Aboriginal tradition holds that the
First Peoples
have inhabited parts of what is now called Canada since the dawn of time. Archaeological records show that these lands have
been inhabited for at least 10,000 years. Several Viking
expeditions occurred circa AD 1000, with evidence of settlement at
L'Anse aux Meadows.
British claims to North America date from 1497,
when John Cabot reached what he called
Newfoundland, though it is unclear whether Cabot landed in current
Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia, or
Maine. French claims date from explorations by
Jacques Cartier
(from 1534) and
Samuel de Champlain
(from 1603).
Neither Cabot's nor Cartier's explorations left any permanent settlers behind. In
1604, French settlers were the first Europeans to settle permanently in what is now Canada. After an unsuccessful winter in St. Croix Island (today in Maine), they settled Port-Royal in what is now the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, but moved to found Quebec City in 1608. The current Acadians are descendants of settlers who came later in the same century and re-founded Port-Royal. New France was generally the name given to the French colonies of Canada and Acadia (and later Louisiana).
British settlements
were established along the
Atlantic seaboard
and around
Hudson Bay.
As these colonies expanded, a struggle for control of North America took place between 1689 and 1763
(see French and Indian Wars),
exacerbated by wars in Europe between France and
Great Britain.
France progressively lost territory to
Great Britain, surrendering peninsular
Nova Scotia in the
1713
Treaty of Utrecht and the remainder of
New France including what was left of
Acadia in the
Treaty of Paris (1763).
During and after the
American Revolution
approximately 70,000
Loyalists fled the
Thirteen Colonies.
Of these, roughly 50,000
United Empire Loyalists
[3] settled in the
British North American colonies which then consisted of
Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia, the
Province of Quebec,
and Prince Edward Island
(created 1769). To accommodate the Loyalists,
Britain created the colony of New Brunswick
in 1784 from part of Nova Scotia, and divided Quebec into
Lower Canada and
Upper Canada under the
Constitutional Act of 1791.
General Isaac Brock leading the charge in the
Battle of Queenston Heights
The War of 1812
began when the U.S. attacked British forces in Canada in an attempt to end British influence in North America
(and particularly, the British seizures of American merchant ships in the Atlantic). In April 1813, U.S. forces burned
York (now
Toronto). The British/Canadians retaliated with the
burning of Washington
(DC) in a surprise attack in August 1814, but were subsequently turned back at
Plattsburgh,
Baltimore, and
New Orleans. The
Treaty of Ghent was signed in December
1814.
It was only after the French and Napoleonic wars ended in Europe that large-scale immigration to Canada resumed.
The Canadas were merged into a single colony, the
United Province of Canada,
with the Act of Union (1840)
in an attempt to assimilate the French Canadians. Once the U.S. agreed to the
49th parallel north
as its border with western British North America, the British government created the colonies of
British Columbia in
1848 and
Vancouver Island in
1849. By the late
1850s, politicians in the Province of Canada had launched a series of western exploratory expeditions with the intention of assuming control of Rupert's Land (administered by the Hudson's Bay Company) and the Arctic.
In 1864 and
1866,
British North American politicians, in what became known as the
Great Coalition,
held three conferences to create a federal union. Spearheaded by
John A. Macdonald,
on July 1,
1867,
three colonies—Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were granted a
constitution,
the British North America Act,
by the United Kingdom,
creating the Dominion of Canada. The term
"Canadian Confederation"
refers to this 1867
unification of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Quebec (formerly Canada East or Lower Canada), and Ontario (formerly Canada West or Upper Canada).
The remaining British colonies and territories soon
joined Confederation. By 1880
Canada included all of its present area except for
Newfoundland and Labrador, which joined in 1949. (It should be noted that, although part of Canada, Alberta and Saskatchewan did not gain Provincial status until 1905.)
Canadian
Red Ensign, former flag of Canada
In 1919, Canada became a member of the
League of Nations and, in the
Imperial Conference of
1926,
Canada assumed full control of its own foreign affairs through the
Balfour Declaration.
In 1927, Canada appointed its first
ambassadorto a foreign country, the
United States.
In 1931, the
Statute of Westminster
gave the Balfour Declaration
constitutional force, confirming that no act of the UK's parliament would thereafter extend to Canada without its consent.
Canadian citizenship
was first distinguished from British in 1947;
judicial appeals to the British
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ended in
1949. The power to amend Canada's
constitution remained with the British parliament, although subject to the Statute of Westminster, until it was finally "patriated" to Canadian control by the Canada Act 1982.
The
Quebec sovereignty movement
has led to two referendums held in
1980 and 1995,
with votes of 59.6% and 50.6% respectively against its proposals for
sovereignty-association.
In 1997 ,
the Supreme Court of Canada
ruled unilateral secession by a province to be
unconstitutional.
Sources: University World and Wikipedia
