Canada’s History

Aboriginal Peoples

The First Peoples arrived in what is now Canada at least 15,000 years ago, crossing from Asia by a land bridge that joined Siberia and Alaska. By the time Europeans arrived, dozens of distinct nations had developed across the continent, with rich trade networks, complex governance, and oral traditions.

European exploration

• c. 1000 AD — Vikings establish a short-lived settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.
• 1497 — John Cabot, sailing for England, maps the Atlantic shore.
• 1534 — Jacques Cartier, sailing for France, hears the Iroquoian word kanata ("village") — the origin of Canada's name.

Royal New France

Samuel de Champlain founded the first permanent European settlement at Quebec City in 1608. New France became a royal province of France in 1663 under Louis XIV. The fur trade, alliances with First Nations, and Catholic missions shaped the young colony. Pierre Le Moyne, sieur d'Iberville and Jean Talon, the great intendant, were among its leading figures.

The British conquest (1759)

British and French forces fought repeatedly along the eastern seaboard. The decisive battle came at the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City on September 13, 1759, where General James Wolfe and Marquis de Montcalm both died from their wounds. The Treaty of Paris (1763) transferred Canada to British control.

The Quebec Act and the Loyalists

• Royal Proclamation of 1763 — laid the basis for Aboriginal treaty rights.
• Quebec Act of 1774 — protected French civil law and the Catholic religion in Quebec, accommodating the existing population.
• 1776 onwards — the American Revolution drove tens of thousands of Loyalists north into what would become Ontario, the Maritimes, and Quebec. The first free Black people in Canada were among them.

The War of 1812

American forces invaded in 1812. Major-General Sir Isaac Brock and the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh captured Detroit; their forces later turned back several invasions. Laura Secord walked 30 km through enemy lines to warn the British of an American attack. The war ended in 1814 with the border unchanged — a defining moment for what would become Canada.

Responsible government and Confederation

Through the 1840s and 1850s, reformers won the principle of responsible government — Cabinet must hold the confidence of the elected assembly. Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine and Robert Baldwin are remembered as champions of this reform.

On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act united three colonies — the Province of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick — into the new Dominion of Canada. Sir John Alexander Macdonald became the first Prime Minister. Sir George-Étienne Cartier was a co-founder of Confederation and the leading French-Canadian voice.

Building a transcontinental country

Manitoba joined in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905, and finally Newfoundland in 1949. The Canadian Pacific Railway, completed in 1885 with the driving of the Last Spike at Craigellachie, made the country physically real from sea to sea.