The beginnings
The ancestors of the aboriginal
peoples of North America first
entered the continent around
25,000 years ago, when vast
glaciers covered most of the
northern continents, keeping the
sea level far below that of today.
It seems likely that North...
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The aboriginal peoples
Before the Europeans arrived, the
aboriginal peoples - numbering
around 300,000 - were divided into
three main language groups:
Algonkian, Athapascan (principally
in the north and west) and
Inuktitut (Inuit). Within these
groups existed a multitude of...
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The coming of the Europeans
The first recorded contact between
Europeans and the native peoples
of North America occurred in
around 1000 AD, when a Norse
expedition sailing from Greenland
landed somewhere on the Atlantic
seaboard, probably in Newfoundland
....
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New France
Meanwhile, in 1535, Jacques
Cartier , on a voyage paid for by
the French crown, made his way
down the St Lawrence, also hoping
to find Asia. Instead he stumbled
upon the Iroquois, first at
Stadacona, on the site of Québec
City, and later at...
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The rise of the British
In 1670 Charles II of England had
established the Hudson's Bay
Company and given it control of a
million and a half square miles
adjacent to its namesake bay, a
territory named Rupert's Land,
after the king's uncle. Four years
later the...
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The migrations
The success of this policy was
seen during the American War of
Independence (1775-83) and the
Anglo-American War of 1812. The
Canadiens refused to volunteer for
the armed forces of the Crown, but
equally they failed to respond to
the appeals...
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The division and union of
Canada
During this period economic
expansion was principally
generated by the English-speaking
merchants who now controlled the
Montréal-based fur trade,
organized as the North West
Company . Seeking political
changes that would enhance their
economic...
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Confederation
In the mid-1860s
"Canada" had achieved
responsible party government, but
British North America was still a
collection of self-governing
colonies . In the east,
Newfoundland was almost entirely
dependent on its cod fishery,
Prince...
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The consolidation of the west
Having apparently settled the
question of a constitution, the
Dominion turned its attention to
the west. In 1869, the territory
of the Hudson's Bay Company was
bought for £300,000 and the
Northwest Territories , as the
area then became known,...
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Native peoples in the twentieth
century
For the native peoples the opening
of the twentieth century ushered
in a far from happy time. Herded
onto small reservations under the
authoritarian paternalism of the
ministry, they were subjected to a
concerted campaign of
Europeanization -...
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Québec and the future of
Canada
Just as Canada's native peoples
drew inspiration from the national
liberation movements of the late
1950s and 1960s, so too did the Québécois
. Ever since the conquest of 1760,
francophones had been deeply
concerned about la survivance ...
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The present
To say that the rest of Canada has
become exasperated by the
interminable discussions over the
future of Québec would be an
understatement - and was never
more so than during the Meech Lake
conference of 1990, which
conspicuously failed to...
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The history of the railway in
Canada
Even before Confederation in 1867,
Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's
first prime minister, grasped the
need to physically link the
disparate provinces of the new
nation. Each area needed lines of
communication to the east and west
to counteract the natural...
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