CANADA - A Short History

05/10/2016 CANADA Information Pages dealing with our history
Welcome to the Canadian Information pages

Sponsored by:
S O F T W A R E
Canadas BIGGEST little software supplier!!
and
HISTORY
Canada and the United States have many major geographic features in common.
They share the Rocky Mountains, the Interior Plains, four of the Great Lakes, the
Appalachian Highlands, and many rivers. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the
stories of the exploration and settlement of both of these nations are closely
interwoven.
The complete history of neither Canada nor the United States can be studied
without reference to the history of the other. Each is today an independent nation.
Each, however, achieved its independence by a completely different pathCanada
by gradual constitutional change spread over many years, the United States by a
single great War of Independence.
Discovery of Canada
The earliest discovery of the New World was made by Norse seafarers known as
Vikings. The vague accounts of their exploits are drawn from their sagas, epic
stories in prose or verse handed down by word of mouth through many generations.
In AD 985 Norse seamen sailing from Iceland to Greenland were blown far
westward off their course and sighted the coast of what must have been Labrador.
The report of forested areas on the strange new coast encouraged further
explorations by Norse colonists from Greenland, whose settlements lacked lumber.
http://users.efni.com/~duenorth/canada/history.html 1/31
In AD 1000 Leif Ericson became the first European to land in North America (see
Ericson). According to the sagas, this was the first of many Norse voyages to the
eastern shores of the continent. A colony was established in what the Vikings
described as Vinland, identified in 1963 as being on the northernmost tip of
Newfoundland. Recent investigations have cast doubt on the oncepopular theory
that the Vikings also penetrated Hudson Bay and reached the upper Great Lakes
region by overland routes. Discoveries of "Norse" relics in that area have been
exposed by scholars as hoaxes. The Greenland colony died out during the 14th and
15th centuries, and the Norse adventures in Canada must have come to an end well
before that time.
Rediscovery and Exploration
In 1497 an Italian named John Cabot sailed west from Bristol, England, intent on
finding a new trade route to the Orient for his patron, King Henry VII of England
(see Cabot). This voyage led to the rediscovery of the eastern shores of Canada.
Cabot was as confident as Columbus had been that a new seaway was now open to
Asia. On a second voyage, the following year, Cabot explored the coast of North
America, touching at various pointsnone too clearly chartedfrom Baffin Island
to Maryland. The Cabot voyages gave England a claim by right of discovery to an
indefinite area of eastern North America. Its later claims to Newfoundland, Cape
Breton Island, and neighboring regions were at least partly based on Cabot's
exploits.
Of more immediate significance were the explorer's reports of immensely rich
fishing waters. The Roman Catholic countries of Western Europe furnished a
market that made the ocean voyage worthwhile, even if it were made to gather the
harvest of the sea instead of the spices and jewels of the Orient. Almost every year
after 1497 an international mixture of fishing vessels could be seen on the offshore
fisheries southeast of Newfoundland and east of Nova Scotia. Occasionally such
ships even cruised into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. At times their crews encountered
Indians along the shores who were willing to part with valuable furs in exchange
for articles of little worth such as beads and other trinkets.
When it was realized that only the wilds of an unexplored new world had been
discovered, there was a spirit of disillusionment in Europe. Gradually, however, this
feeling was replaced by a fresh interest in North America, for Spanish and
Portuguese adventurers were reported to be bringing home rich cargoes of gold and
silver from the Caribbean. In 1524 King Francis I of France sent a Florentine
navigator, Giovanni da Verrazano, on a voyage of reconnaissance overseas.
Verrazano explored the eastern coastline of North America from North Carolina to
Newfoundland, giving France too some claim to the continent by right of
discovery. (See also America, Discovery and Colonization of.)
Cartier's Explorations
Ten years later Francis I followed up the work of Verrazano by dispatching an
expedition under Jacques Cartier (see Cartier). On his voyage of 1534 Cartier sailed
a route that was for the most part already well known. This was an official
exploring expedition, however, and its immediate result was a thorough report for
the French king about the lands he had seen and the people he had met. He visited
and named most of the important coasts on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and observed
near Anticosti Island that he might be in the mouth of a great river.
The first known penetration of the interior through the St. Lawrence River gateway
took place the following year, when Cartier returned as leader of a new expedition.
Pressing upstream in three small vessels, he reached the Indian village of
Stadacona, near the present site of the city of Quebec. A little more than 150 miles
farther upstream he reached the end of navigation at a large island in the river. Here
he found another Indian village, called Hochelaga, on the site of the present city of
Montreal. From the height behind it, to which he gave the name Mont Real, he
could see the foaming Lachine Rapids blocking the way to the upper waters of the
St. Lawrence. At Stadacona, Cartier and his followers passed a bitter winter. Many
of his party died from cold and scurvy before he could set sail for France the
following spring.
End of the First Colonizing Effort
In 1541 Cartier led his third, and probably his last, expedition to the St. Lawrence.
A new headquarters was established at CapRouge, a few miles upstream from
Stadacona. This time Cartier was to be followed by Jean Francois de la Rocque,
sieur de Roberval, with a party of colonists. After a wait which lasted through the
following winter, Cartier set sail for home, only to meet Roberval's party "in three
tall ships" in the harbor of what is now St. John's, Newf.
Disregarding the orders of Roberval, who was his senior officer, to accompany the
colonizing party back to Quebec, Cartier sailed for France under cover of darkness.
The Roberval expedition proceeded upstream, and a tragically unsuccessful effort
was made to found a permanent colony on the site where Cartier had wintered the
previous season. By the following year some 60 of the colonists had died. Roberval
decided to abandon the whole colonizing project, and France itself turned its back
on the Canadian experiment for almost 60 years.
The Founding of New France
Throughout the rest of the 16th century the European fishing fleets continued to
make almost annual visits to the eastern shores of Canada. Chiefly as a sideline of
the fishing industry, there continued an unorganized traffic in furs. At home in
Europe new methods of processing furs were developed and beaver hats in
particular grew very fashionable. Thus new encouragement was given to the infant
fur trade in Canada. In 1598 Troilus de Mesgouez, marquis de la Roche, set out for
Canada armed with a new kind of authoritya royal monopoly which gave him the
exclusive right to trade in furs.
La Roche established a small colony on Sable Island, an isolated Atlantic sandbar
southeast of Nova Scotia. The settlement, which proved a dismal failure, was the
first of a series of efforts by France to persuade various leaders to set up colonies in
Canada in return for an official monopoly of the fur trade. Pierre Chauvin in 1600
established a trading post at Tadoussac, on the St. Lawrence River. This post
survived for about three years.
In 1604 the fur monopoly was granted to Pierre du Guast, sieur de Monts. He led
his first colonizing expedition to an island located near the mouth of the St. Croix
River. This in time was to mark the international boundary between the province of
New Brunswick and the state of Maine. 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 (see Champlain). In the
spring the St. Croix settlement was moved to a new site across the Bay of Fundy, on
the shore of the Annapolis Basin, an inlet in western Nova Scotia.
Here at Port Royal in 1605 a settlement Champlain described as the Habitation was
established. It was France's most successful colony to date. The land came to be
known as Acadia (see Acadia).
The Father of New France
The cancellation of De Monts's fur monopoly in 1607 brought the Port Royal
settlement to a temporary end. Champlain persuaded his leader to allow him to take
colonists and "go and settle on the great River St. Lawrence, with which I was
familiar through a voyage that I had made there." In 1608 he founded France's first
permanent Canadian colony. It was at Quebec, at the foot of a great rocky cape on
the north shore, which formed a natural fortress barring the way upstream to the
interior.
The early years of the Quebec colony were hard, and the population grew slowly.
Champlain administered its affairs and took personal charge of an organized
exploration of the unknown interior. Where he did not actually travel himself, he
sent other men. One was Etienne Brule, the first white man to cross Pennsylvania
and later the first to see Lake Superior. Champlain himself discovered Lake
Champlain (1609); and in 1615 he journeyed by canoe up the Ottawa, through
Lake Nipissing, and down Georgian Bay to the heart of the Huron country, near
Lake Simcoe. During these journeys Champlain aided the Hurons in battles against
the Iroquois Confederacy. As a result, the Iroquois became mortal enemies of the
French.
In 1629 Champlain suffered the humiliation of having to surrender his almost
starving garrison to an English fleet that appeared before Quebec. He was taken to
England as a prisoner. Peace, however, had been declared between England and
France before the surrender, and New France was accordingly restored to the
French. Champlain returned from Europe to spend his few remaining years. He
became governor of New France in 1633.
For the Glory of God
New France continued to grow slowly. The fur trade served both to keep alive an
interest in the territory and at the same time to discourage the development of
agriculture, the surest foundation of a colony in the New World. Settlers founded
