History of Canada.

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

History of CANADA

Canada is a young country, whose recorded history goes back less than 500 years.

Before the coming of Europeans, Canada was populated by Indians and Inuit.

The first contact of these native peoples with Europeans probably occurred about a thousand years ago, when Norsemen from Iceland landed on Canada’s east coast. But it was only towards the 16th century that European exploration actually began.

Looking for a better route to the rich markets of the Far East, explorers like Cabot from Britain and Cartier and Champlain from France landed on the east coast of North America crossing St. Lawrence river. They never found the passage to Asia they were seeking, but they did find a new land where permanent colonies where established.

Not surprisingly, Britain and France soon became rivals, especially over the control of the fur trade with the Indians. After years of fighting, France was forced to cede all its territory to Britain in 1763 as a result of the English victory over Napoleon.

Infact the treaty of Paris of that year, issued by the Pope and signed between France, Britain and Spain, established that all the territories west of Mississippi should have gone to Spain and all the territories east to Great Britain. French settlers remained only in the area of Quebec.

From now on, French became the colonized ...

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From now on, French became the colonized and England the colonizer.

The French-speaking inhabitants found themselves under British rule but they were allowed to retain their civil laws, language and religion.

After the American revolution a large number of English-speaking colonists, who wanted to remain loyal to the British crown, came up north to settle in Canada. However it took another 100years before the political geography of Canada roughly approached its present form. In 1846 the boundary between the United States and the British territories was extended westward along the 49th parallel to the Pacific. In the second part of 19th century the victory of the northern states in the American Civil Was seemed to pose a threat to the British colonies in Canada. So, to prevent US expansion to the north and because of other internal factors, three of them, Canada (originally the named of Quebec and Ontario), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, formed a Confederation in 1867.

Three years later the British government gave the country the huge northern and western territories belonging to the Hudson Bay Company which became the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. British Columbia and Prince Edward Island joined the federation a few years later. Only the remote colony of Newfoundland remained loyal to Britain and it joined the nation as the tenth province as recently as 1949. The union was complete: Canada stretched from sea to sea.

The young confederation went through a period of vigorous expansion. The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885. Tens of thousands of Europeans and Americans came to settle in Canada.

Markets for Canadian products were established and capital was found to create new industries.

Canada also played an important part in the second World War. It completed its transformation into a major industrial nation, as the country used all its resources to provide materials and munitions for the Allies. Since then, Canada has been an active member of the United Nations and has taken part in all major UN peace-keeping operations, during the Suez crisis in 1956, in Cyprus and still today in Lebanon.