History of Canada

History of Canada
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The history of Canada begins with the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago. Canada has been inhabited for millennia by distinctive groups of Aboriginal peoples, who evolved trade, spiritual and social hierarchies systems. Some of these civilisations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals and have been discovered through archaeological investigations. Various laws, treaties, and legislation have been enacted between European settlers and the Indigenous populations.

Beginning in the late 15th century French and British expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the Great Britain, which became official with the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and finalized in the Canada Act of 1982, that severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.

Over centuries, elements of Aboriginal, French, British and more recent immigrant customs have combined to form a Canadian culture. Canada has also been strongly influenced by that of its linguistic, geographic and economic neighbour, the United States. Since the conclusion of the Second World War, Canada has been committed to multilateralism abroad and socioeconomic development domestically. Canada currently consists of ten provinces and three territories, and is governed as a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state.

Pre-Columbian era

Paleo-Indians and Archaic periods

Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont; by Heinrich Harder, c.1920

According to North American archeological and Aboriginal genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation.^[1][2] During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50,000 — 17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the Bering land bridge (Beringia) that joined Siberia to north west North America (Alaska).^[3] At that point, they were blocked by the Laurentide ice sheet that covered most of Canada, which confined them to Alaska for thousands of years.^[4]

Around 16,000 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada.^[5] The exact dates and routes of the peopling of the New World are subject to ongoing debate.^[2][6][7][8] Queen Charlotte Islands, Old Crow Flats, and Bluefish Caves are some of the earliest archaeological sites of Paleo-Indians in Canada.^[9][10][11] Ice age hunter-gatherers left lithic flaked fluted stone tools and the remains of large butchered mammals.

The North American climate stabilized around 8000  before the Common Era (BCE) (10,000 years ago), climatic conditions were very similar to today's, however the receding glacial ice sheets still covered large portions of the land creating lakes of meltwater.^[12][13] The majority of population groups during the Archaic periods were still highly mobile hunter-gatherers.^[14] However individual groups started to focus on resources available to them locally, thus with the passage of time there is a pattern of increasing regional generalization (i.e: Paleo-Arctic, Plano and Maritime Archaic traditions).^[14]

Post-Archaic periods

PP

S

L

Great Lakes area of the Hopewell Interaction Area
PP=Point Peninsula Complex   S=Saugeen Complex   L=Laurel Complex

The Woodland cultural period dates from about 2,000 BCE — 1,000 Common Era (CE), and has locales in Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime regions.^[12] The introduction of pottery distinguishes the Woodland culture from the earlier Archaic stage inhabitants. The Laurentian related people of Ontario manufactured the oldest pottery excavated to date in Canada.^[1992][15]

The Hopewell tradition is an Aboriginal culture that flourished along American rivers from 300 BCE — 500 CE. At its greatest extent, the Hopewell Exchange System networked cultures and societies with the peoples on the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Canadian expression of the Hopewellian peoples encompasses the Point Peninsula, Saugeen, and Laurel complexes.^[16][17][18]

The eastern woodland areas of what became Canada were home to the Algonquian languages and Iroquoian languages peoples. The Algonquian language is believed to have originated in the western plateau region of Idaho or the plains of Montana and moved eastward,^[19] eventually extending all the way from Hudson Bay to what is today Nova Scotia in the east and as far south as the Tidewater region of Virginia.

Pre-Columbian distribution of Algonquian languages in North America.

Speakers of eastern Algonquian languages included the Mi'kmaq and Abenaki of the Maritime region of Canada, and likely the extinct Beothuk of Newfoundland.^[20][21] The Ojibwa and other Anishinaabe speakers of the central Algonquian languages, retain an oral tradition of having moved to their lands around the western and central Great Lakes from the sea, likely the east coast. According to oral tradition the Ojibwa formed the Council of Three Fires in 796 CE with the Odawa and the Potawatomi.^[22]

The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) were centered from at least 1000 CE in northern New York, but their influence extended into what is now southern Ontario and the Montreal area of modern Quebec.^[23] The Iroquois Confederacy is, from oral tradition, to have been formed in 1142 CE.^[24][25] On the Great Plains the Cree or Nēhilawē (who spoke a closely-related Central Algonquian language the plains Cree language) depended on the vast herds of bison to supply food and many of their other needs.^[26] To the north west were the peoples of the Na-Dene languages, which include the Athapaskan-speaking peoples and the Tlingit, who lived on the islands of southern Alaska and northern British Columbia. The Na-Dene language group is believed to be linked to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia.^[27] The Dene of the western Arctic may represent a distinct wave of migration from Asia to North America.^[27]