TroisRivieres, farther up the St. Lawrence, in 1634.
The most distant outpost for many years was Montreal, founded by Paul de
Chomedy, sieur de Maisonneuve, on May 18, 1642. First known as VilleMarie,
this settlement, one day to become Canada's largest city, was begun as a mission
post. One of the most famous of the leaders who accompanied Maisonneuve was
Jeanne Mance, founder of the HotelDieu, the first hospital at VilleMarie.
The establishing of Montreal was part of a large Canadian missionary movement
which was based in France. The work and selfsacrifice of the Christian
missionaries in the young colony and in the wilds that lay beyond it is one of the
most stirring chapters in the history of New France. During the 40 years following
the founding of Quebec, a dozen mission posts were built in the Huron country
south of Georgian Bay.
The Hurons lived under constant threat of attack by the other Iroquois tribes
dwelling south and east of Lake Ontario. Suddenly, in 1648, the Iroquois launched
their final invasion of Huronia. Several brave Jesuit priests died as martyrs, and
within a year both the Hurons and the missionaries had been either wiped out or
driven elsewhere.
The Iroquois menace continued as one of the great obstacles to the expansion of
settlement. The history of New France contains many accounts of heroism on the
part of soldiers, settlers, and missionaries during this long guerrilla warfare on the
outskirts of the colony. In 1660 Adam Dollard des Ormeaux led a small band of
men in a stand to the death against an Iroquois war party which was on its way to
destroy the settlement at Montreal. When they had counted the losses they suffered
at the hands of so few Frenchmen, the Indians abandoned their plans. As late as
1692, 14yearold MarieMadeleine de Vercheres with only five companions
defended her father's fort for two days against marauding Iroquois until help
arrived.
Seigneur and Habitant
The feudal system of landholding, which had long been established in France, was
adopted in the colony. The nobles, in this case the seigneurs, were granted lands
and titles by the king in return for their oath of loyalty and promise to support him
in time of war. The seigneur in turn granted rights to work farm plots on his land to
his vassals, or habitants. In exchange, the habitants were required to pay certain
feudal dues each year, to work for the seigneur for a given number of days annually,
and to have their grain ground in the seigneurial mill.
In underpopulated New France the habitants welcomed the fact that the seigneur
was obligated to build a mill. They had no military duties to perform except their
common defense against the Indians. There was little money and not much use for
it; and so the taxes took the form of payments in chickens, geese, or other farm
products. These obligations were hardly burdensome. The seigneurs were anxious
that their habitants should wish to stay farmers, and there was as much land as
anyone could till.
Governor, Intendant, and Bishop
As in France, there was nothing resembling a democratic system of government in
the colony. The senior official was the governor, appointed by the king. In the
exercise of his almost absolute power he felt more responsible to the king in France
than to the people he governed.
Another post of French officialdom was established in Canada in 1665 with the
appointment of an intendant, whose chief duties concerned finance and the
administration of justice. However, there was sufficient overlapping of authority
between governor and intendant to breed more jealousy than cooperation between
the two offices.
Jean Talon, who had come to New France as intendant in 1665, brought about a
rapid expansion of the colony. He encouraged agriculture, business, crafts, and
exploration and stimulated immigration. Under his direction, a census of New
France was taken in 1666, which showed a population of 3,215. By that time the
English controlled ten colonies on the Atlantic coast to the south, and they had
greatly exceeded New France in population and selfsufficiency (see America,
Discovery and Colonization of).
In 1672 Count Louis de Frontenac arrived in the colony as governor (see
Frontenac). He built a fort at Cataraqui, near presentday Kingston, and brought the
Iroquois into an enforced peace. He directed a series of major exploratory voyages
to the interior. Among the greatest explorations were those made by Louis Jolliet,
Father Jacques Marquette, and Rene Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. By 1682, however,
the troubles between Frontenac and the intendant, Jacques Duchesneau, had
become so serious that the king recalled both governor and intendant. (See also
Jolliet; La Salle; Marquette.)
Frontenac was sent out as governor again in 1689, just after a new war had broken
out between France and England. He carried the fighting right into the English
colonies, dispatching expeditions overland against the settlements to the south in
the dead of winter. When Sir William Phips led a British fleet upstream to Quebec
in 1690, the fiery old French governor haughtily refused the demand for surrender,
saying to the emissary of the English commander, "I will answer your general by
the mouths of my cannon!"
In 1674, with the elevation of the vicar apostolic, Francois Xavier de Laval
Montmorency, to the rank of bishop, a new and powerful office was created at the
head of the clergy in New France. Laval organized the parish system in the colony,
gave encouragement to the missionaries, and founded Quebec Seminary for the
training of young men for the priesthood. He resigned his office in 1684 but spent
the last 20 years of his life in the seminary he had established in Quebec.
French and English Rivalry
While the English colonies were growing rapidly along the Atlantic seaboard,
French fur traders and explorers were extending long but thinly supported strands
of ownership deep into the heart of North America. La Salle's exploration of the
Mississippi to its mouth in 1682 gave France a claim to a vast area bordering the
American Colonies from the Great Lakes and the Ohio River valley southward to
the Gulf of Mexico. It could be only a matter of time before the rivalries between
France and England elsewhere in the world would be sharply reflected in a final
struggle for the ownership of the North American continent. England's concern
over France's threatened control of much more than half the continent began as
early as Henry Hudson's last voyage, in the time of Champlain (see Hudson, Henry),
and the probings for the Northwest Passage by such explorers as Sir Martin
Frobisher, John Davis, and William Baffin.
England came to realize that the easiest riches of the New World were to be found
in furs rather than in gold. Thus it was quick to follow up its claim to the backdoor
route to the fur country by founding the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670, on the
suggestion of Pierre Esprit de Radisson and Medart Chouart, sieur de Groseilliers
(see Fur Trade, History of the).
For many years England's domination of Hudson Bay was threatened by the
French. In 1686 Pierre Troyes led an amazing overland expedition from Montreal
to the shores of the bay, where his followers succeeded in capturing a number of the
company forts by surprise. In his party was one of the most daring and brilliant
leaders in the history of New France, Pierre le Moyne, sieur d'Iberville. Iberville
commanded a series of naval raids into the bay during the next few years and
almost succeeded in driving the English from this part of the continent altogether.
(See also Iberville.)
A fresh struggle between France and England, known as Queen Anne's War, broke
out in 1702 and led to the capture of Port Royal by the English in 1710 (see Queen
Anne's War). The Treaty of Utrecht, which reestablished peace in 1713, required
France to surrender the Hudson Bay Territory, Newfoundland, and Acadia. France
was permitted to keep Cape Breton Island as well as her inland colonies.
As an immediate result of this setback, France founded the powerful Fortress of
Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. It was to serve as a yearround military and
naval base for France's remaining North American empire and also to protect the
entrance to the St. Lawrence River. Louisbourg was developed into the most
heavily fortified bastion in North America during the next 25 years.
In 1745 an army of New Englanders led by Sir William Pepperell mounted an
expedition of 90 vessels and 4,000 men against Louisbourg. The fortress had
become a hornet's nest of raiders who preyed on the merchant ships of the American
Colonies. Within three months the New Englanders succeeded in forcing
Louisbourg to surrender. The fortress was returned to France, however, by the
Treaty of Aixla Chapelle signed in 1748. (See also King George's War.)
To counterbalance the renewed threat from Louisbourg, England set up an Atlantic
bastion of its own. In 1749 a fleet bearing more than 2,500 new settlers from the
British Isles began the construction of the city of Halifax.
The Final Struggle for the Continent
Peace between the two rival powers did not last long. Fresh fighting broke out in
the New World even before the beginning of the Seven Years' War in Europe (1756
63). As early as 1754 an expedition was sent against Frenchheld Fort Duquesne, in
the Ohio River valley where the city of Pittsburgh now stands. This and a second
expedition the next year were both unsuccessful. In 1755 a tragic episode occurred
in Acadia. The Acadian French who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the
English king were herded aboard transports and shipped to the English colonies to
the south (see Acadia). American histories refer to the fighting that began in 1754
as the French and Indian War. Canadian and European histories usually treat the
final contest for the continent as beginning in 1756, with the opening of the Seven
Years' War. (See also French and Indian War; Seven Years' War.)
With the two motherlands in conflict, the English objective in North America was
to overrun New France and particularly to seize Quebec, the nerve center of the
colony. Under the skillful generalship of Louis Joseph de MontcalmGozon,
marquis de StVeran, the routes to Quebec down the St. Lawrence from Lake
Ontario and north down the Richelieu were successfully closed. The first was
stopped at Oswego, and the second at Ticonderoga. The French won brilliant
victories at both these points. The third route lay up the St. Lawrence, past the
