Early Peoples and Exploration
For thousands of years, Inuit lived in the north and First Nations peoples lived in the south of what is now Canada. Vikings from northern Europe arrived in what is now Newfoundland about 1000 ce. The Vikings did not stay in Canada, however.
In 1497 the Italian explorer John Cabot landed in eastern Canada. Other explorers followed. In 1534 a French explorer, Jacques Cartier, entered the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. He claimed the area for France.
New France
In 1608 Samuel de Champlain founded the city of Quebec, France’s first permanent Canadian colony. The French soon set up more settlements in the region, which they called New France.
Meanwhile, the British also became interested in the region. In 1670 the English started Hudson’s Bay Company, which built trading posts around Hudson Bay. Over the next century Great Britain and France fought wars over the land. After defeating France in the French and Indian War in 1763, Britain claimed Canada as part of the British Empire. The British made New France into the colony of Quebec.
British North America
By the late 1700s Britain ruled Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec. Britain divided Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada in 1791.
In the mid-1800s people began to call for a union of these colonies. In 1867 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Upper and Lower Canada (now the provinces of Ontario and Quebec) formed the Dominion of Canada. Canada now had its own federal government, although Britain kept some control.
Westward Expansion
The population of Canada increased quickly during the 1800s. As settlers moved westward, many Indigenous peoples lost their land and moved to reserves. New provinces and territories were created. The discovery of gold in the Yukon territory in 1896 brought more settlers west.
The provinces of Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia as well as Yukon and the Northwest Territories, joined Canada by the 1930s. The final province, Newfoundland, joined the country in 1949.
Independence
In 1982 the British Parliament granted Canada control over its constitution. The British monarch remained the ceremonial head of state, but Canada was finally an independent country.
Beginning in the 1960s many French Canadians in Quebec called for separation from Canada. The Québécois (the French-speaking people of Quebec) wanted to create a French-speaking nation. In 1995 the people of Quebec narrowly voted against separating from Canada. Many French Canadians continued to call for separation, however.
In the 1990s many Indigenous peoples asked the Canadian government to return their land to them. Canada responded by creating Nunavut, a self-governing homeland for the Inuit, in 1999. The new territory was formed from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.
Into the 21st Century
The Liberal Party controlled the government during most of the 1990s and into the 2000s. During this time a trade agreement with the United States and Mexico brought great economic growth to Canada. The government also made major reforms to health care and legalized same-sex marriage. In 2006 control of Parliament switched to the Conservative Party after it won the most seats. Later that year the new prime minister, Stephen Harper, introduced a motion in Parliament that declared the Québécois formed a nation “within a united Canada.” This made many people in Quebec happy. However, others felt it was only symbolic and did not resolve the issue.
In October 2014 the country experienced two unconnected terrorist attacks. One person was killed in Quebec and one in Ottawa. In Ottawa, the attacker entered the Parliament building, where ministers locked themselves in rooms until the terrorist was caught. These events moved Parliament to pass strict anti-terrorism legislation.
The Canadian economy experienced a downturn in 2015 when oil prices declined. The poor economy and other issues helped the Liberal Party regain power after the October 2015 election. The Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau encouraged diversity and pledged to fight for the environment. In December 2016 Trudeau announced that there would be a five-year ban on oil drilling in Canada’s Arctic waters.
