History of Canada

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History of Canada
Pre-Confederation
Post-Confederation
Military history
Economic history
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Canada is a country of 33 million inhabitants that occupies the northern portion of the North American continent, and is the world's second largest country in area. Inhabited for millennia by First Nations (Aboriginal peoples), Canada has evolved from a group of European colonies into a bilingual (English and French), multicultural, federation, having peacefully obtained sovereignty from its last colonial possessor, the United Kingdom. France sent the first large group of settlers in the 17th century, but Canada came to be dominated by the British until the country attained independence in the 20th century. English-speakers make up a majority of Canadians with a significant French-speaking minority concentrated in Quebec and neighboring regions. Substantial immigrant communities have also formed.

First Peoples

Many indigenous peoples (both First Nations and Inuit) have inhabited the region that is now Canada for thousands of years and have their own diverse histories. Aside from spiritual explanations of indigenous origins, anthropologists continue to argue over various possible models of migration to modern day Canada, as well as their pre-contact populations. The Inuit are believed to have arrived entirely separately from other indigenous peoples.

(See List of First Nations Peoples for histories of individual First Nations)

Pre-Columbian Contact

There are a number of reports of contact made before Columbus between indigenous North Americans and those from other continents. The case of viking contact is supported by the remains of a viking settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. This may well have been the place Icelandic Norseman Leifur Eiríksson, referred to as Vinland around the year (AD)1000.

The presence of Basque cod fishermen and whalers, just a few years after Columbus, has also been cited, with at least nine fishing outposts had been established on Labrador and Newfoundland. The largest of these settlements was the Red Bay station, with an estimated 900 people. Basque whalers may have begun fishing the Grand Banks as early as the 15th century.

Early colonial period: The rise and fall of "New France" (Nouvelle-France) 1604-1763

In the 16th and 17th centuries English and French colonists established settlements in eastern Canada largely to support fishing or fur trade. French settlement began with Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, first in Acadia in 1604, then Quebec City in 1608.

As New France was established over an extremely vast expanse of territory, the French had to secure the cooperation of the various amerindian nations, in effect creating a new hybrid civilization which allied Amerindian technology with French values.

Over the next 150 years, Canada and Acadia continued to expand from the heartland of the St Lawrence River into the upper country (pays d'en haut) of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley of North America. Their expansion was opposed by the Wyandot (Hurons), the Iroquois, and more significantly the British, who waged a series of wars (see French and Indian Wars) that cost France first Acadia, then Canada. Under British rule, Acadians were expelled in 1755. France was defeated at Louisburg in 1758 and at the decisive Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City in 1759. By the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France kept its Caribbean island colonies but lost almost all of its North American colonies to Britain and Spain. Of its northern possessions, all that was retained were the tiny fishing outposts of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Subsequently, only the French élite was repatriated, leaving the peasants at the mercy of the British conquerors, who tolerated the Canadians' Roman Catholic faith under the terms of the treaty.

British imperial control 1776-1849: New colonies, U.S. relations

The American Revolution succeeded in forming the United States of America, but efforts to capture Canada failed in 1775. After the Peace of 1783 the Empire was left with British North America, comprising the separate colonies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec. To accommodate the many American Loyalists who left the United States during and after the revolution, Britain created in 1784 the province of New Brunswick and, in 1791, divided Quebec into two provinces: Lower Canada and Upper Canada.

British colonies were drawn into the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States, one of the effects of which was the first rise of a sense of nationalism amongst the British North American population. Subsequent disputes that arose between BNA and the U.S. over trade, fishing, and boundaries were settled peaceably (see Rush-Bagot Treaty, Treaty of 1818, Webster-Ashburton Treaty, Oregon Treaty).

The Rebellions of 1837-38

In 1837, rebellions against the British colonial government took place in both Upper and Lower Canada. In Upper Canada, a band of Reformers under the leadership of William Lyon Mackenzie took up arms in a disorganized and ultimately unsuccessful series of small-scale skirmishes around Toronto, London, and Hamilton. In one incident, a small band of about 200 men fled to Navy Island in the Niagara River where they declared the establishment of the Republic of Canada on 13 December, 1837. Their short-lived rebellion was crushed however by British forces on 13 January, 1838. Two of the leaders were executed and others were transported (to Van Diemen's Land).