French stronghold of Louisbourg. In 1758 a powerful British force landed on Cape
Breton Island. In the fighting that followed, Louisbourg fell for the second and last
time in its history. The waterway to Quebec was open at last. In 1759 a fleet of 140
ships, carrying 9,000 troops commanded by Gen. James Wolfe, sailed up the St.
Lawrence and laid siege to the capital of New France.
All summer long Wolfe tried in vain to find a weakness in the natural defenses of
Quebec, which Montcalm was using so skillfully. Late in the season, he decided on
a secret but brilliant night landing that led to victory the next morning in the
celebrated battle of the Plains of Abraham.
Both Wolfe and Montcalm were mortally wounded in the fighting. Montreal, cut
off from all hope of reinforcements and supplies from France, fell easily before the
advancing British forces the following season. When the Treaty of Paris at last
brought the Seven Years' War to a close in 1763, the British flag waved over almost
the whole of eastern North America. (See also Montcalm; Wolfe, James.)
Early British Rule
The British faced two immediate problems in the vast territory that had thus been
added to their other Atlantic colonies. There were more than 60,000 new French
speaking subjects in what had formerly been New France. In addition, there were
large tracts of thinly settled wilderness in the Great Lakes area where their little
garrisons were seriously outnumbered by the Indians.
Led by a clever and treacherous Ottawa chieftain named Pontiac, the Indians
suddenly rose against their new English masters and overthrew these forts one by
one, massacring the soldiers in them without mercy. By the middle of 1763 the
only British soldiers left west of Lake Erie were in Fort Detroit. It alone among the
western forts held out against Pontiac until fresh troops were rushed in, and the
Indian uprising was subdued at last.
The Quebec Act of 1774
Administration of the conquered province by a governor and an appointed council
was established by royal proclamation. In 1774 the English Parliament passed the
Quebec Act. This was the first important milestone in the constitutional history of
British Canada. Under its terms the boundaries of Quebec were extended as far as
the Ohio River valley. The Roman Catholic church was recognized by the Quebec
Act, and its right to collect tithes was confirmed. Also of enduring importance was
the establishment of the French civil law to govern the relations of Canadian
subjects in their business and other daytoday relations with each other. British
criminal law was imposed in all matters having to do with public law and order and
offenses for which the punishment might be fine, imprisonment, or in some cases
death. These imaginative gestures on the part of the English government won the
admiration of the religious leaders in Quebec and to a large extent the goodwill of
the people themselves. The privilege of an elected assembly continued to be
withheld, however.
The loyalty of the new province was soon put to the test. Within a year of the
passing of the Quebec Act, the rebelling 13 Atlantic colonies sent two armies north
to capture the "fourteenth colony." Sir Guy Carleton, the British governor of
Canada, narrowly escaped capture when one of these armies, under Richard
Montgomery, took Montreal. Carleton reached Quebec in time to organize its small
garrison against the forces of Benedict Arnold. Arnold began a siege of the fortress,
in which he was soon joined by Montgomery. In the midwinter fighting that
followed, Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded. When spring came, the
attacking forces retreated. During the rest of the American Revolutionary War, there
was no further fighting on Canadian soil.
The United Empire Loyalists
When peace was established in 1783, many thousands of Loyalists, who were
referred to as Tories by their fellow countrymen, left the newly created United
States. They started their lives afresh under the British flag in Nova Scotia and in
the unsettled lands above the St. Lawrence rapids and north of Lake Ontario.
This huge influx of settlers, who were known in Canada and England as the United
Empire Loyalists, marked the first major wave of immigration by Englishspeaking
settlers since the days of New France. Their arrival had two immediate
consequences for the British colonies. Both the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia
and the inland colony of Quebec had to be reorganized.
The previously unsettled forests to the west of the Bay of Fundy, once part of
French Acadia, had been included in Nova Scotia. In 1784 this area was established
as a separate colony known as New Brunswick. Cape Breton Island was
simultaneously separated from Nova Scotia (a division that was ended in 1820). In
all, some 35,000 Loyalist immigrants are believed to have settled in the Maritimes.
The settlement of the more inaccessible lands north and west of Lake Ontario and
along the north shore of the upper St. Lawrence proceeded somewhat more slowly.
About 5,000 Loyalists came to this area.
Upper and Lower Canada
It was clear that these United Empire Loyalists who had come to the western
wilderness of what was still part of Quebec would not long be satisfied with the
limited rights and French laws established by the Quebec Act. Accordingly, in
1791 the British Parliament enacted the Constitutional Act, whereby Quebec was
split into the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. Each of these was to be
governed by a legislative council appointed for life and a legislative assembly
elected by the people.
The right to be represented in a lawmaking assembly was something new for the
Frenchspeaking inhabitants of the lower province. Legislative assemblies had
been in existence in Nova Scotia since 1758, in Prince Edward Island since 1773,
and in New Brunswick since 1786. Representative government, however, was not
responsible government, as was to be demonstrated before another 50 years had
passed.
Settlement and Exploration in the West
The Canadian prairies were not entirely unknown even in the days of New France.
As early as the 1730s a family of explorers headed by Pierre Gaultier de Varennes,
sieur de La Verendrye, began a series of overland explorations far to the west of
Lake Superior. Their travels carried them into what is now the western United
States, perhaps as far as the foothills of the Rockies. They visited Lake Winnipeg,
the Red River, the Assiniboine River, and the Saskatchewan River as far upstream
as the fork formed by the North and the South Saskatchewan.
The posts of the Hudson's Bay Company had given England a preferred jumping
off point for exploration of the Canadian west. An expedition under Henry Kelsey
explored the territory between York Factory and northern Saskatchewan in 1690,
long before the journeys of the La Verendryes. In 1754 Anthony Henday traveled
from Hudson Bay as far as the foothills of the Rockies, reaching a point near the
site of presentday Red Deer, Alta. Another Hudson's Bay Company trader, Samuel
Hearne, discovered Great Slave Lake in 1771, and by descending the Coppermine
River to its mouth, he became the first white man to reach the Arctic Ocean by land.
Although the Rockies still barred the overland route to the western ocean, the
Pacific coast of Canada was visited by sea in 1778, when Capt. James Cook
explored the northwest coastline from Vancouver Island to Alaska.
In 1783 a group of Montreal merchants founded the powerful North West
Company. Not only did the new furtrading company provide sharp competition,
but its trappers explored large parts of the previously unknown expanses of the
Canadian west. In 1789 Alexander Mackenzie (one of the Nor'westers) followed the
river which now bears his name from its source to the Arctic Ocean. Disappointed
because he had not discovered a route to the Pacific, he set out on another
expedition in 1792. After a strenuous journey over the most rugged country on the
continent, Mackenzie and his companions at last crossed the Rocky Mountains to
reach the Fraser River in 1793. From the Fraser they portaged to the Bella Coola,
which they descended until they sighted the longsought western sea. Only a few
weeks earlier Capt. George Vancouver had explored the same part of the Pacific
coast by sea.
Mackenzie's journey was the first made across the continent in either Canada or the
United States. In 1808 the Fraser River was thoroughly explored by Simon Fraser,
after whom it is named. In 1811 David Thompson completed his exploration of the
Columbia from its source, in southeastern British Columbia, to its mouth, in
presentday Oregon.
The Selkirk Settlement
Although fur trading and settlement did not go well together, Thomas Douglas, earl
of Selkirk, became interested in the possibilities of settling Scottish farmers who
had lost their farms at home in the fertile valley of the Red River near presentday
Winnipeg. From the Hudson's Bay Company he purchased a huge tract of 100,000
acres in this area. In 1812 the first group of Selkirk's settlers from Scotland and
Ireland began to arrive from Hudson Bay, where they had spent the previous winter.
The jealousy of the Nor'westers, as well as of the halfbreeds, known as metis, was
aroused immediately. Fighting broke out between the new settlers and the
established traders. The colony was permanently established in 1817, when Selkirk
himself arrived with a force of military veterans to put an end to the troubles and to
punish the traders, whom he held responsible for the bloodshed that had occurred.
The North West Company, a rival fur trading company, brought a lawsuit against
Selkirk for the action he had taken, and he was forced to pay damages. Although
Selkirk returned to Great Britain in poor health in November 1818 and died a
disappointed man a few years later, he had begun the first permanent settlement on
the Canadian prairies. (See also Fur Trade, History of the; Manitoba.)
The War of 1812
Meanwhile the British colonies far to the east found themselves involved with the
United States in a new war that threatened to end their existence under the English
flag. The declaration of war announced by the United States had several causes.
Chief among these was Britain's insistence on its right to search American vessels
for deserters from its own navy during the war against Napoleon. In addition,
England had interfered with American trade with Europe. It was claimed too that
the British in Canada had been inciting the Indians against the American
settlements along the northwestern frontier.
