History
Main article: History of Canada
Further information: Timeline of Canadian history and Historiography of Canada
Indigenous peoples
The first inhabitants of North America are generally hypothesized to have migrated
from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 14,000 years ago.[16]
[17]
The Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two
of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada.[18] The characteristics of Indigenous
societies included permanent settlements, agriculture, complex societal hierarchies,
and trading networks.[19][20] Some of these cultures had collapsed by the time
European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only
been discovered through archeological investigations.[21] Indigenous peoples in
present-day Canada include the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis,[22] the last being
of mixed descent who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations people
married European settlers and subsequently developed their own identity.[22]
A map of Canada showing the percent of self-
reported indigenous identity (First Nations, Inuit, Métis) by census division, according to
the 2021 Canadian census[23]
The Indigenous population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated
to have been between 200,000[24] and two million,[25] with a figure of 500,000 accepted
by Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.[26] As a consequence of
European colonization, the Indigenous population declined by forty to eighty percent
and several First Nations, such as the Beothuk, disappeared.[27] The decline is
attributed to several causes, including the transfer of European diseases, such
as influenza, measles, and smallpox, to which they had no natural immunity,[24]
[28]
conflicts over the fur trade, conflicts with the colonial authorities and settlers, and
the loss of Indigenous lands to settlers and the subsequent collapse of several
nations' self-sufficiency.[29][30]
Although not without conflict, European Canadians' early interactions with First
Nations and Inuit populations were relatively peaceful.[31] First Nations and Métis
peoples played a critical part in the development of European colonies in Canada,
particularly for their role in assisting European coureurs des bois and voyageurs in
their explorations of the continent during the North American fur trade.[32] These early
European interactions with First Nations would change from friendship and peace
treaties to the dispossession of Indigenous lands through treaties.[33][34] From the late
18th century, European Canadians forced Indigenous peoples to assimilate into a
western Canadian society.[35] These attempts reached a climax in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries with forced integration through state-funded boarding schools,
[36]
health-care segregation,[37] and displacement.[38] A period of redress began with the
formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada by the Government
of Canada in 2008.[39] This included recognition of past colonial
injustices and settlement agreements and betterment of racial discrimination issues,
such as addressing the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women.[39][40]
European colonization
Map of territorial claims in North America by
1750. Possessions of British America (pink), New France (blue), and New Spain (orange);
California, Pacific Northwest, and Great Basin not indicated.[41]
It is believed that the first documented European to explore the east coast of Canada
was Norse explorer Leif Erikson.[42][43] In approximately 1000 AD, the Norse built a
small short-lived encampment that was occupied sporadically for perhaps 20 years
at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland.[44] No further European
exploration occurred until 1497, when seafarer John Cabot explored and claimed
Canada's Atlantic coast in the name of Henry VII of England.[45] In 1534, French
explorer Jacques Cartier explored the Gulf of Saint Lawrence where, on July 24, he
planted a 10-metre (33 ft) cross bearing the words, "long live the King of France", and
took possession of the territory New France in the name of King Francis I.[46] The early
16th century saw European mariners with navigational techniques pioneered by
the Basque and Portuguese establish seasonal whaling and fishing outposts along
the Atlantic coast.[47] In general, early settlements during the Age of Discovery appear
to have been short-lived due to a combination of the harsh climate, problems with
navigating trade routes and competing outputs in Scandinavia.[48][49]
In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, by the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I,
founded St John's, Newfoundland, as the first North American English seasonal
camp.[50] In 1600, the French established their first seasonal trading post
at Tadoussac along the Saint Lawrence.[44] French explorer Samuel de
Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent year-round European
settlements at Port Royal (in 1605) and Quebec City (in 1608).[51] Among
the colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the Saint Lawrence River
valley and Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while fur traders and Catholic
missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and the Mississippi
watershed to Louisiana.[52] The Beaver Wars broke out in the mid-17th century over
control of the North American fur trade.[53]
The English established additional settlements in Newfoundland in 1610 along with
settlements in the Thirteen Colonies to the south.[54][55] A series of four wars erupted in
colonial North America between 1689 and 1763; the later wars of the period
constituted the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War.[56] Mainland Nova
Scotia came under British rule with the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht and Canada and most
of New France came under British rule in 1763 after the Seven Years' War.[57]
British North America
Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe (1771)
dramatizes James Wolfe's death during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City.[58]
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 established First Nation treaty rights, created
the Province of Quebec out of New France, and annexed Cape Breton Island to
Nova Scotia.[14] St John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate
colony in 1769.[59] To avert conflict in Quebec, the British Parliament passed
the Quebec Act 1774, expanding Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio
Valley.[60] More importantly, the Quebec Act afforded Quebec special autonomy and
rights of self-administration at a time when the Thirteen Colonies were increasingly
agitating against British rule.[61] It re-established the French language, Catholic faith,
and French civil law there, staving off the growth of an independence movement in
contrast to the Thirteen Colonies.[62] The Proclamation and the Quebec Act in turn
angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, further fuelling anti-British
sentiment in the years prior to the American Revolution.[14]
After the successful American War of Independence, the 1783 Treaty of
Paris recognized the independence of the newly formed United States and set the
terms of peace, ceding British North American territories south of the Great Lakes
and east of the Mississippi River to the new country.[63] The American war of
independence also caused a large out-migration of Loyalists, the settlers who had
fought against American independence. Many moved to Canada, particularly Atlantic
Canada, where their arrival changed the demographic distribution of the existing
territories. New Brunswick was in turn split from Nova Scotia as part of a
reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes, which led to the incorporation
of Saint John, New Brunswick, as Canada's first city.[64] To accommodate the influx of
English-speaking Loyalists in Central Canada, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided
the province of Canada into French-speaking Lower Canada (later Quebec) and
English-speaking Upper Canada (later Ontario), granting each its own elected
legislative assembly.[65]
War of 1812 heroine Laura Secord warning British
commander James FitzGibbon of an impending American attack at Beaver Dams[66]
The Canadas were the main front in the War of 1812 between the United States and
the United Kingdom. Peace came in 1815; no boundaries were changed.
[67]
Immigration resumed at a higher level, with over 960,000 arrivals from Britain
between 1815 and 1850.[68] New arrivals included refugees escaping the Great Irish
Famine as well as Gaelic-speaking Scots displaced by the Highland Clearances.
[69]
Infectious diseases killed between 25 and 33 percent of Europeans who
immigrated to Canada before 1891.[24]
The desire for responsible government resulted in the abortive Rebellions of 1837.
[70]
The Durham Report subsequently recommended responsible government and the
assimilation of French Canadians into English culture.[14] The Act of Union
1840 merged the Canadas into a united Province of Canada and responsible
government was established for all provinces of British North America east of Lake
Superior by 1855.[71] The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United
States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward
along the 49th parallel. This paved the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island
(1849) and in British Columbia (1858).[72] The Anglo-Russian Treaty of Saint
Petersburg (1825) established the border along the Pacific coast, but, even after the
US Alaska Purchase of 1867, disputes continued about the exact demarcation of the
Alaska–Yukon and Alaska–BC border.[73]