In 1837-1838, a more substantial rebellion occurred against British rule, known as the Lower Canada Rebellion. Both English- and French-Canadian rebels, with some American backing, fought several skirmishes against the British. The towns of Chambly and Sorel were taken by the rebels, and Quebec City was isolated from the rest of the colony. Rebel leader Robert Nelson read a declaration of independence to a crowd at Napierville in 1838.

The Patriotes, however, were defeated after battles at Camp Baker (Sainte-Martine), Lacolle, Odelltown, and Beauharnois. Hundreds were arrested, and several villages were burnt in reprisal. Two leaders were hanged, and 57 men, together with 83 Americans and colonials who had participated in the Upper Canadian Rebellion, were transported to Australia. In 1844 however, the Canadien Patriotes were pardoned, and those with enough money for their passage were allowed to return. Thirty-eight did so.

Despite the military defeat, the essential objective of the rebellions was later achieved because of the insurrections. This was when Lord Durham was sent to examine the situation and his report strongly recommended responsible government which was followed. However, a less well received recommendation was the amalgamation of Upper and Lower Canada in order to forcibly assimilate the French speaking population.

Western BNA, American trade

Once the U.S. agreed to the 49th parallel north as the border separating it from western British North America, the British government created the Pacific coast colonies of British Columbia in 1848 and Vancouver Island in 1849. By 1854, most border questions were settled, and the Governor General of British North America, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, signed a significant trade agreement with the United States on behalf of the colonies. This agreement endured for ten years until the American government abrogated it in 1865.

By the mid 1850s, politicians in the Province of Canada began to contemplate western expansion. They questioned the Hudson Bay Company's tenure of Rupert's Land and the Arctic territories, and launched a series of exploring expeditions to familiarize themselves and the Canadian population with the geography and climate of the region (see Simon James Dawson, George Gladman).

The Confederation movement and the Dominion of Canada 1840-1867

Agitation for union or confederation of the colonies within BNA grew in the first half of the 19th century. After the rebellions of 1837-8, the colonies of Lower and Upper Canada were united under one government, the Province of Canada, with the Act of Union (1840), in a failed attempt to assimilate the French Canadians. Support for an even greater confederation was strengthened by events such as the Battle of Ridgeway, an invasion into Ontario by some 1500 U.S.-based Irish Fenian nationalists, an attack repulsed largely by local militia.

Stirred by the U.S. Civil War, British North American politicians held the Charlottetown Conference and Quebec Conference, 1864 to work out the details of a federal union.

On July 1, 1867, with the passing of the British North America Act by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, three colonies of British North America (the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) became a federation styled the Dominion of Canada. It consisted of four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

Post-Confederation and the settlement of Western Canada

After 1867, other British North American colonies and territories joined or were incorporated into the Canadian confederation. By 1880, Canada included all of its present area, including the vast Arctic lands acquired from the Hudson's Bay Company, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador, which joined in 1949.

The settlement of western Canada was probably the most important accomplishment of post-confederation Canada, but it was not achieved without conflict. Between 1871 and 1877, seven treaties were signed with indigenous tribes in Northwestern Ontario and the Northwest Territories, including one with Sioux who had fled across the border from the United States cavalry. Louis Riel, a French Canadian Métis, led rebellions in Manitoba 1869-70 and in what was to become Saskatchewan 1885, because of the treatment of native and Métis peoples. These rebellions became known respectively as the Red River Rebellion and the North-West Rebellion. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were created in 1873 to bring law and order in the west.

By far the most important factor that opened the west to settlement and linked east to west was the construction of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway, which had been promised to the colony of British Columbia in 1871. Once the CPR was opened to Vancouver in 1885, the city quickly grew to become one of Canada's largest cities.

Post-confederation history is largely a story of territorial consolidation and the working out of the relative powers of the federal and provincial governments. By 1931 with the Statute of Westminster, Canada received equality with the United Kingdom within the British Empire. The patriation of the Constitution of Canada in 1982 broke the last legal link of subordination with the Parliament of the United Kingdom, although Canada chose to retain the shared monarchy as its state figure-head. Canada is thus a constitutional monarchy.

The Great War

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated, setting off a chain of events leading to World War I. By August 4, Britain had declared war on Germany and, as part of the Empire, Canada automatically entered in the fray. How much and in what manner to contribute to the war effort was, however, up to the Canadian government to decide.

