Canada's History

High yield

The biggest chapter and the biggest share of the test. Learn it as a spine of dates and names.

Guide pages 14–23

First peoples and first Europeans

Europeans called the native peoples “Indians” because the first explorers thought they had reached the East Indies.
The Huron-Wendat of the Great Lakes, like the Iroquois, were farmers and hunters. The Cree and Dene of the Northwest were hunter-gatherers. The Sioux were nomadic, following the bison. The Inuit lived off Arctic wildlife.
The Vikings from Iceland reached Labrador and Newfoundland 1,000 years ago; their settlement l'Anse aux Meadows is a World Heritage site.
1497 — John Cabot, an Italian immigrant to England, was the first to draw a map of Canada's East Coast.
1534–1542 — Jacques Cartier made three voyages, claiming the land for King Francis I of France.
Cartier heard two captured guides speak the Iroquoian word “kanata,” meaning “village.” By the 1550s the name Canada appeared on maps.

New France

1604 — the first European settlement north of Florida, by Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain: first on St. Croix Island, then at Port-Royal in Acadia.
1608 — Champlain built a fortress at what is now Québec City.
Champlain allied the colony with the Algonquin, Montagnais and Huron against the Iroquois. The French and the Iroquois made peace in 1701.
Outstanding leaders: Jean Talon, Bishop Laval and Count Frontenac.
1670 — King Charles II granted the Hudson's Bay Company exclusive trading rights over the Hudson Bay watershed.
Fur traders travelling by canoe were called voyageurs and coureurs des bois.
1759 — the British defeated the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Québec City, marking the end of France's empire in America. Both commanders — Brigadier James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm — were killed.

British rule and the Loyalists

After the war, Britain renamed the colony the Province of Quebec. The French-speaking Catholic people were known as habitants or Canadiens.
The Quebec Act of 1774 — a constitutional foundation of Canada. It allowed religious freedom for Catholics, permitted them to hold public office, and restored French civil law while keeping British criminal law.
1776 — the 13 colonies declared independence. More than 40,000 Loyalists fled to Nova Scotia and Quebec.
Joseph Brant led thousands of Loyalist Mohawk into Canada. About 3,000 black Loyalists came north.
1758 — the first representative assembly was elected in Halifax, Nova Scotia. P.E.I. followed in 1773, New Brunswick in 1785.
The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided Quebec into Upper Canada (later Ontario) and Lower Canada (later Quebec), and granted elected legislative assemblies. The name Canada became official at this time.

Abolition of slavery

1793 — Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition. Simcoe founded York (now Toronto).
1807 — the British Parliament prohibited the buying and selling of slaves; 1833 — abolished slavery throughout the Empire.
Thousands of slaves escaped the United States via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary became the first woman publisher in Canada in 1853, founding The Provincial Freeman.

The War of 1812

The United States invaded in June 1812, believing Canada would be easy to conquer.
Major-General Sir Isaac Brock captured Detroit, then was killed defending against an American attack at Queenston Heights.
Chief Tecumseh led the Shawnee in support of the British.
1813 — Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry and 460 soldiers, mostly French Canadiens, turned back 4,000 Americans at Châteauguay.
1813 — the Americans burned York (now Toronto). In 1814 Major-General Robert Ross burned the White House in retaliation.
1813 — Laura Secord made a 19-mile (30 km) journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon, contributing to victory at Beaver Dams.
By 1814 the American attempt had failed. The War of 1812 ensured that Canada would remain independent of the United States.
The Duke of Wellington chose Bytown (Ottawa) as the endpoint of the Rideau Canal.

Rebellions and responsible government

1837–38 — rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada. The rebels lacked public support and were defeated.
Lord Durham recommended merging Upper and Lower Canada and granting responsible government. He also, controversially, recommended assimilating the Canadiens.
Responsible government means the ministers of the Crown must have the support of a majority of the elected representatives in order to govern. If the government loses a confidence vote, it must resign.
1840 — Upper and Lower Canada united as the Province of Canada.
1847–48 — Nova Scotia became the first British North American colony to attain full responsible government (Joseph Howe).
1849 — Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, a champion of democracy and French language rights, became the first head of a responsible government in Canada. He worked with Robert Baldwin.