The early hopes of the United States to drive the British entirely from North
America were dashed by a series of defeats at the hands of British regulars and
Canadian militia forces. Fort Michilimackinac, at the entrance to Lake Michigan,
was captured by the British soon after the outbreak of fighting and was not
recaptured during the remainder of the war. An American attack across the Detroit
border was not only forced back but, under the brilliant generalship of Gen. Isaac
Brock, ably assisted by the Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh and his warriors, was
turned into a disastrous defeat. The army defending Detroit was forced to surrender,
and the fort itself fell into British hands. Later the same year, the United States
launched an attack on the Niagara frontier. Brock was killed early during the
fighting at Queenston Heights, but the invasion was repulsed.
Although there were times when the United States occupation of the whole of
Upper Canada seemed almost certain, brilliant defensive battles turned the tide on
every such occasion. Among the most important engagements were those at
Chateauguay and Crysler's Farm in the autumn of 1813 at a time when United
States forces were threatening to capture Montreal and cut off the only supply line
to Upper Canada. At Chateauguay Col. Charles de Salaberry cleverly posted
buglers in the woods about the invading soldiers and convinced the United States
troops that they were surrounded by superior forces. This battle also provided
another opportunity for French Canadians to fight side by side with their English
speaking countrymen. The victorious outcome contributed a great deal to the
growing national pride of Canadians in both Upper and Lower Canada.
Peace was finally signed between Great Britain and the United States on Christmas
Eve in 1814. The terms of the treaty called for the restoration of forts and territories
that had been captured by both countries. The future sentiments of the British
colonies, however, had been made a little more certain. Strong feelings of national
pride had been aroused among the people. All likelihood of a union between the
United States and Canada had disappeared. (See also War of 1812.)
Struggle for SelfGovernment
The successful defense of their homeland had not left the Canadians incapable of
seeing faults in their own form of government. There were thoseespecially among
the successful businessmen and wealthier landownerswho believed that the
colonists had sufficient powers of selfgovernment through their elected
assemblies. There were others, however, who saw little advantage in an assembly
whose bills could be defeated by the legislative council, or could go unsigned by
the governor on the advice of the executive council. The real power did not lie in
the hands of the people through their elected representatives, but with appointed
officials who were responsible only to the government in Britain. In practice the
power lay in the hands of the governor and of his executive advisers.
The citizens could use their assembly as little more than a forum in which to
criticize the manner in which the government was operated. Worse still, local
matters that today are dealt with by elected municipal bodies were all handled by
the central government of each colony.
Mackenzie and Papineau Rebel
The period following the War of 1812 was one of expansion of population,
business, and settlement. This was especially true in Upper Canada, where large
numbers of newcomers were attracted by lowcost land grants. The very growth of
the colony offered many opportunities for profit by those who could control the
land grants.
One of the loudest accusers of the government's administration of the land grants
was William Lyon Mackenzie (see Mackenzie, William Lyon). His criticisms
centered on a group that was known as the Family Compact. This was a loose and
somewhat misleading name for the members of the governing class and their
friends, among whom were actually many leaders of great honesty and competence.
Mackenzie, however, never clearly understood the principles of responsible
government by which the executive would carry out the wishes of the government
and the government would hold office only so long as it had the support of the
people's elected representatives. Thus when the government failed to redress the
long series of grievances that he listed, Mackenzie began to call for the
independence of Upper Canada.
As affairs in Upper Canada moved toward a climax, an equally serious crisis was
building in Lower Canada. The grievances were different, but the causes were
similar. Here the real power was in the hands of a British governor and his
councilors, referred to critically as the Chateau Clique, who constantly rebuffed the
elected representatives of the FrenchCanadian majority. The leader of the radical
reforms in Lower Canada was Louis Joseph Papineau (see Papineau). Papineau, like
Mackenzie, had been several times elected to the provincial assembly. Like
Mackenzie, he had finally come to the conclusion that no lasting reform could be
achieved unless the bonds with Britain were severed.
Rioting occurred in Montreal in 1837. When the government decided to arrest
Papineau, he immediately fled across the border to the United States. Largely
because the radicals interpreted this as persecution of their leader, open rebellion
followed in several centers. All revolts were quickly put down.
Similar troubles broke out in Upper Canada almost immediately. Mackenzie
prematurely called for an advance toward Toronto from his headquarters just north
of the city before his illequipped followers were sufficiently well organized. The
attack was driven back; and the city, rapidly filling with Loyalist supporters, was
fully alerted. A few days later these forces marched northward against Mackenzie
and, after a short skirmish, dispersed his troops.
Like Papineau, Mackenzie fled across the United States border, but he had not
abandoned the struggle. Early in 1838 he took possession of Navy Island in the
Niagara River and, with a small number of followers, tried to organize his planned
republic under what he spoke of as a "provisional government of Upper Canada."
The army and militia were now in full control of the situation, and they forced
Mackenzie to return to the United States once again. Other disturbances followed
along the border during 1838. After a few unsuccessful raids, the United States took
steps to prevent its territory from being used for further attacks against the Canadas.
The struggle for reform was more peaceful in the Maritimes. Here the leading
reformers included Joseph Howe, in Nova Scotia, and Lemuel Allan Wilmot, in
New Brunswick. Howe had a much clearer understanding of the principles and
advantages of responsible government than had either Mackenzie or Papineau.
Although he was persecuted for some of the criticisms he voiced in his newspaper,
the Novascotian, he rallied widespread support. When sued for libel, he won his
case.
The Durham Report
The seriousness of the troubles in British North America caused deep concern in
Great Britain, where memories of the American Revolution could be recalled. At
the request of Queen Victoria, who came to the throne in 1837, John George
Lambton, earl of Durham, accepted appointment as governor in chief of British
North America with special powers as lord high commissioner. He arrived in
Quebec in the spring of 1838; though he ended his stay before the year was out, his
Report on the Affairs of British North America is one of the most important
documents in the history of the British Empire.
Durham recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be united under a single
parliament. He said that if the colonies were given as much freedom to govern
themselves as the people of Great Britain, they would become more loyal instead of
less so. He even forecast the possibility of a union some day of all the British
colonies in North America. His only serious error of judgment occurred when he
said that the Frenchspeaking Canadians might be expected to be absorbed by a
growing Englishspeaking majority. Durham drove himself and others tirelessly to
gather the information he required for his report during the few months he was in
the country. His political opponents at home, however, continued to attack him,
and, stung by their criticisms, he returned to England to submit his findings. He did
not live to witness the action that was taken on his report, for within a year he
became ill and died.
Canada West and Canada East
In 1840 the Act of Union was passed. It became effective the next year and joined
Upper and Lower Canada under a central government. Henceforth the two colonies
were to be known simply as Canada West and Canada East, respectively. There was
to be an appointed upper chamber, or legislative council, in the new government as
well as an assembly composed of the same number of elected members from each of
the two old colonies. The seat of government was established at Kingston; but after
1844 it was moved to Montreal, then back and forth between Toronto and Quebec,
and finally to Ottawa in 1865.
In the first several years of this period, the principle of complete selfgovernment
and the subordination of the governor's authority to that of Parliament was
developed and finally accepted. It was a critical time in the constitutional history
of Canada, and the ability of the two chief Canadian nationality groups to get
along with each other was tested for many years.
Each side produced great public men. Prominent were Robert Baldwin from
Canada West and Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine from Canada East (see Baldwin,
Robert). Both men had taken part in the agitation preceding the rebellions of 1837,
but they had stood apart from the extreme measures that led to armed insurrection.
Both had grasped the meaning of responsible government. By joining forces they
formed a strong coalition during the early years of the new government, and the
result was that much legislation was carried through. Included were laws for
establishing municipal governments, for founding the University of Toronto as a
nonsectarian institution, and for changing the system of law courts.
The real test of the principle of responsible government took place in 1849.
Parliament passed the Rebellion Losses Bill, which had to go before the governor
general, James Bruce, earl of Elgin, for his signature to become law. The bill
provided for compensation to those who had suffered during the rebellion of 1837