At first the war brought Canadians together. Canada was suffering from an economic downturn and the war effort helped to revitalize the economy. The unemployed gladly volunteered for the war, expecting it to be a quick and exciting adventure. However, the soldiers were poorly equipped and the war lasted for four years. Widespread anger grew among the French-Canadian citizens, many of whom saw the conflict as serving illegitimate British imperial interests. When the Military Service Act was passed in the summer of 1917 introducing conscription, discontent led to political crisis and riots in Quebec.

As historians explain, "The very real enthusiasm French Canadians had expressed at the beginning of the war was quickly dissipated and even transformed into icy hostility." [Brown and Cook Canada 1896-1921 p 264] Alarmed at the attacks on the Frnch language in Ontario, most French Canadians discovered the enemy was here at home not on the Western Front. Henri Bourassa was their spokesperson, arguing in 1915:

The enemies of the French language, of French civilization in Canada, are not the Boches on the shores of the Spree; but the English-Canadian anglicizers, the Orange intriguers, or Irish priests. Above all they are French Canadians weakened and degraded by the conquest and three centuries of colonial servitude. Let no mistake be made: if we let the Ontario minority be crushed, it will soon be the turn of other French groups in English Canada." [in Wade v 2 p 671]

In terms of enlistment, the French had very low rates. The great majority opposed and refused to participate in conscription.

Important events with regard to Canadian history and World War I include: Second Battle of Ypres, Battle of Somme, Battle of Vimy Ridge, and Battle of Passchendaele. Despite heavy losses, the Canadian forces distinguished themselves as a superb fighting unit with celebrated commanders such as Arthur Currie.

The Parliament of Canada passed several important pieces of legislation during World War I: War Measures Act (1914), Income Tax (1917), Military Service Act (1917), Military Voters Act (1917), and the Wartime Elections Act (1917).

On November 11, 1918, Germany surrendered, and as of June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war. At Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden's insistence, Canada signed the treaty, an important symbolic recognition of Canadian sovereignty.

More than 620,000 Canadians served in the war. Of these, more than 60,000 died and more than 155,000 were wounded.

See also: WWI Military History of Canada

See also: The Great Depression in Canada

World War II

The Second World War in Europe started on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on September 3; Canada, on September 10.

Canada played a major role in supporting the United Kingdom before the entry of the United States in the war in December 1941. Young Canadians fought on many battlefronts around the world - the Battle of Britain, the Battle of Hong Kong, the Dieppe Raid, the Allied invasion of Italy, the Italian campaign, the Battle of Normandy, and the liberation of the Netherlands. The Italian, Norman, and Dutch campaigns were particularly difficult (Ortona, Battle of the Scheldt, Operation Market Garden), and the liberated Dutch nation has been deeply grateful to Canadians ever since. Canada emerged from the war a modern and strong industrial nation, and would play an important role in the shaping of post-war international institutions such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

During the war, Canada had a policy of not allowing refugees fleeing Nazi persecution and the Holocaust to immigrate. Enemy aliens, including German, Italian, and especially Japanese Canadians, were forced into internment camps out of fear that they might collaborate with their countries of origin. Nonetheless, many Canadians with origins in these countries served with distinction in the armed forces.

See also: Military history of Canada during World War II

The French language and the status of Quebec

In the late second half of the 20th century, many Quebecers sought greater sovereignty for Quebec, which has a French-speaking majority. The Great Flag Debate of 1964 involved dropping the old British-oriented flag for a new maple-leaf design. The federal parliament on July 7, 1969, made the French language equal to the English throughout the Canadian federal government. This started a process that led to Canada redefining itself as a bilingual and multicultural nation. In 1977, Quebec adopted the Charter of the French Language, which recognized French as the only official language, thus repudiating the principle of bilingualism. Numerous laws regarding signage in public places, and languages taught in the schools, created a chasm inside Quebec regarding the freedom to use the language of one's choice.

Two referenda were held on independence for Quebec: the 1980 Quebec referendum and the 1995 Quebec referendum. In both cases the referenda were defeated, with first 60 per cent then 50.6 per cent of the vote opposed to independence. The non-Francophone population voted overwhelmingly against the referenda. New Brunswick (with 35 per cent of the population francophone Acadians) became officially bilingual in 1969. Other provinces with significant French-speaking minorities such as Ontario, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia provide government services in French and guarantee French schools.