Pre-Columbian distribution of Na-Dene languages in North America

The Interior of British Columbia was home to the Salishan language groups such as the Shuswap (Secwepemc) and Okanagan and southern Athabaskan language groups, primarily the Dakelh (Carrier) and the Tsilhqot'in.^[28] The inlets and valleys of the British Columbia Coast sheltered large distinctive populations, such as the Haida, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth, sustained by the region's abundant salmon and shellfish.^[28] These peoples developed complex cultures dependent on the western red cedar that included wooden houses, sea-going whaling and war canoes and elaborately-carved potlatch items and totem poles.^[28] Defensive Salish trenchwork defences from the 16th century suggest a need for the southern Salish to take measures to protect themselves against their northern neighbours, who were known to mount raids into the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound in historic times.^[29]

In the Arctic archipelago, the distinctive Paleo-Eskimo know as Dorset peoples whose culture has been traced back to around 500 CE, were replaced by the ancestors of today's Inuit by 1500 CE.^[30] This is supported by archaeological records and Inuit mythology that tells of having driven off the Tuniit or 'first inhabitants'.^[31] Inuit traditional laws are anthropologically different from western law concepts. Customary law is thought non-existent in Inuit society before the introduction of the Canadian legal system.^[32]

European contact

L'Anse aux Meadows on the island of Newfoundland, site of a Norsemen colony.

There are several reports of contact made before Christopher Columbus and the age of discovery between First Nations, Inuit and those from other continents. The earliest known documented European exploration in Canada are described in the Icelandic Sagas, which recount the attempted Norse colonization of the Americas.^[33] According to the Sagas, the first European to see Canada was Bjarni Herjólfsson, who was blown off course en route from Iceland to Greenland in the summer of 985 or 986 CE.^[34] Around the year 1001 CE, the Sagas then refer to Leif Ericson landing in three places to the west, the first two being Helluland (possibly Baffin Island) and Markland (possibly Labrador).^[35] Leif's third landing was at a place he called Vinland (possibly Newfoundland).^[36] Following Leif's voyage, several Norsemen groups (often referred to as Vikings) attempted to colonize the new land, however were driven out by the local Indigenous peoples.^[37][38] Archaeological evidence of a Norse settlement was found in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, which was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978.^[39][40]

Based on the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Portuguese Crown claimed it had territorial rights in the area visited by John Cabot in 1497-1498 CE.^[41] To that end, in 1499-1500, the Portuguese mariner João Fernandes Lavrador visited the north Atlantic coast, accounting for the origins of "Labrador" appearing on topographical maps of the period.^[42] Subsequently, in 1501 and 1502 the Corte-Real brothers explored Newfoundland and Labrador, claiming them part of the Portuguese Empire.^[43] In 1506, king Manuel I created taxes for the fisheries of cod in Newfoundland waters.^[44] João Álvares Fagundes and Pêro de Barcelos established fishing outposts in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia around 1521 CE, however they were abandoned with the Portuguese colonizers focusing their efforts on South America.^[45] The extent and nature of Portuguese activity on the Canadian mainland during the 16th century remains unclear and controversial.^[46] However it is certain that they engaged in consistent fishing off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and along the Labrador Current.^[47]

New France 1534–1763

Replica of Port Royal habitation, located at the Port-Royal National Historic Site of Canada, Nova-Scotia.^[48]

In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of Francis I of France.^[49] It was the first province of New France. However, initial French attempts at settling the region met with failure. French fishing fleets continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the Saint Lawrence River, making alliances with First Nations that would become important once France began to occupy the land.^[49] In 1604, a North American fur trade monopoly was granted to Pierre Dugua Sieur de Monts.^[50] Dugua led his first colonization expedition to an island located near to the mouth of the St. Croix River. 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.^[50] In the spring of 1605, under Samuel de Champlain, the new St. Croix settlement was moved to Port Royal (today's Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia).^[48] It would be one of France's most successful New World colonies and came to be known as Acadia. The colony of Acadia grew slowly, reaching a population of 6,000 by 1731.^[51]

After Champlain's founding of Quebec City in 1608, it became the capital of New France. Champlain took personal administration over the city and its affairs and sent out expeditions to explore the interior land. Champlain himself discovered Lake Champlain in 1609; and by 1615 he had traveled by canoe up the Ottawa River, through Lake Nipissing and through Georgian Bay to the center of Huron country, near Lake Simcoe.^[52] During these voyages Champlain aided the Wendat (aka 'Hurons') in their battles against the Iroquois Confederacy.^[53] As a result, the Iroquois would become enemies of the French and were involved in multiple conflicts (known as the French and Iroquois Wars) until the signing of the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701.^[54]

Map of New France by Samuel de Champlain
"Carte geographique de la Nouvelle France" c. 1612/13 .

