized during the boom of the 1890s and early 1900s, when one million British and one million American immigrants arrived. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the first French-Canadian prime minister after Confederation, promoted settlement of the West; his portrait is on the $5 bill.

The railway let immigrants — including 170,000 Ukrainians, 115,000 Poles, and tens of thousands from Germany, France, Norway, and Sweden — settle the West before 1914 and develop a thriving agricultural sector.

1899 – 1921The First World War

Over 7,000 Canadians volunteered for the South African War (1899–1902), popularly called the Boer War; over 260 died. They fought in 1900 at the battles of Paardeberg ("Horse Mountain") and Lillefontein.

Germany attacked Belgium and France in 1914, Britain declared war, and Ottawa formed the Canadian Expeditionary Force (later the Canadian Corps). Out of a population of eight million, more than 600,000 Canadians served, most of them volunteers. In April 1917 the Corps took Vimy Ridge at a cost of 10,000 killed or wounded — the first British victory of the war — securing its reputation as the "shock troops of the British Empire." April 9 is celebrated as Vimy Day, and the Vimy Memorial in France honours the fallen.

Between 1914 and 1920, over 8,000 former Austro-Hungarian subjects — mainly Ukrainian men — were interned by Ottawa as "enemy aliens" in 24 labour camps, despite British advice against it. In 1918, under General Sir Arthur Currie, Canada's greatest soldier, the Corps led the last hundred days, including the victory at the Battle of Amiens on August 8, 1918, a day the Germans called "the black day of the German Army." The war ended with the Armistice on November 11, 1918. 60,000 Canadians were killed in total and 170,000 wounded. Canada's soldiers had begun using the maple leaf in the 1850s.

1758 – 1940Women Get the Vote

At Confederation the vote was limited to property-owning adult white males, common in democracies at the time. The women's suffrage movement sought to change this; its Canadian founder, Dr. Emily Stowe, was the first Canadian woman to practise medicine here.

Over 3,000 nurses — nicknamed "Bluebirds" — served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, 2,500 of them overseas.

1915 – todayRemembrance Day

On November 11 each year, Remembrance Day, Canadians wear the red poppy and keep silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, honouring over a million who have served and the 110,000 who gave their lives. "In Flanders Fields," often recited on this day, was composed in 1915 by the Canadian medical officer Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.

1919 – 1939Between the Wars

After the First World War the British Empire became a free association of states, the British Commonwealth of Nations, of which Canada remains a leading member alongside successor states such as Australia, India, New Zealand, and several African and Caribbean countries. Prosperity and low unemployment came with the "Roaring Twenties."

The stock market crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression, or the "Dirty Thirties," with unemployment reaching 27% in 1933. Low grain prices and drought hit farmers in Western Canada hardest. A central bank to manage the money supply, the Bank of Canada, was created in 1934. Immigration fell off, and many refugees were turned away — among them Jews fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939.

1939 – 1945The Second World War

The war began in 1939 when Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany, invaded Poland and conquered much of Europe. More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served, out of a population of 11.5 million; 44,000 were killed. Canadians fought bravely in the unsuccessful defence of Hong Kong (1941) and a failed raid on Nazi-controlled Dieppe (1942).

The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) fought in the Battle of Britain, and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan trained over 130,000 Allied air crew in Canada. In the Battle of the Atlantic the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) saw its finest hour protecting convoys from German submarines; by war's end the third-largest navy in the world was Canada's. In the Pacific, Japan attacked a lighthouse on Vancouver Island, invaded the Aleutian Islands, launched fire balloons over B.C. and the Prairies, and maltreated Canadian POWs from Hong Kong, surrendering on August 14, 1945.

The war also led to the forcible relocation of Canadians of Japanese origin and the sale of their property without compensation; the Government of Canada apologized and compensated the victims in 1988.

Canadians helped liberate Italy in 1943–44. In the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 — D-Day — 15,000 Canadian troops stormed and captured Juno Beach; about one in ten Allied soldiers that day was Canadian. The Canadian Army went on to liberate the Netherlands in 1944–45, and helped force Germany's surrender on May 8, 1945, ending six years of war in Europe.

1867 – 1999Must-Know Dates: Provinces Join

In the 1920s, some believed the British West Indies should become part of Canada, which did not occur.