References

Surveys

Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography(1966-2006), thousands of scholarly biographies of those who died by 1930
J. Murray Beck. Pendulum of Power; Canada's Federal Elections (1968)
Bliss, Michael. Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987.
Brune, Nick and Alastair Sweeny. History of Canada Online. Waterloo: Northern Blue Publishing, 2005.
J.M. Bumsted. The Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation History; and The Peoples of Canada: A Post-Confederation History. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Margaret Conrad and Alvin Finkel. Canada: A National History. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada, 2003.
Margaret Conrad and Alvin Finkel, eds. Foundations: Readings in Post-Confederation Canadian History. and Nation and Society: Readings in Post-Confederation Canadian History. Toronto: Pearson Longman, 2004.
Desmond Morton. A Short History of Canada 5th ed (2001)
Desmond Morton. A Military History of Canada (1999)
Desmond Morton. Working People: An Illustrated History of the Canadian Labour Movement (1999)
J. L. Granatstein. Who Killed Canadian History? (2000)
J. L. Granatstein. Yankee Go Home?: Canadians and Anti-Americanism (1996)
J. L. Granatstein. A Reader's Guide to Canadian History: Confederation to the Present (1982)
William L. Marr and Donald Patterson. Canada: An Economic History. 1980.
Peter Moogk. La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada a Cultural History ;;(2000)
D. A. Muise, ed., A Reader's Guide to Canadian History: i, Beginnings to Confederation (1982); historiography
- Jack Granatstein, ed. A Reader's Guide to Canadian History: Confederation to the Present v2 (1982); historiography
Norrie K. H. and Owram Doug. A History of the Canadian Economy, 1991
Kenneth G. Pryke and Walter C. Soderlund, eds. Profiles of Canada. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2003. 3rd edition.
M. Brook Taylor ed. Canadian History: A Reader's Guide. Vol. 1. Doug Owram, ed. Canadian History: A Reader's Guide. Vol. 2. Toronto: 1994. historiography
Thomas Thorner with Thor Frohn-Nielsen, eds. "A Few Acres of Snow": Documents in Pre-Confederation Canadian History, and "A Country Nourished on Self-Doubt": Documents on Post-Confederation Canadian History, 2nd ed. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2003.
Statistics Canada. Historical Statistics of Canada. 2d ed., Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 1983.
Mason Wade, The French Canadians, 1760-1945 (1955) 2 vol

to 1763

Frank W. Brecher. Losing a Continent: France's North American Policy, 1753-1763 (1998);;
Louise Dechêne, Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal (2003)
W. J. Eccles. The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1760 ;;(1983)
Harold A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada (1930)
Cornelius Jaenen, Friend and Foe (1976) brief survey of French-Indian relations in the 16th & 17th centuries.
Marcel Trudel, The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663 (1973)

1763-1867

J. M. Beck, Joseph Howe (2 vols, Kingston and Montreal, 1962-63), i: Conservative Reformer 1804-1848; ii: The Briton Becomes Canadian 1848-1873.
G. P. Browne (ed.), Documents on the Confederation of British North America (1969).
J. M. S. Careless, Brown of the Globe (2 vols, Toronto, 1959-63), vol 1: The Voice of Upper Canada 1818-1859; vol 2: The Statesman of Confederation 1860-1880.
J. M. S. Careless, The Union of the Canada: The Growth of Canadian Institutions 1841-1857 (Toronto, 1968).
D. G. Creighton, John A. Macdonald (2 vols, Toronto, 1952-55), vol 1: The Young Politician; ii, The Old Chieftain.
Ged Martin. Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-67 ;;(1995)
Ged Martin (ed.), The Causes of Canadian Confederation (Fredericton, 1990).
Alexander Morris. 1880. The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories: including the negotiations on which they were based, and other information relating thereto. Belfords, Clarke, and Co. Reprint: Prospero Books, Toronto, 2000.
W. L. Morton, The Critical Years: The Union of British North America 1857-1873 (Toronto, 1964).
Alastair Sweeny, George-Etienne Cartier: A Biography (Toronto, 1976).