On the 29 of September 1621, a charter for the foundation of a New World Scottish colony was granted by James VI of Scotland to Sir William Alexander.^[55] In 1622 the first settlers left Scotland; however, they initially failed and permanent Nova Scotian settlements were not established until 1629, during the end of the Anglo-French War.^[55] This colonies did not last long: in 1631, under Charles I, the Treaty of Suza was signed, that ended the war and returned Nova Scotia to the French.^[56] New France was not fully restored to French rule until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.^[57]

The Catholic Church and the Jesuit establishment; which after Champlain’s death was the most dominant force in New France, wanted to establish a utopian European and Aboriginal Christian community in the colony.^[58] In 1642, the Jesuit (Society of Jesus) sponsored a group of settlers, led by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, who founded Ville-Marie, precursor to present-day Montreal.^[59] The 1666 census of New France was conducted by France's intendant, Jean Talon, in the winter of 1665-1666. It showed a population of 3,215 habitants in New France.^[60] The census uncovers a great difference in the number of men at 2,034 versus 1,181 women.^[61]

Wars during the colonial era

While French colonizers were well established in large parts of eastern Canada, British colonizers had control over the Thirteen Colonies to the south; and laid claim (from 1670, via the Hudson's Bay Company) to Hudson Bay, and its drainage basin (known as Rupert's Land), as well as settlements in Newfoundland.^[62] The British colonies were rapidly expanding, while the French fur traders and explorers were extended thinly.^[62] 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.^[62][63] French expansion soon began to threaten Hudson's Bay Company clams, and, in 1686, Pierre Troyes led an overland expedition from Montreal to the shore of the bay where they managed to capture some areas.^[64]

Map of North America in 1750, before the French and Indian War, that is part of the greater world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763). - possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange) -

Britain and France repeatedly went to war in the 17th and 18th centuries and made their colonial empires into battlefields. The first areas won by the British were the Maritime provinces. After Queen Anne's War, Nova Scotia, other than Cape Breton, was ceded to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht as well as the Hudson Bay territory conquered by France in the late 17th century.^[65] As an immediate result of this setback, France founded the powerful Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.^[66] Louisbourg was intended to serve as a year-round military and naval base for France's remaining North American empire and also to protect the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River. During King George's War, an army of New Englanders led by William Pepperrell mounted an expedition of 90 vessels and 4,000 men against Louisbourg in 1745.^[67] Within three months the New Englanders succeeded in forcing Louisbourg to surrender. The fall of Louisbourg to French control prompted the founding of Halifax in 1749 by the British under Edward Cornwallis.^[68]

The British ordered the Acadians expelled from their lands in 1755, an event called the Expulsion of the Acadians or le Grand Dérangement,^[69] causing some 12,000 Acadians to be shipped to destinations throughout Britain's North American holdings and later even to France, Quebec and the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue.^[70] Many of the Acadians settled in southern Louisiana, creating the Cajun culture there.^[70] Some Acadians managed to hide and others eventually returned to Nova Scotia, but they were far outnumbered by a new migration of planters from New England who were settled on the former lands of the Acadians and transformed Nova Scotia from a colony of occupation to a settled colony with strong ties to New England.^[70]

During this time the French colony along the shores of the Saint Lawrence River continued to flourish, although French explorations and territorial claims to the Ohio Valley brought increasing conflict with the interests of Britain's American colonies. Inevitably the interests of the British and French in North America ran towards conflict resulting in the outbreak of war in both in Europe and North America again. Canada was also an important battlefield in the Seven Years' War, during which Great Britain gained control of Quebec City and Montreal after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759, and the Battle of the Thousand Islands in 1760.^[71] The British victory was overseen by Jeffrey Amherst.

Canada under British control 1764–1867

Map showing British territorial gains following the "Seven Years' War". Treaty of Paris gains in pink, and Spanish territorial gains after the Treaty of Fontainebleau in yellow.