Confederation

1864–1867 — representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada worked to establish a new country. They are the Fathers of Confederation.
They created two levels of government: federal and provincial.
The British Parliament passed the British North America Act. The Dominion of Canada was officially born on July 1, 1867.
Until 1982, July 1 was celebrated as Dominion Day; today it is Canada Day.
Sir Leonard Tilley of New Brunswick suggested “Dominion of Canada,” inspired by Psalm 72: “dominion from sea to sea.”
Sir John Alexander Macdonald became Canada's first Prime Minister. Born in Scotland on January 11, 1815. His portrait is on the $10 bill. January 11 is Sir John A. Macdonald Day.
Sir George-Étienne Cartier was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec.

Expansion of the Dominion

1867 — Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick
1870 — Manitoba, Northwest Territories
1871 — British Columbia
1873 — Prince Edward Island
1880 — Transfer of the Arctic Islands (to N.W.T.)
1898 — Yukon Territory
1905 — Alberta, Saskatchewan
1949 — Newfoundland and Labrador
1999 — Nunavut

The West, Riel and the railway

1869 — Canada took over the northwest from the Hudson's Bay Company without consulting the 12,000 Métis of the Red River.
Louis Riel led an armed uprising and seized Fort Garry. Ottawa sent soldiers in 1870 and established Manitoba. Riel fled to the United States.
1885 — a second rebellion in present-day Saskatchewan led to Riel's trial and execution for high treason, strongly opposed in Quebec. Many see Riel as a hero and the father of Manitoba.
1873 — Macdonald established the North West Mounted Police (NWMP), headquartered at Regina. Today the RCMP is the national police force and one of Canada's best-known symbols.
British Columbia joined in 1871 after Ottawa promised a railway to the West Coast.
November 7, 1885 — Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona) drove the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was built by European and Chinese labour and became a powerful symbol of unity.
Chinese workers were later subject to the Head Tax, a race-based entry fee. The Government of Canada apologized in 2006.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier became the first French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation. His portrait is on the $5 bill. Sir Wilfrid Laurier Day is November 20.

The First World War

Over 7,000 Canadians volunteered for the South African (Boer) War, 1899–1902; over 260 died.
More than 600,000 Canadians served in the First World War out of a population of eight million.
April 1917 — the Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge with 10,000 killed or wounded — the first British victory of the war. April 9 is Vimy Day.
Canadians earned the reputation of “shock troops of the British Empire.”
1918 — under General Sir Arthur Currie, Canada's greatest soldier, the Canadian Corps advanced in the last hundred days, including the Battle of Amiens on August 8, 1918 — “the black day of the German Army.”
The war ended with the Armistice on November 11, 1918. 60,000 Canadians were killed and 170,000 wounded.
1914–1920 — Ottawa interned over 8,000 former Austro-Hungarian subjects, mainly Ukrainian men, as “enemy aliens.”

Women get the vote

At Confederation the vote was limited to property-owning adult white males.
The founder of the women's suffrage movement in Canada was Dr. Emily Stowe, the first Canadian woman to practise medicine in Canada.
1916 — Manitoba became the first province to grant voting rights to women.
1917 — the federal government of Sir Robert Borden gave women the right to vote in federal elections, first to nurses at the front.
1918 — most Canadian female citizens aged 21 and over were granted the federal vote.
1921 — Agnes Macphail, a farmer and teacher, became the first woman MP.
1940 — Quebec granted women the vote, thanks to Thérèse Casgrain and others.

Remembrance and between the wars

Remembrance Day is November 11. Canadians wear the red poppy and observe a moment of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
It honours over a million who have served and the 110,000 who gave their lives, in all wars up to the present day.
Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae composed “In Flanders Fields” in 1915.
After the First World War the Empire evolved into the British Commonwealth of Nations.
The stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression — the “Dirty Thirties.” Unemployment reached 27% in 1933.
1934 — the Bank of Canada was created as a central bank to manage the money supply.

The Second World War

Began in 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. Canada joined its democratic allies.
More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served, out of a population of 11.5 million; 44,000 were killed.
Canadians suffered losses at Hong Kong (1941) and in the failed raid on Dieppe (1942).
The RCAF took part in the Battle of Britain; over 130,000 Allied air crew were trained in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
The Royal Canadian Navy's finest hour was the Battle of the Atlantic. At the end of the war Canada had the third-largest navy in the world.
June 6, 1944 — D-Day. 15,000 Canadian troops stormed and captured Juno Beach. About one in ten Allied soldiers on D-Day was Canadian.
The Canadian Army liberated the Netherlands in 1944–45 and helped force the German surrender of May 8, 1945.
Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.
Canadians of Japanese origin were forcibly relocated and their property sold without compensation. The Government of Canada apologized in 1988 and compensated the victims.

Drill this chapter48 flashcards Quiz this chapter39 questions

Next upCanada's Regions