History of canada

The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by Indigenous peoples, with distinct trade networks, spiritual beliefs, and styles of social organization. Some of these older civilizations had long faded by the time of the first European arrivals and have been discovered through archeological investigations.

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was a pivotal battle during the French and Indian War over the fate of New France, influencing the later creation of Canada.

From the late 15th century, French and British expeditions explored, colonized, and fought over various places within North America in what constitutes present-day Canada. The colony of New France was claimed in 1534 with permanent settlements beginning in 1608. France ceded nearly all its North American possessions to the United Kingdom in 1763 at the Treaty of Paris after the Seven Years' War. The now British Province of Quebec was divided into Upper and Lower Canada in 1791. The two provinces were united as the Province of Canada by the Act of Union 1840, which came into force in 1841. In 1867, the Province of Canada was joined with two other British colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia through Confederation, forming a self-governing entity. "Canada" was adopted as the legal name of the new country and the word "Dominion" was conferred as the country's title. Over the next eighty-two years, Canada expanded by incorporating other parts of British North America, finishing with Newfoundland and Labrador in 1949.

Although responsible government had existed in British North America since 1848, Britain continued to set its foreign and defence policies until the end of the First World War. The Balfour Declaration of 1926, the 1930 Imperial Conference and the passing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 recognized that Canada had become co-equal with the United Kingdom. The Patriation of the Constitution in 1982 marked the removal of legal dependence on the British parliament. Canada currently consists of ten provinces and three territories and is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy.

Over centuries, elements of Indigenous, French, British and more recent immigrant customs have combined to form a Canadian culture that has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic and economic neighbour, the United States. Since the conclusion of the Second World War, Canadians have supported multilateralism abroad and socioeconomic development.

Indigenous peoples

Canada under French rule

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Main articles: New France and Former colonies and territories in Canada

Jacques Cartier meeting with the St. Lawrence Iroquois at Hochelaga during his second voyage in 1535

French interest in the New World began with Francis I of France, who in 1524 sponsored Giovanni da Verrazzano's navigation of the region between Florida and Newfoundland in hopes of finding a route to the Pacific Ocean.[43] Although the English had laid claims to it in 1497 when John Cabot made landfall somewhere on the North American coast (likely either modern-day Newfoundland or Nova Scotia) and had claimed the land for England on behalf of Henry VII,[44] these claims were not exercised and England did not attempt to create a permanent colony. As for the French, however, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula in 1534 and claimed the land in the name of Francis I, creating a region called "Canada" the following summer.[45] Cartier had sailed up the St. Lawrence river as far as the Lachine Rapids, to the spot where Montreal now stands.[46] Permanent settlement attempts by Cartier at Charlesbourg-Royal in 1541, at Sable Island in 1598 by Marquis de La Roche-Mesgouez, and at Tadoussac, Quebec in 1600 by François Gravé Du Pont all eventually failed.[47] Despite these initial failures, French fishing fleets visited the Atlantic coast communities and sailed into the St. Lawrence River, trading and making alliances with First Nations,[48] as well as establishing fishing settlements such as in Percé (1603).[49] As a result of France's claim and activities in the colony of Canada, the name Canada was found on international maps showing the existence of this colony within the St. Lawrence river region.[50]

Samuel de Champlain with two Innu guides in 1603

In 1604, a North American fur trade monopoly was granted to Pierre Du Gua, Sieur de Mons.[51] The fur trade became one of the main economic ventures in North America.[52] Du Gua led his first colonization expedition to an island located near the mouth of the St. Croix River. Among his lieutenants was a geographer named Samuel de Champlain, who promptly carried out a major exploration of the northeastern coastline of what is now the United States.[51] In the spring of 1605, under Samuel de Champlain, the new St. Croix settlement was moved to Port Royal (today's Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia).[53] Samuel de Champlain also landed at Saint John Harbour on June 24, 1604 (the feast of St. John the Baptist) and is where the city of Saint John, New Brunswick, and the Saint John River gets their name.[54]

The establishment of Quebec City in 1608, with Samuel de Champlain and his party depicted in the bottom foreground.

In 1608 Champlain founded what is now Quebec City, one of the earliest permanent settlements, which would become the capital of New France.[55] He took personal administration over the city and its affairs and sent out expeditions to explore the interior.[56] Champlain became the first known European to encounter Lake Champlain in 1609. By 1615, he had travelled by canoe up the Ottawa River through Lake Nipissing and Georgian Bay to the centre of Huron country near Lake Simcoe.[57] During these voyages, Champlain aided the Wendat (aka "Hurons") in their battles against the Iroquois Confederacy.[58] As a result, the Iroquois would become enemies of the French and be involved in multiple conflicts (known as the French and Iroquois Wars) until the signing of the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701.[59]

The English, led by Humphrey Gilbert, had claimed St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1583 as the first North American English colony by royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I.[60] In the reign of King James I, the English established additional colonies in Cupids and Ferryland, Newfoundland, and soon after established the first successful permanent settlements of Virginia to the south.[61] On September 29, 1621, a charter for the foundation of a New World Scottish colony was granted by King James to William Alexander.[62] In 1622, the first settlers left Scotland. They initially failed and permanent Nova Scotian settlements were not firmly established until 1629 during the end of the Anglo-French War.[62] These colonies did not last long except the fisheries in Ferryland under David Kirke.[63] In 1631, under Charles I of England, the Treaty of Suza was signed, ending the war and returning Nova Scotia to the French.[64] New France was not fully restored to French rule until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.[65] This led to new French immigrants and the founding of Trois-Rivières in 1634.[66]