With the end of the Seven Years' War and the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763), France ceded almost all of its territory in mainland North America.^[72] The new British rulers left alone much of the religious, political, and social culture of the French-speaking habitants, guaranteeing the right of the Canadiens to practice the Catholic faith and to the use of French civil law (now Quebec law) through the Quebec Act of 1774.^[73] The Royal Proclamation of 1763 had been issued in October, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory.^[74] The purpose of the proclamation was to organize Great Britain's new North American empire and to stabilize relations between the British Crown and Aboriginal peoples through regulation of trade, settlement, and land purchases on the western frontier.^[74]

American Revolution and Loyalists

During the American Revolution there was some sympathy for the American cause among the Canadiens and the New Englanders in Nova Scotia.^[75] Neither parties joined the rebels, although several hundred individuals joined the revolutionary cause.^[75][76] An invasion of Canada; by the Continental Army in 1775, to take Quebec from British control was halted at the Battle of Quebec, by Guy Carleton, with the assistance of local militias. The defeat of the British army during the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781, signaled the end of Britain's struggle to suppress the American Revolution.^[77] When the British evacuated New York City in 1783, they took many Loyalist refugees to Nova Scotia, while other Loyalists went to southwestern Quebec. So many Loyalists arrived on the shores of the St. John River that a separate colony—New Brunswick—was created in 1784;^[78] followed in 1791 by the division of Quebec into the largely French-speaking Lower Canada along the Saint Lawrence River and Gaspé Peninsula and an anglophone Loyalist Upper Canada, with its capital settled by 1796 in York, in present-day Toronto.^[79] After 1790 most of the new settlers were American farmers searching for new lands; although generally favorable to republicanism, they were relatively non-political and stayed neutral in the War of 1812.^[80]

The signing of the Treaty of Paris 1783, formally ended the war. Britain made several concessions at the expense of the North American colonies.^[81] Notably, the borders between Canada and the United States were officially declared.^[81] Land south of the Great Lakes, which was formerly a part of the Province of Quebec and included large parts of modern day Michigan, Illinois and Ohio, was ceded to the Americans. Fishing rights were also granted to the United States in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and on the coast of Newfoundland and the Grand Banks.^[81]

War of 1812

Loyalist Laura Secord warning the British (Lieutenant - James FitzGibbon) and First Nations of an impending American attack at Beaver Dams June 1813. - by Lorne Kidd Smith, c. 1920

The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and the British with the British North American colonies being heavily involved.^[82] Greatly outgunned by the British Royal Navy, the American war plans focused on an invasion of Canada (especially what is today eastern and western Ontario). The American frontier states voted for war in order to suppress the First Nations raids that frustrated settlement of the frontier.^[82] The war on the border with the U.S. was characterized by a series of multiple failed invasions and fiascos on both sides. American forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, driving the British out of western Ontario, killing the Native American leader Tecumseh, and breaking the military power of his confederacy.^[83]

The War ended with the Treaty of Ghent of 1814, and the Rush–Bagot Treaty of 1817.^[82] A demographic result was the shifting of American migration from Upper Canada to Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.^[82] After the war, supporters of Britain tried to repress the republicanism in Canada, that was common among American immigrants to Canada.^[82] The troubling memory of the war and the American invasions etched itself into the consciousness of Canadians as distrust of the intentions of the United States towards the British presence in North America.^{[84]pp. 254–255}

Rebellions and the Durham Report

The rebellions of 1837 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.^[85]

The Battle of Saint-Eustache - 1837 - by Lord Charles Beauclerk c.1840

In Lower Canada, a more substantial rebellion occurred against British rule. Both English- and French-Canadian rebels, sometimes using bases in the neutral United States, fought several skirmishes against the authorities. The towns of Chambly and Sorel were taken by the rebels, and Quebec City was isolated from the rest of the colony. Montreal rebel leader Robert Nelson read the "Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada" to a crowd assembled at the town of Napierville in 1838.^[86] The rebellion of the Patriote movement were defeated after battles across Quebec. Hundreds were arrested, and several villages were burnt in reprisal.^[86]

British Government then sent Lord Durham to examine the situation, he stayed in Canada only five months before returning to Britain, and brought with him, his Durham Report which strongly recommended responsible government.^[87] A less well received recommendation was the amalgamation of Upper and Lower Canada for the deliberate assimilation of the French speaking population. The Canadas were merged into a single colony, United Province of Canada, by the 1840 Act of Union, with responsible government achieved in 1848, a few months after it was granted to Nova Scotia.^[87]

Between the Napoleonic Wars and 1850 some 800,000 immigrants came to the colonies of British North America, mainly from the British Isles as part of the great migration of Canada.^[88] These included Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots displaced by the Highland Clearances to Nova Scotia and Scottish and English settlers to the Canadas, particularly Upper Canada. The Irish Famine of the 1840s significantly increased the pace of Irish Catholic immigration to British North America, with over 35,000 distressed Irish landing in Toronto alone in 1847 and 1848.^[89]

Pacific colonies

1896 map of British Columbia showing federal electoral districts.