in Lower Canada. It was violently opposed by many of the Tories, who felt that tax
money was being turned over to former rebels.
There was some question as to whether or not Elgin would sign the bill as his
ministers advised him to do. When Elgin decided that he must sign into law
whatever bill was recommended to him by his Cabinet, he was made the object of a
torrent of abuse from the Tories. Elgin's carriage was attacked, and his house was
stoned. Furthermore, rioting broke out, and the Parliament Buildings in Montreal
were razed by fire. Out of the ashes of the government buildings, however, was born
true colonial selfgovernment that embodied the principle of responsible cabinet
rule.
The Colonies Grow Up
In the meantime Canada was swelling with settlers, and the foundations of a British
province on the west coast were being laid. A flood of newcomers began to arrive
after the War of 1812, mostly from the British Isles. About 800,000 immigrants
came to Canada between 1815 and 1850, sometimes spoken of as the period of the
Great Migration. The hardships faced by the new settlers were many. The trials
often began in the crowded, choleraridden, and poorly provisioned sailing ships
that brought the newcomers in vast numbers across the Atlantic. The building of
new settlements went on in the Maritime Provinces and in the Canadas, and early
in the century Cape Breton Island was settled by Gaelicspeaking farmers from the
Scottish Highlands.
The largest tracts of land available for settlement were in Upper Canada, where the
opening of new subdivisions in the dense forests was an almost continuous process
during this whole period. One of the largest and most famous of these was the huge
tract of land on the north shore of Lake Erie acquired by Thomas Talbot in about
1802. Established in 1803, the Talbot Settlement was governed by him during the
whole period of its development, which covered almost 50 years. In 1824 a large
private enterprise known as the Canada Company, promoted by John Galt, was
launched with government backing. Settlements began after the company obtained
about 2.5 million acres. Between 1824 and 1843 the company was responsible for
opening up most of the western part of the province lying north of the Talbot
country.
Until the coming of the railway, the principal method of moving heavy freight over
long distances was by water. Canals in the colonies were therefore improved, and
new ones were dug. Roads were cut through the bush to connect the farflung
centers of settlement with lake and river ports. On the backwoods farms great
branding fires burned steadily for weeks at a time as the pioneers slowly cleared
their lands. As a rule, the stumps were left in the ground to rot, which required from
five to six years for most woods. Cedar and pine roots might hamper the use of
horsedrawn plows for as long as 15 to 20 years. In most respects pioneer life was
very similar in Canada and the United States.
Settlement on the Pacific Coast
The isolation of the Pacific coast from the rest of Canada was almost complete
during this period. The only practical route from the Pacific coast to England was
by sea around Cape Horn. When the North West Company was absorbed by the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, Dr. John McLoughlin was sent to superintend the
affairs of the latter organization in the huge area lying between the Rockies and the
Pacific and reaching as far south as California.
The boundary line between United States and British territory on the west coast
was far from clear at this time. The Hudson's Bay Company possessed a flourishing
trading post at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River more than 200 miles south
of the present city of Vancouver. For a number of years this Oregon country (which
included the later state of Washington) was the scene of fur trading and settlement
by the British and Americans alike by common agreement. (See also Oregon;
Washington, State of.)
In 1846 the Oregon Boundary Treaty determined that the international boundary
should follow the 49th parallel, but that Vancouver Island should remain British.
James Douglas, director of Fort Vancouver, had begun the building of Fort Victoria,
on Vancouver Island, just three years earlier. Under his supervision it now became
the company's western headquarters.
The dominating importance of the fur trade was challenged in 1858 by the
electrifying news that gold had been discovered on the Fraser River. Douglas
promptly extended his authority to the mainland, and in this action he was
supported by the British government. There was a great need to bring law and order
to the mining camps arising everywhere in the new territory. This need was met by
Matthew Begbie, a firm and courageous judge whom Douglas called to his
assistance. Many of the miners departed when the gold rush subsided. The people
who stayed formed the nucleus of the later province of British Columbia.
One of the great engineering accomplishments of Canadian history up to this time
was the building of the Cariboo Road between 1862 and 1865. It ran from the
Fraser River port of Yale to the heart of the Cariboo goldmining country, about
400 miles upstream. The territory it ran through was almost impassable.
The Confederation Idea
Sentiment bound the Canadas, the Maritimes, and British Columbia more closely
to England than to each other. There were different standards of currency in use in
the several colonies, and trade between them was complicated by customs barriers.
Their everyday business brought them into close touch with the United States.
When the St. Lawrence ports of Quebec and Montreal were frozen in, news and
even passengers traveled on the new United States railways across the eastern states
from New York to the Canadian border. The newly invented magnetic telegraph,
which was installed in Toronto in 1846, soon connected that city not only with
Quebec but also with New York City and New Orleans in the United States.
From 1861 to 1865 people in the British colonies watched with interest and
uneasiness the course of the American Civil War (see Civil War, American). From
this great conflict they saw arise a freshly united nation, powerfully equipped with
what were now surplus tools of war and, in the opinion of many, only too willing to
use them against the neighboring colonies of Great Britain. Britain had almost
gone to war against the North because the North's blockade of Southern shipping
interfered with Britain's cotton trade. The absorption of the British colonies into
the United States was again being called for by United States extremists who
revived the old cry of "manifest destiny" of their republic.
Lord Elgin had negotiated a tenyear trade treaty with the United States whereby
tariffs were reduced on a reciprocal basis on many items. The resulting stimulation
of trade was scheduled to cease in 1864, when United States renewal of the treaty
was withheld. The desirability of substituting increased intercolonial trade was
recognized by everyone in Canada and the Maritimes.
The government of the Canadas under the Act of Union was running into
difficulties because Canada West by this time had increased in population faster
than Canada East. The act had provided for equal representation of both parts of
the colony at a time when Frenchspeaking Canada East was numerically much
larger than Canada West. A state of almost continuous deadlock ensued in
Parliament, with no government able to secure a clear majority.
Between 1861 and 1864 four separate ministries and two general elections failed to
end the impasse. In 1864 a coalition headed by the leader of the Conservatives,
John A. Macdonald, and Liberal leader George Brown, who was founder of the
Toronto Globe, gave promise of a more stable government (see Macdonald).
Macdonald, with his trusted ally GeorgesEtienne Cartier from Canada East, then
obtained Brown's assurance of cooperation in the best interests of the country, even
though Brown had long considered Macdonald and Cartier his deadly political
enemies.
The coalition government wanted to work out some form of federal union to
include the Maritime Provinces if they were willing. Provincial matters would be
left to the individual provinces. Only subjects of concern to all the provinces
would be dealt with by the federal government.
Dominion from Sea to Sea
By fortunate coincidence, the possibility of a local union of colonies was under
discussion at this very time in the Maritimes. A conference was convened in
Charlottetown, P.E.I., in 1864 to discuss the question. Macdonald, accompanied by
Brown and Cartier, headed a delegation from Canada to this meeting of their
Maritime cousins. They set forth the possible advantages of a union wide enough
to include the Canadas as well. It was quickly agreed that another meeting should
be held to consider the plan further. The result was the Quebec Conference, which
was held later the same year. Agreements in principle on the conditions that might
permit so ambitious a union were finally reached. These agreements were summed
up in the Seventytwo Resolutions.
As if to lend emphasis to the importance of such a union, the antiBritish Fenians in
the United States were voicing plans to strike a blow for Irish independence at
home by invading the British colonies in North America. In 1866 this threat
culminated in a series of raids across the border into Canada, which were
successfully repulsed. The United States took steps to preserve its neutrality by
suppressing further Fenian attacks from its side of the border. Some of the national
spirit of 1812 to 1814 was rekindled in the British colonies and served to
strengthen the movement toward confederation.
In 1866 representatives of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Canadas came
together in London for final discussions with the Colonial Office. Newfoundland
and Prince Edward Island for the moment had withdrawn from the confederation
talks. The London Conference led directly to the most important statute in
Canadian constitutional history, the British North America Act of 1867. This act,
with its subsequent amendments, embodied the written constitution of Canada for
more than a century. It was proclaimed on July 1, now celebrated as Canada Day.
The British North America Act provided that there should be four provinces in the
new Dominion at the outsetOntario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia
and that others could join later. Each province was to have its own seat of
government, its own lawmaking body, and its own lieutenant governor to represent
