Canadian History Ten Thousand Years Before Europeans

Canadian History

Ten thousand years before Europeans set foot on the vast territories now known as Canada, indigenous peoples resided there. In fact, the name "Canada" derives from a native word meaning "village." The first Europeans to land on Canadian soil were Nordic Vikings from Greenland who accidentally discovered the richly forested regions of northern Newfoundland before 1000 and set up small settlements specifically to harvest lumber for their homes in Greenland. Lief Eriksson arrived in Newfoundland in 1000, after the original Viking Greenland colony had died out. Europeans did not set foot on Canada again until the late fifteenth century, when John Cabot, an Italian explorer under British patronage, sought a trade route to the Orient. Cabot's explorations of the northern coasts of North America gave England the right of discovery over those regions. The French sent Jacques Cartier in 1534 on an exploratory expedition, securing right of discovery for the French over some northern North American regions. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European interest in Canadian land focused on fishing waters and furs. The French especially vied for control over the fur trade. In 1608 the first permanent French colony in Canada was formed on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, under the guidance of geographer Samuel de Champlain. The settlement would become known as New France.

As the fur trade thrived, rivalries between French and English settlers eventually led to all-out wars. France was forced to cede some of its territories to the English after the Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne's War in 1713. However, the truce was short-lived. In conjunction with the Seven Years' War fought in Europe from 1756 through 1763, France and England fought bloody battles on North American soil. These battles were aided on both sides by native peoples. Because decades earlier Champlain had made permanent enemies out of the Iroquois, that tribe willingly sided with the British in their efforts to oust the French. The Huron Indians, longtime enemies of the Iroquois who Champlain had aided years earlier, came to the aide of the French. Referred to as the French and Indian War in American history books, the battles between the French and British colonists in North America reflected an extended rivalry between the two European powers.

France was eventually forced to pull out of New France and thereafter focused its concern on Caribbean colonies. The British Crown passed the Quebec Act in 1774, establishing official boundaries of the former French territory and setting up organized government, penal systems and means of taxation for the still largely French population living in Quebec. After the Americans gained independence from the British in 1776, British loyalists who fought for the Crown in the newly formed United States fled to Canada, mostly to the Maritime Provinces such as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1791, the Crown split the territory of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada, establishing British rule of law in those regions that had previously been governed by a more French system under the Quebec Act.

In 1812, the United States declared war on its northern neighbors over a variety of gripes including the continued British insistence on searching American ships. In spite of some early victories for the American troops, the Canadian forces proved dominant. The war also helped solidify a Canadian national identity, as both French and English speakers took up arms against the Americans. However, Canadians grew increasingly weary of their lack of official self-governance. Rebellions in both Upper and Lower Canada culminated in the unification of those two regions, now called Canada West and Canada East, in the 1840 Act of Union.

Westward expansion as far as British Columbia and the resulting increase in territory demanded further efforts to unify all the British colonies north of the United States. Moreover, a slight threat of an American invasion underscored the need for a stronger, more united northern front. On July 1, 1867, Britain granted self-government to a federation of three British colonies, Canada West (Ontario), Canada East (Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. This act of confederation, called the British North America Act, marked the beginning of a new nation: the Dominion of Canada.

The federal government was set up in Ottawa, consisting of a House of Commons and Senate in a parliamentary system. The first Prime Minister of Canada was John MacDonald. Each of the provinces would have its own seat of government. The Crown retained an official representative in the dominion, called the governor-general. Canada remains a constitutional monarchy under the Queen of England, but the Queen and the governor-general are figureheads without any actual governing authority.