1867-1920

Bothwell, Robert, Ian Drummond, and John English. Canada 1900-1945. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987, textbook
Brown R. C. Robert Laird Borden: A Biography. 2 vols. Toronto: Macmillan, 1975, 1980.
Brown R. C., and Ramsay Cook. Canada, 1896-1921. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974. standard survey
Lamb W. Kaye. History of the Canadian Pacific Railway. New York: Macmillan, 1977.
Desmond Morton and J. L. Granatstein. Marching to Armageddon: Canadians and the Great War 1914-1919 (1989)
Patricia Roy, A White Man's Province: British Columbia Politicians and Chinese and Japanese Immigrants, 1858-1914 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1989)
Jonathan F. Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (1997) cultural history

1921-1957

Robert Bothwell and William Kilbourn. C.D. Howe. Toronto: Mcclelland and Stewart, 1979.
Robert Bothwell, Ian Drummond, and John English. Canada 1900-1945. and Canada since 1945 2d. ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987-1989, college textbook
Donald Creighton, The Forked Road: Canada, 1939-1957 (1976) standard survey
R.M. Dawson, William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Political Biography. Vol. 1: 1874-1923, (1958)
Greg Donaghy, ed. Canada and the Early Cold War, 1943-1957 (1998)
Granatstein, J. L. Canada's War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, 1939-1945 (1975)
J. L. Granatstein, The Politics of Survival: The Conservative Party of Canada 1939-45 (1967)
John K. McNaught, A Prophet in Politics (1959), the standard biography of J. S. Woodsworth
H. Blair Neatby. The Politics of Chaos: Canada in the Thirties (1972)
Neatby, H. Blair. William Lyon Mackenzie King, 1924-1932: The Lonely Heights (1963) standard biography
Neatby, H. Blair William Lyon Mackenzie King: 1932-1939: the Prism of Unity (1976) standard biography
J.W. Pickersgill and Donald F. Forster, The Mackenzie King Record. 4 vols. Vol. 1: 1939-1944 and Vol. 2: 1944-1945 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960); and Vol. 3: 1945-1946 and Vol. 4: 1946-1947 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970). excerpts from King's diary
P. Roy, J.L. Granatstein, Masako Iino & Hiroko Takamura, Mutual Hostages: Canadians and Japanese During the Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990)
Stacey, C. P. Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939-1945 (1970) standard survey
Thompson John H., and Allan Seager. Canada 1922-1939. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1985. standard survey
Robert A. Wardhaugh, Mackenzie King and the Prairie West. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.

1957-2006

Bothwell, Robert, Ian Drummond, and John English. Canada since 1945 2d. ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989.
Butson, Thomas G. Pierre Elliott Trudeau. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Clarkson, Stephen. Trudeau and Our Times. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990 - 1994. 2 vol.
Cohen, Andrew, J. L. Granatstein, eds. Trudeau's shadow: the life and legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 1999.
Claude Couture and Vivien Bosley. Paddling with the Current: Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Etienne Parent, Liberalism, and Nationalism in Canada ;;(1998)
Granatstein J. L. Canada 1957-1967: The Years of Uncertainty and Innovation. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986.
Norman Hillmer, ed., Pearson: The Unlikely Gladiator(1999)
Desmond Morton, The New Democrats, 1961-1986: The Politics of Change (1986)
Simpson, Jeffrey. Discipline of Power: The Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1984.
Denis Smith, Rogue Tory: The Life and Legend of John G. Diefenbaker (Toronto: Macfarlane Walter and Ross, 1995).
Donald C. Story and R. Bruce Shepard, eds., The Diefenbaker Legacy: Canadian Politics, Law and Society Since 1957. Canadian Plains Proceedings, No. 30. Regina, Sask.: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1998.

Contemporary

Blattberg, Charles. 2003. Shall We Dance? A Patriotic Politics for Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston, 2003 (especially chapter 3, "Who We Were").
Pound, Richard W. Fitzhenry & Whiteside Book of Canadian Facts and Dates, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2004. ISBN 1550411713

See also

da:Canadas historie de:Geschichte Kanadas es:Historia de Canadá fr:Histoire du Canada ja:カナダの歴史 pl:Historia Kanady pt:História do Canadá sv:Kanadas historia zh:加拿大歷史 he:היסטוריה של קנדה

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Categories: History of Canada | History of North America | History of the Americas

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