the Crown. In addition, the act established a federal government at Ottawa,
composed of a House of Commons (elected), a Senate (appointed for life), and a
governorgeneral as the Crown's representative. It set forth the matters on which the
provinces could make laws and listed those that were the special concern of the
government at Ottawa. Any powers not listed were to belong to the federal
government. (The act remained in force until the Constitution Act of 1982.)
New Dominion Is Launched
The first Parliament of the new Dominion met on Nov. 6, 1867, with Macdonald as
prime minister. By the Deed of Surrender of 1869, Canada purchased the vast
Northwest Territories from the Hudson's Bay Company. The company was
permitted to retain trading rights in the area and a small percentage of the prairie
lands. (See also Hudson's Bay Company.)
The only western settlement of importance east of the Rockies was the Red River
colony in Manitoba, which had attained a population of some 12,000 since
Selkirk's time. The metis were the most numerous of these settlers. Their leader,
Louis Riel, defied the new governor sent out to take over possession of the territory
from the Hudson's Bay Company. Riel seized Fort Garry, set up his own provisional
government, and forwarded demands to Ottawa that the civil rights and the land
rights of the people be protected. At this point Riel might easily have won a place
in Canadian history as the father of Manitoba, but he committed the grave error of
imprisoning some of the Ontario settlers who opposed him and of having one of
them, Thomas Scott, executed.
Calmer judgments prevailed when Donald Smith (later Lord Strathcona) and
Bishop Alexandre Tache, the religious leader of the Red River Settlement, went to
Ottawa and obtained passage of the Manitoba Act of 1870. By this act Manitoba
was constituted a province, with its seat of government at Fort Garry (later
Winnipeg). But it was a much smaller province, amounting to little more than the
Red River Settlement. The right of the Frenchspeaking inhabitants to their own
religion and schools was recognized. Soldiers under Col. (later Sir) Garnet
Wolseley were sent to Fort Garry to bring law and order on authority from Ottawa.
Riel allowed his provisional government to collapse and fled from the new
province. The Red River Rebellion was ended but not the career of Riel.
The first Dominion census, which was taken in 1871 in accordance with the British
North America Act, showed a population of 3,689,257. In the same year the Treaty
of Washington was signed between Great Britain and the United States, which
settled United States and Canadian use of the Great LakesSt. Lawrence system and
the Yukon River in Alaska. The United States was accorded fishing rights in
Canadian Atlantic waters for a limited period in return for 5 1/2 million dollars in
compensation. Among the five commissioners who represented Great Britain in
these negotiations was Macdonald. His presence was a recognition of Canada's new
status in the British Empire.
During the same summer of 1871, British Columbia joined the new Canada
Confederation. Improvement in overland communications was a primary condition
imposed by the new province. Macdonald pledged that the Dominion government
would begin construction of a transcontinental railway within two years and
complete it within ten years.
Progress on the Intercolonial Railway, which was to link the Maritimes with
Quebec, encouraged Prince Edward Island in 1873 to become the seventh province
in the Dominion. The transcontinental railway project already was requiring heavy
financial commitments by the government, and Macdonald was under considerable
pressure in the House of Commons as well as in the press. He won the election of
1872, only to face charges by his political enemies that railway contractors had
contributed heavily to his party's election funds. The Pacific Scandal, as this
incident was named, defeated the Conservatives in 1873. Alexander Mackenzie
headed the Liberal government that then took office.
Mackenzie's contribution to the infant Dominion was real though unspectacular.
During his term in office from 1873 to 1878, voting by ballot was introduced in
1874; the Supreme Court of Canada held its first sitting in 1876; and the
Intercolonial Railway ran its first train from Halifax to Quebec, also in 1876. A
tireless worker and a man of high personal integrity, Mackenzie nevertheless did
not have great popular appeal. When Macdonald fought the 1878 election on a
platform of protectionist tariffs, which he called his National Policy, the voters
favored their "old chieftain." The Conservatives thus were returned to office.
Macdonald's National Policy
Macdonald sought to strengthen the new Dominion both at home and abroad. He
could foresee the ultimate evolution of something akin to the modern British
Commonwealth, in which Canada would be an equal partner with the mother
country. During the seven years following his return to office, his government
adopted its previously announced protective tariff (1879), appointed Canada's first
high commissioner to London (1880), annexed the Arctic Archipelago (1880), and
completed the overdue transcontinental railway (1885).
In 1885 word of a new crisis was flashed from the Northwest Territories. Louis Riel
was leading the metis of the valley of the South Saskatchewan in a new uprising
against the federal government, and this time he had aroused numbers of the
Indians to fight beside him. A militia force was hastily dispatched under Gen.
Frederick Middleton over the completed portion of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Within a few weeks the Northwest Rebellion was put down and Riel was arrested.
His trial for treason and his execution aroused wide controversy across Canada and
to a considerable extent cost the Conservative party the support of French
speaking Canadians for many decades.
Macdonald's National Policy was by now the chief target of the Liberals, who were
calling for "unrestricted reciprocity" in trade with the United States. Macdonald
won the 1891 election. His health was failing, however, and later that year he died.
Because of their government majority, the Conservatives were not required to call a
new election for five years. During this time, however, they had to select four prime
ministers in successionSir John J.C. Abbott (189192), Sir John S.D. Thompson
(189294), Sir Mackenzie Bowell (189496), and Sir Charles Tupper (1896).
Finally the Conservative party foundered, under Tupper's leadership, on the thorny
Manitoba School Question. Manitoba had abolished its separate Roman Catholic
schools a few years earlier. This was allegedly in violation of provisions in the
Manitoba Act and the British North America Act. The provincial government's
action was upheld, however, by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. (See
also Abbott; Thompson, John Sparrow David; Tupper.)
The new Liberal leader, Wilfrid Laurier, a Frenchspeaking Canadian, favored
conciliation rather than coercion. The Conservatives were defeated on the issue in
the election; and the responsibility of government passed to the Liberals, under
Laurier.
The Age of Laurier
Wilfrid Laurier's regime lasted 15 years. It was one of renewed growth and
prosperity. The Manitoba School Question was promptly hushed up by new
legislation enacted by the province in accordance with a compromise worked out
with Ottawa. To his Cabinet Laurier drew some of the most capable leaders from
every part of Canada.
Business throughout the world was on an upswing, and the Laurier government
rode the crest. The demand for Canadian wheat abroad encouraged immigration,
and immigration in turn increased farm production and the value of national
exports. "The 20th century belongs to Canada," cried Laurier; and the whole nation
took confidence from his assurance. Two new transcontinental railways were
begun. By 1905 the west had expanded in both population and economic strength
to such an extent that two new provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, were carved
out of the Northwest Territories.
These encouraging developments were inadvertently assisted by an occurrence in
the far northwest. Since the Fraser River gold strike of 1858, prospectors had been
consistently combing the mountainous areas of British Columbia and to the north.
In 1896 their persistence paid off with the discovery of gold nuggets on the
Klondike River in the far western Yukon Territory. When the news spread, the gold
rush of 1897 began; it was to become the most publicized gold rush in history,
eventually to be celebrated in the works of such writers as Jack London and Robert
Service.
The gold strike had some beneficial side effects. As miners poured into western
Canada from the United States and other parts of the world, the extent of the
unpopulated prairie lands became known. By this time, of course, the supply of free
land in the United States had become exhausted, and the frontier was closed. Very
soon after the gold rush, settlers began pouring into the western prairies of Canada
by the thousands, from Europe as well as the United States. They came from as far
away as Russia to establish farms on the open wheatlands. It was not long before
demands arose for the creation of at least one province between Manitoba and
British Columbia. Thus, in 1905, the government in Ottawa formed two new
provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Another benefit resulting, at least in part, from the gold rush was the discovery of
other minerals in the Canadian wilds. As early as 1883, nickel had been found at
Sudbury, Ont. In the early 1890s large deposits of basemetal ores were found in
southern British Columbia. After 1900 a rich deposit of silver was discovered north
of Lake Nipissing in Ontario. Canada soon became perceived around the world as a
mineralrich nation with great untapped potential.
The new prime minister thus basked in an environment of progress and prosperity
after a depression that had lasted more than 20 years. Laurier's only serious
political difficulties stemmed from his inability to satisfy fully the imperialists
among his followers. Great Britain received support in the Boer War of 18991902
from the other selfgoverning colonies, and Laurier reluctantly committed Canada
as well (see Boer War). His decision, however, sharpened the controversy between
the two nationality groups regarding Canada's proper responsibilities to Britain in
the future. On the other hand, he continued to resist pressures to tie the bonds of