Spanish colonizers had taken the lead in the Pacific Northwest coast, with the voyages of Juan José Pérez Hernández in 1774 and 1775.^[90] This was in response to intelligence that the Russians had begun to explore the Pacific Coast of North America, which Spain considered its own.^[91] By the time the Spanish determined to build a fort on Vancouver Island, the British navigator James Cook had himself visited Nootka Sound and charted the coast as far as Alaska, while British and American maritime fur traders had begun a busy era of commerce with the coastal peoples to satisfy the brisk market for sea otter pelts in China, thereby launching what became known as the China Trade.^[92]

In 1793 Alexander MacKenzie, a Scottish born Canadian working for the North West Company, crossed the continent and with his Aboriginal guides and French-Canadian crew, reached the mouth of the Bella Coola River, completing the first continental crossing north of Mexico, missing George Vancouver's charting expedition to the region by only a few weeks.^[93] In 1821, the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company merged, with a combined trading territory that was extended by a licence to the North-Western Territory and the Columbia and New Caledonia fur districts, which reached to the Arctic Ocean on the north and the Pacific Ocean on the west.^[94]

The Colony of Vancouver Island was chartered in 1849, with the trading post at Fort Victoria as the capital. This was followed by the Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1853, and by the creation of the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 and the Stikine Territory in 1861, with the latter three being founded expressly to keep those regions from being overrun and annexed by American gold miners.^[95] The Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands and most of the Stikine Territory were merged into the Colony of British Columbia in 1863 (the remainder, north of the 60th Parallel, became part of the North-Western Territory).^[95]

Confederation

1885 photo of Robert Harris' 1884 painting, Conference at Quebec in 1864, also known as The Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees.

The Seventy-Two Resolutions from the 1864 Quebec Conference and Charlottetown Conference laid out the framework for uniting British colonies in North America into a federation.^[96] They were adopted by the majority of the provinces of Canada and became the basis for the London Conference of 1866, which led to the formation of the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.^[96] The term dominion was chosen to indicate Canada's status as a self-governing colony of the British Empire, the first time it was used in reference to a country.^[97] With the coming into force of the British North America Act (enacted by the British Parliament), the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia became a federated kingdom in its own right.^[98][99]

Federation emerged from multiple impulses: the British wanted Canada to defend itself; the Maritimes needed railroad connections, which were promised in 1867; British-Canadian nationalism sought to unite the lands into one country, dominated by the English language and British culture; many French-Canadians saw an opportunity to exert political control within a new largely French-speaking Quebec^{[84]pp. 323–324} and fears of possible U.S. expansion northward.^[97] On a political level, there was a desire for the expansion of responsible government and elimination of the legislative deadlock between Upper and Lower Canada, and their replacement with provincial legislatures in a federation.^[97] This was especially pushed by the liberal Reform movement of Upper Canada and the French-Canadian Parti rouge in Lower Canada who favored a decentralized union in comparison to the Upper Canadian Conservative party and to some degree the French-Canadian Parti bleu which favored a centralized union.^[97][100] Confederation, according to an influential interpretation by historian Ian McKay, confirmed Canada as a nation committed to classical liberalism, emphasizing the centrality of capitalism, individualism, private property, equality, and the rule of law.^[101]

Post-Confederation Canada 1867–1914

John A. Macdonald became the first prime minister of Canada.

In the mid 1860s, Colony of British Columbia and the Colony of Vancouver Island merged into a single Colony of British Columbia, until their incorporation into the Canadian Confederation in 1871.^[102] In 1873, Prince Edward Island the Maritime colony that had opted not to join Confederation in 1867, was admitted into the country.^[102] That same year, John A. Macdonald (First Prime Minister of Canada) created the North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to help police the Northwest Territories.^[103] Specifically the Mounties were to assert Canadian independence over possible American encroachments into the sparsely populated land.^[103]

The Mounties first large scale mission was to suppress the stated desire for independence by Manitoba's Métis, a mixed blood people of joint First Nations and European descent, who originated in the mid-17th century.^[104] The desire for independence erupted in the form of the Red River Rebellion in 1869 and the later North-West Rebellion in 1885 led by Louis Riel.^[103][105] In 1905 when Saskatchewan and Alberta were admitted as provinces, they were growing rapidly thanks to abundant wheat crops that attracted immigration to the plains by Ukrainians and Northern and Central Europeans in addition to settlers from the United States, Britain and eastern Canada.^[106][107]