empire still more tightly during the years after the victory in South Africa. Seeds of
distrust concerning his policies were thus sown on both sides of the wall that was
rising between Canadians of French and of English descent.
Another foreign policy issue arose as naval competition increased between
Germany and Britain in the years before World War I. Great Britain naturally
desired to receive military help from the colonies, and again Laurier found a
compromise that satisfied neither the proBritish faction nor the French partisans.
He founded the Canadian Navy in 1910 with the provision that in time of war it be
placed under British command. This quickly led to accusations that Canadian
soldiers would be drafted into the British Army if war came.
In 1911, when his opponents denounced his government's decision to implement a
limited reciprocity pact with the United States, Laurier felt he was on firmer ground
and called a general election. His defeat, which occurred largely on this issue,
showed that the prospering nation's reservations regarding his policies were
exceeded only by its lingering distrust of the United States. (See also Laurier.)
Canada and World War I
The new Conservative government, headed by Robert Laird Borden, had the
responsibility of rallying the nation to Britain's side in World War I (see Borden).
Had Canadians remained as divided as they were at the end of Laurier's term, this
might have been a difficult thing to do. But Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium
in 1914 forged a unity of Canadian sentiment and a demand for participation in the
conflict.
The first Canadian contingent, numbering 33,000, reached England soon after the
outbreak of war in 1914, and it was in the thick of the fighting on the continent a
few months later in the second battle of Ypres. By 1916 the Canadians had formed
four divisions, with a fifth to provide reinforcements. The four divisions of the
Canada Corps earned an outstanding reputation as a fighting force. More
significant, however, was the fact that Canada was playing a respectable role on the
world stage, a role that would soon help undo its colonial status.
Before the war ended in 1918, more than 619,000 officers and men had enlisted,
including some 22,000 who had served in the British Royal Air Force. More than
60,000 Canadians were killed in action or died of wounds, a terribly heavy toll in
relation to the country's population. Over 66 million shells were produced in
Canadian factories. The gross national debt soared from 544 million dollars in
1914 to almost 2 1/2 billion dollars in 1919, most of the money being raised in
Canada itself through public war loans.
The Canadian forces at the outset were made up wholly of volunteers. Casualties
and the rapidly accelerating pace of the war made the bitter question of
conscription a major issue by 1917. Borden met it by forming a coalition
government of Conservatives and Liberals, though Laurier refused to join the
coalition. In the election of that year, Quebec was almost unanimous in its
opposition to the conscription policy that was supported elsewhere across the
country. The political solidarity of the province during the next 25 years was
largely derived from its memory of that episode.
On the battlefronts in France and Belgium, Canadians of both nationality
backgrounds made magnificent contributions to the final victory. They faced with
heroism the first poisongas attack in the history of warfare during the second battle
of Ypres in 1915. Other engagements in which Canadian forces earned the
admiration of all the Allies included the battles of Mount Sorrel (1916), the Somme
(1916), and Vimy Ridge (1917). The victory of Passchendaele Ridge in the autumn
of 1917 alone cost 16,000 Canadian casualties. In 1918 during the closing months
of the war, Canadians again saw heavy action at Amiens, Cambrai, and Mons.
Canada Between the Wars
At the end of 1919 the Canadian government acquired the Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway and the Canadian Northern Grand Trunk and merged them to create the
publicly owned Canadian National Railways. Upon Borden's retirement in 1920,
Arthur Meighen succeeded as prime minister. The election of 1921 brought the
Liberals back into office under a new leader, William Lyon Mackenzie King (see
King, Mackenzie). Because the government had a bare majority, it depended upon
the support of the Progressive (Farmer) party members.
After four years of timid Liberal leadership, a new election strengthened the
Conservative representation but not quite to the point of giving the party control
of Parliament. This was accomplished in 1926, when a scandal in the Department of
Customs and Excise cost the Liberals their majority in the House. By political
shrewdness, however, King forced Meighen's second government to go to the
people for an election within a matter of days; and the Liberals were once more
returned to power.
The 1920s were marked everywhere by a spiraling expansion of business.
Technical and industrial advances paced the rising standard of living. In the
summer of 1929 industrial production began to slow significantly. In October of
that year the stock market crash heralded unemployment and financial ruin across
Canada, as it did elsewhere in the world. Defeated in the 1930 elections, King made
way for the Conservatives under Richard Bedford Bennett (later Viscount Bennett).
Bennett thus had the unenviable responsibility of dealing with the Great
Depression. His inability to deal with the crisis, coupled with the severe drought in
the prairies, led Canadians to desert the Conservatives. The election of 1935
brought the Liberals back into office, a position they were to continue to hold
without interruption for 22 years.
The British Commonwealth of Nations
The period between the wars brought the culmination of Canada's growth to
independent nationhood within the British Commonwealth. Prime Minister Borden
had been included in the Imperial War Cabinet in London. He piloted through the
Imperial Conference of 1917 a resolution that the dominions "should be
recognized as autonomous nations of an imperial commonwealth." To both the
1919 Peace Conference and the League of Nations Canada sent its own delegates.
The Imperial Conference of 1926 confirmed in its Declaration of Equality that the
United Kingdom as well as the dominions had become "autonomous Communities
within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another."
They were, however, "united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely
associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations." These resolutions
were confirmed by the British Parliament in 1931 in the Statute of Westminster.
The statute provided that no law passed in the future by the United Kingdom
should extend to any dominion "except at the request and with the consent of that
Dominion." Canadian sovereignty thus had been achieved by a long process of
peaceful constitutional evolution. This was vividly demonstrated by the
independent decision of its Parliament that Canada enter World War II at the side of
Britain, which it did within a week of the outbreak of hostilities in September
1939.
Canada and World War II
Within three months an entire division of the new Canadian Active Service Force
had been transported to the United Kingdom, and an agreement had been
announced for a British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to be centered in
Canada. This project alone trained more than 131,000 aircrew personnel for the
Commonwealth. Canada contributed 72,800 pilots, navigators, aerial gunners and
bombardiers, and flight engineers. These Canadians saw service in almost every
theater of war. The Royal Canadian Navy was increased from fewer than a dozen
vessels to more than 400. It served primarily as an antisubmarine and convoy force
in the North Atlantic. Some of its units were deployed from time to time as far away
as the Mediterranean and the Pacific.
The forces under the command of Gen. A.G.L. McNaughton were required to spend
a long and frustrating period on vital guard duty in Britain throughout the period
of greatest threat of German invasion. Elsewhere abroad, two Canadian battalions
sent to Hong Kong in 1941 were overrun when the colony was captured by the
Japanese at the end of that year. The first engagement of the enemy by Canadian
forces based in England occurred in 1942 in a courageous, but terribly costly,
commandotype raid against Dieppe. In the summer of 1943 Canadian troops were
sent into action with the British in the successful assault against Sicily, whence
they carried the campaign to the Italian mainland.
Early in 1945 the Canadians were withdrawn from Italy to permit reunification of
the Canadian Army in northwestern Europe. The climax of the war had already
come, however, with the Normandy landings in June 1944, in which the Canadian
Army played an important part. Instrumental in the capture of Caen, which
followed, the Canadians won another major victory in the closing of the Falaise
gap later the same summer. In the costly and difficult battle of the Scheldt estuary
that autumn, the Canadians cleared the sea passage to Antwerp, already in Allied
hands. In the bitter battle along the Hochwald Ridge in February 1945, Canadian
losses were extremely heavy. This battle opened the final attack across the Rhine,
which was a prelude to the unconditional surrender by Germany on May 7, 1945.
All persons over 16 years of age were required to take part in a national registration
for war service, and compulsory military service for home defense only was
introduced. Prime Minister King had assured the nation that there would be no
conscription for overseas duty. As the war wore on, however, it became increasingly
clear that the government needed to be released from the commitment. King
accomplished this by a national plebiscite. All the provinces except Quebec voted
in favor of conscription for overseas service if necessary. In 1944, after the
Normandy invasion, the drain on manpower became so severe that draftees were
sent overseas for the first time as reinforcements for the troops in Europe.
The losses in the war overseas were complemented by economic gains on the
homefront. War productivity effectively ended the Great Depression and greatly
increased the labor force. Canadian workers produced raw materials, farm products,
and manufactured goods needed to fight the war; and this was all done in a volume
unprecedented in Canadian history. Industrialization was thus rapidly advanced,
through both investment of capital and striking advances in technology. (See also
World War II.)
Postwar Developments
Canada played an active role in the United Nations from the time of the
organization's inception after the war (see United Nations). King retired in favor of
Louis St. Laurent in 1948, after having held office for a longer period than any
other prime minister in Canada's history (see Saint Laurent). In 1949 Newfoundland
joined the Confederation as the tenth province. In the same year Canada became a
member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. When the United Nations took
action to defend South Korea from invasion by North Korea, Canada contributed
units from all three branches of its armed forces. During the hostilities (195053)
approximately 27,000 Canadians saw service in the Far East.
The appointment of the first nativeborn Canadian as governorgeneral occurred
when the Rt. Hon. Vincent Massey was sworn into office in 1952. Massey had been
chairman of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters
and Sciences.
The St. Lawrence Seaway was opened in 1959. It was formally dedicated by Queen
Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States. (See also
Saint Lawrence River.)
On Feb. 15, 1965, Canada raised a red and white mapleleaf flag. It was adopted by
Parliament in December 1964 and was Canada's first official national flag.
Centennial of Canadian Confederation
The year 1967 marked the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act,
which had been proclaimed on July 1, 1867, and established the basis for the
modern state of Canada. A giant birthday party on Parliament Hill in Ottawa was
attended by Queen Elizabeth II. A highlight of the year was the Universal and
International Exhibition, known as Expo '67, held in Montreal. Also to mark the
centennial, Winnipeg, Man., was host to the fifth PanAmerican Games, and the
Order of Canada was instituted to reward Canadians for outstanding merit and
service.
In 1982 the British North America Act was replaced by a new constitution for the
government of Canada. Queen Elizabeth visited Parliament Hill to proclaim the
document. This completed the transfer of constitutional powers from Great Britain
to Canada. (See also Canada Confederation, Fathers of.)
Quebec Separatism
Beginning in the 1960s Quebec was the center of militant agitation to separate it
from Canada and establish a Frenchspeaking nation. In 1969 French and English
were both declared the official languages of Canada. In 1970 terrorist acts by
alleged separatists were climaxed by the kidnapping and murder of Quebec's
minister of labor and immigration, Pierre Laporte. The federal government sent in
troops and temporarily suspended civil liberties. In 1974 French became the
official language of the province.
A party pledged to Quebec separatism won the 1976 provincial election and passed
several measures to strengthen the movement. Under a controversial law adopted in
1977, education in Englishlanguage schools was greatly restricted. The charter
also changed English placenames and imposed French as the language of
business, court judgments, laws, government regulations, and public institutions.
Although the separatist party retained power, a referendum to make the province an
independent country was rejected by the Quebec voters in 1980. The Quebec
government opposed the 1982 constitution, which included a provision for
freedom of language in education, and unsuccessfully sought a veto over
constitutional change. In 1984 the Supreme Court ruled against Quebec's
schooling restrictions.
In 1987 the Meech Lake constitutional accord recognized Quebec as a "distinct
society" and transferred extensive new powers to all the provinces. Quebec
promised that it would accept the 1982 constitution if the accord was approved by
all the rest of the provinces. The House of Commons ratified the Meech Lake
accord on June 22, 1988, but the accord died on June 23, 1990, after
Newfoundland and Manitoba withheld their support. A new set of constitutional
proposals hammered out by a parliamentary committee was agreed upon in 1992.
They called for decentralization of federal powers, an elected Senate, and special
recognition of Quebec as a distinct society. In a referendum held in October 1992,
Canadians decisively turned down the constitutional changes. Quebec voters
narrowly rejected secession from Canada in a 1995 referendum. (See also Quebec.)
Modern Canadian Leadership
The long period of Liberal domination in Parliament ended in 1957. The St.
Laurent government was replaced when the Progressive Conservatives (called
Conservatives before 1942) took office under the prime ministership of John G.
Diefenbaker (see Diefenbaker, John).
In the 1962 elections the Progressive Conservatives lost their control of Parliament,
but no other party was able to win a majority. Diefenbaker, as leader of the largest
minority party, formed a weak coalition government. In February 1963 his
government fell on the issue of Canada's failure to execute its 1958 commitments
to accept nuclear weapons from the United States for the joint defense of North
America.
In general elections on April 8 the Liberals won more seats than any other party,
and Liberal leader Lester B. Pearson was named prime minister of Canada in 1963
at the head of another minority government (see Pearson, Lester B.). In 1968 the
Liberals chose Pierre Elliott Trudeau to succeed him (see Trudeau, Pierre Elliott). In
the general elections in June, Trudeau won, with the Liberals taking a majority.
This was the first election to use the electoral constituency boundaries of 1965.
In the October 1972 elections Trudeau's Liberals won but failed to gain a majority.
They were able to stay in power with New Democratic support, but in May 1974
Trudeau's government fell. The Liberals won a new majority in the July
parliamentary elections.
Economic issues brought about the Liberals' defeat five years later. The Progressive
Conservatives, led by Joe Clark, formed a minority government that fell after only
six months (see Clark, Joe). Although Trudeau resigned his party leadership in
November 1979, he was again named prime minister in 1980.
Trudeau resigned once again in 1984 and was succeeded by John Turner on June
30. On July 9, Turner called for dissolving Parliament and holding a new election.
He retained ministers from the Trudeau Cabinet and appointed Trudeau supporters
to the Senate, courts, and diplomatic posts.
Dissatisfaction with this continuation of Trudeau's influence led to victory in the
September election for the Progressive Conservatives, under the leadership of Brian
Mulroney (see Mulroney, Brian). Mulroney sought to improve relations with the
United States.
In October 1987 Canada and the United States reached agreement on a trade pact to
eliminate all bilateral tariffs over a tenyear period beginning Jan. 1, 1989. The two
countries signed a Great Lakes waterquality agreement in November. Both
countries agreed to track and clean up sources of pollution.
In January 1988 abortion was legalized in Canada. Victories by Mulroney and his
Conservative party in the November 1988 elections guaranteed passage of the free
trade agreement.
The socialist New Democratic party chose Audrey McLaughlin, the member of
Parliament from the Yukon, as its leader in 1989the first woman to head a major
Canadian political party. While the international political climate became more
conservative, the party began to dominate Canadian leadership in the early 1990s.
New Democrats were elected premiers of the provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan,
and British Columbia.
With his popularity slumping, Mulroney resigned in February 1993. He was
succeeded by Kim Campbell, who became the first female prime minister in
Canadian history. Campbell and the Conservatives were annihilated in the October
1993 elections, retaining only two seats in the House of Commons. The Liberal
party won 177 seats to take control of the government, and Jean Chretien became
prime minister.
Native Peoples Issues
A series of protests by native peoples swept across Canada in 1990. On March 11 a
Mohawk group set up a blockade to stop the town of Oka, Que., from expanding a
golf course on 55 acres (22 hectares) they claimed as ancestral territory. On July 11
a force of 100 Quebec police officers attacked the blockade, setting off a gun battle
in which one police officer was killed. The Mohawks held the blockade for 11
weeks, finally surrendering to the Army in September. Another group of Indians
blockaded the Mercier Bridge, one of the four main bridges into Montreal.
In other disputes over land claims, different Indian groups set up several blockades
of the rail lines in Ontario and in British Columbia, disrupting freight and
passenger service. In southwestern Ontario five hydro transmission towers were
toppled in September. A Canadian National Railway bridge was destroyed by fire.
Other native peoples blocked roads and highways to draw attention to their
concerns. A group of Peigan Indians defended a diversion of the Oldman River
which they had built to protest the construction of a dam that they said would
destroy their lands.
On May 4, 1992, voters in the Northwest Territories authorized the partition of
their huge area into two separate territories, one to become a selfgoverning
homeland for Inuit, or Eskimos. The eastern portion, covering 772,260 square miles
(2,000,144 square kilometers), was inhabited by about 17,500 Inuit. The new
territory was to be called Nunavut, meaning Our Land. Although the plebiscite was
not binding on the Canadian government, the agreement was expected to be
ratified and to go into effect by 1999. Later in the year the government agreed that
Indians and Inuit have the right of selfgovernment.
BACK TO THE
INFORMATION HOME PAGE
Internet Link Exchange

Member of the Internet Link Exchange

CANADA - A Short History

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

CANADA - A Short History

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

05/10/2016 CANADA Information Pages dealing with our history

Welcome to the Canadian Information pages

You might also like

CANADA - A Short History

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

CANADA - A Short History

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

05/10/2016 CANADA ­ Information Pages dealing with our history

Welcome to the Canadian Information pages

You might also like

05/10/2016 CANADA Information Pages dealing with our history