The Alaska Boundary Dispute, simmering since the Alaska Purchase of 1867, became critical when gold was discovered in the Yukon during the late 1890s.^[108] Canada argued its historic boundary with Russian America included the Lynn Canal and the port of Skagway, both occupied by the U.S.^[108], while the U.S. claimed the Atlin District and the lower Stikine and even Whitehorse. The dispute went to arbitration in 1903 but, the British delegate sided with the Americans, angering Canadians who felt the British had betrayed Canadian interests to curry favour with the U.S.^[109]

In 1893 the legal experts codified a framework of civil and criminal law, culminating in the Criminal Code of Canada. This solidified the liberal ideal of "equality before the law" in a way that made an abstract principle into a tangible reality for every adult Canadian^[110]. Wilfrid Laurier who served 1896-1911 as the Seventh Prime Minister of Canada felt Canada was on the verge of becoming a world power, and declared that the 20th century would "belong to Canada"^[111]

World Wars and Interwar Years 1915–1945

World War I poster for 1918- Canadian victory bond drive, depicts three French women pulling a plow.

The Canadian Forces and civilian participation in the First World War helped to foster a sense of British-Canadian nationhood. The highpoints of Canadian military achievement during the First World War came during the Somme, Vimy and Passchendaele battles, what later became known as "Canada's Hundred Days".^[112] The reputation Canadian troops earned, along with the success of Canadian flying aces including William George Barker and Billy Bishop, helped to give the nation a new sense of identity.^[113] The War Office in 1922 reported approximately 67,000 killed and 173,000 wounded during the war.^[114] This excludes civilian deaths in war time incidents like the Halifax Explosion.^[114]

Support for Great Britain during the First World War caused a major political crisis regarding conscription, with Francophones, mainly from Quebec, rejecting national policies.^[115] During the crisis large numbers of enemy aliens (especially Ukrainians and Germans) were put under government controls.^[116] The Liberal party was deeply split, with most of its Anglophone leaders joining the unionist government headed by Prime Minister Robert Borden, the leader of the Conservative party.^[117] The Liberals regained their influence after the war under the leadership of William Mackenzie King, who served as prime minister with three separate terms between 1921 to 1949.^[118]

As a result of the First World War, the Government of Canada became more assertive and less deferential to British authority; it became an active independent member of the League of Nations.^[119] In 1931 the Statute of Westminster gave each of the dominions (which included Canada and Newfoundland) the opportunity for almost complete legislative independence from the Parliament of the United Kingdom.^[120] While Newfoundland never adopted the statute, for Canada the Statute of Westminster has been called its declaration of independence.^[121]

The great depression in Canada during the interwar period affected all parts of daily life.^[122] It hit especially hard in western Canada, where a full recovery did not occur until the Second World War began in 1939. Hard times led to the creation of new political parties such as the Social Credit movement and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, as well as popular protest in the form of the On-to-Ottawa Trek.^[123] The period also saw the rise of a small Communist Party of Canada, who opposed Canada's entry into Second World War and subsequently banned under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act in 1940.

Canadian crew of a Sherman-tank in Vaucelles, France, after D-day south of Juno Beach, June 1944

Canada's involvement in the Second World War began when Canada declared war on Nazi Germany on September 10, 1939, one week after the United Kingdom. The Battle of the Atlantic began immediately, and from 1943 to 1945 was led by Leonard W. Murray, from Nova Scotia. The Canadian army were involved in the defence of Hong Kong, the Dieppe Raid in August 1942, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of Normandy. Axis U-boats operated in Canadian and Newfoundland waters throughout the war, sinking many naval and merchant vessels.^[124] The Canadian mainland was also attacked when the Japanese submarine I-26 shelled the Estevan Point lighthouse on Vancouver Island.^[125]

The Conscription Crisis of 1944 had a major effect on unity between French and English-speaking Canadians, though was not as politically intrusive as that of the First World War.^[126] Of a population of approximately 11.5 million, 1.1 million Canadians served in the armed forces in the Second World War.^[127] Many thousands more served with the Canadian Merchant Navy.^[128] In all, more than 45,000 died, and another 55,000 were wounded.^[129][130]

Post-war Era 1945–1960

Prosperity returned to Canada during the Second World War and continued in the proceeding years, with the development of Canadian universal health care, Canadian old-age pensions, and Canadian veterans' pensions.^[131][132] The financial crisis of the Great Depression had led the Dominion of Newfoundland to relinquish responsible government in 1934 and become a crown colony ruled by a British governor.^[133] Economic recovery returned when the U.S. military arrived in 1941 with over 10,000 soldiers and huge investments in air and naval bases. In 1948, the British government gave voters three Newfoundland Referendum choices: remaining a crown colony, returning to Dominion status (that is, independence), or joining Canada. Joining the U.S. was not made an option. After bitter debate Newfoundlanders voted to join Canada in 1949 as a province.^[134]

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow: Photo by the Department of National Defence.

The foreign policy of Canada during the Cold War was closely tied to that of the United States, which was demonstrated by membership in NATO (which Canada wanted to be a transatlantic economic and political union as well^[135]), resulting in the sending of combat troops into the Korean War. The federal government's desire to assert its territorial claims in the Arctic during the Cold War manifested with the High Arctic relocation, in which scores of Inuit were moved from Nunavik (the northern third of Quebec) to barren Cornwallis Island,^[136] which decades later was the subject of a long investigation by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.^[137]

In 1956, the United Nations responded to the Suez Crisis with the United Nations Emergency Force to supervise the withdrawal of invading forces. The peacekeeping force was initially suggested as a concept by the Secretary of External Affairs and future Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.^[138] Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his work in establishing the peacekeeping operation.^[138] Throughout the mid 1950s Louis St. Laurent (12th Prime Minister of Canada) and his successor John George Diefenbaker attempted to create a new, highly advanced jet fighter, the Avro Arrow.^[139] The controversial aircraft was cancelled by Diefenbaker in 1959, with Diefenbaker establishing a missile defence system with the United States, abbreviated " NORAD".^[140]

1960–1981

In the 1960s, what became known as the Quiet Revolution took place in Quebec, overthrowing the old establishment which centered around the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec and led to modernizing of the economy and society.^[141] Québécois nationalists demanded independence, and tensions rose until violence erupted during the 1970 October Crisis.^[142] In 1976 the Parti Québécois was elected to power in Quebec, with a nationalist vision that included securing French linguistic rights in the province and the pursuit of some form of sovereignty for Quebec, leading to the 1980 referendum in Quebec on the question of sovereignty-association, which was turned down by 59% of the voters.^[142]

The Canadian flag, flying in Vanier Park, near downtown Vancouver

In 1965, Canada adopted the maple leaf flag, although not without considerable debate and misgivings on the part of large number of English Canadians.^[143] The World's Fair titled Expo 67 came to Montreal, coinciding with the Canadian Centennial that year. The fair opened April 28, 1967 with the theme "Man and his World" and became the best attended of all BIE-sanctioned world expositions until that time.^[144]

Legislative restrictions on Canadian immigration that had favoured British and other European immigrants were amended in the 1960s, opening the doors to immigrants from all parts of the world.^[145] While the 1950s had seen high levels of immigration from Britain, Ireland, Italy, and northern continental Europe, by the 1970s immigrants increasingly came from India, China, Vietnam, Jamaican and Haiti.^[146] Immigrants of all backgrounds tended to settle in the major urban centres, particularly Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.^[146]

During his long tenure in the office (1968–79, 1980–84), Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made social and cultural change his political goals, including the pursuit of official bilingualism in Canada and plans for significant constitutional change.^[147] The west, particularly the petroleum-producing provinces like Alberta, opposed many of the policies emanating from central Canada, with the National Energy Program creating considerable antagonism and growing western alienation.^[148]

1982–1992

In 1982, the Canada Act was passed by the British parliament and granted Royal Assent by Queen Elizabeth II on March 29, while the Constitution Act was passed by the Canadian parliament and granted Royal Assent by the Queen on April 17, thus patriating the Constitution of Canada.^[149] Previously, the constitution has existed only as an act passed of the British parliament, and was not even physically located in Canada, though it could not be altered without Canadian consent.^[150] At the same time, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was added in place of the previous Bill of Rights.^[151] The patriation of the constitution was Trudeau's last major act as Prime Minister; he resigned in 1984.

Pte. Patrick Cloutier, a 'Van Doo' perimeter sentry, and Mohawk Warrior Brad Larocque, a University of Saskatchewan economics student, face off during the Oka Crisis^[152]

On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 exploded above the Atlantic Ocean; all 329 on board were killed, of whom 280 were Canadian citizens.^[153] The Air India attack is the largest mass murder in Canadian history.^[154]

The Progressive Conservative (PC) government of Brian Mulroney began efforts to gain Quebec's support for the Constitution Act 1982 and end western alienation. In 1987 the Meech Lake Accord talks began between the provincial and federal governments, seeking constitutional changes favourable to Quebec.^[155] The constitutional reform process under Prime Minister Mulroney culminated in the failure of the Charlottetown Accord which would have recognized Quebec as a "distinct society" but was rejected in 1992 by a narrow margin.^[156]

Under Brian Mulroney, relations with the United States began to grow more closely integrated. In 1986, Canada and the U.S. signed the "Acid Rain Treaty" to reduce acid rain. In 1989, the federal government adopted the Free Trade Agreement with the United States despite significant animosity from the Canadian public who were concerned about the economic and cultural impacts of close integration with the United States.^[157] On July 11, 1990 the Oka Crisis land dispute began between the Mohawk nation and the town of Oka, Quebec.^[158] The dispute was the first of a number of well-publicized conflicts between First Nations and the Canadian government in the late 20th century. In August 1990, Canada was one of the first nations to condemn Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and it quickly agreed to join the U.S.-led coalition. Canada deployed destroyers and later a CF-18 Hornet squadron with support personnel, as well as a field hospital to deal with casualties.^[159]

Recent history: 1992–present

Map of the 1995 referendum by provincial riding. Red colours indicate No votes, blues indicate Yes votes, with darker hues indicating higher percentages.

When Mulroney resigned as Prime Minister in 1993, Kim Campbell took over and became Canada's first female Prime Minister.^[160] Campbell only remained in office for a few months and the 1993 election saw the collapse of the Progressive Conservative Party from government to 2 seats, while the Quebec-based sovereigntist Bloc Québécois became the official opposition.^[161] Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of the Liberal party took office in November 1993 with a majority government and was re-elected with further majorities during the 1997 election and 2000 election.^[162]

In 1995, the government of Quebec held a second referendum on sovereignty that was rejected by a margin of 50.6% to 49.4%.^[163] In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional, and Parliament passed the Clarity Act outlining the terms of a negotiated departure.^[163] Environmental issues increased in importance in Canada resulting in the signing of the Kyoto Accord on climate change by Canada's Liberal government in 2002 but recently nullified by the present government which has proposed a "made-in-Canada" solution to climate change.^[164]

Canada became the fourth country in the world and the first country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act.^[165] Court decisions, starting in 2003, each already legalized same-sex marriage in eight out of ten provinces and one of three territories, whose residents comprised about 90% of Canada's population. Before passage of the Act, more than 3,000 same-sex couples had already married in these areas.^[166]

A Canadian honour guard carries the remains of a Canadian solder at the Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan.

A merger of the Canadian Alliance and PC Party into the Conservative Party of Canada was completed in 2003, ending a 13-year division of the conservative vote. The party was elected as a minority government under the leadership of Stephen Harper in the 2006 federal election, ending a decade long Liberal party dominance in elections. Harper's Conservative Party would win a stronger minority in the following October 2008 federal election.^[167] Under Harper's conservative government, Canada and the U.S. continue to integrate state and provincial agencies to strengthen security along the Canada-United States border through the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.^[168]

Since 2002, Canada has been involved in the Afghanistan War as part of the U.S. stabilization force and the NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada has committed to withdraw from Kandahar Province by 2011,^[169] by which time it will have spent an estimated total of $11.3 billion on the mission.^[170] In July 2010 the largest purchase in Canadian military history, totaling C$9 billion for the acquisition of 65 F-35 fighters was announced by the federal government.^[171] Canada is one of several nations that assisted in the development of the F-35 and has invested over C$168 million into the program.^[172]

See also

Index Outline of Canada Index of Canada-related articles Timeline of Canadian history Canada-related topics by provinces and territories Power Constitutional history of Canada History of monarchy in Canada Military history of Canada History of the Canadian Army History of the Supreme Court of Canada Prosperity Economic history of Canada History of the petroleum industry in Canada History of Canadian currency History of immigration to Canada History of rail transport in Canada Population growth

Creativity Scientific research in Canada Technological & industrial Philosophy in Canada Invention in Canada Culture Culture of Canada People of Significance History of cities in Canada Canadian identity National symbols of Canada History of cinema in Canada Canadian art Music of Canada Sport in Canada Postage stamps & postal history Languages of Canada Demographics of Canada Social history of Canada

History by province or territory BC AB SK MB ON QC NB PE NS NL YT NT NU

References

Further reading

See Bibliography of Canadian History for an extensive list of sources.

External links

History

• Aboriginal Canada Portal
• The Historica-Dominion Institute
• The Dictionary of Canadian Biography
• History - The Canadian Museum of Civilization
• History of Canada at the Open Directory Project

Government

• Official website of the Government of Canada
• Official website of the Governor General of Canada
• Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada

Other

• Canada - UCB Libraries GovPubs
• Canadian Studies - Guide to the Sources

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