History of Canada

History of Canada

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History of Canada

This article is part of a series

Timeline

Pre-colonization

1534-1763

1764-1866

1867-1914

1914-1945

1945-1960

1960-1981

1982-1992

1992-present

Topics

Constitutional history

Cultural history

Economic history

Former colonies & territories

Immigration history

Military history

Monarchical history

National sites

Persons of significance

Territorial evolution

Bibliography

History of Canada portal

The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Canada has been inhabited for millennia by distinctive groups of Aboriginal peoples, among whom evolved trade networks, spiritual beliefs, and social hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first European arrivals and have been discovered through archaeological investigations. Various treaties and laws have been enacted between European settlers and the Aboriginal populations.

Beginning in the late 15th century, French and British expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America to Britain in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the British Empire, which became official with the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and completed in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.

Over centuries, elements of Aboriginal, French, British and more recent immigrant customs have combined to form a Canadian culture. Canada has also been strongly influenced by that of its linguistic, geographic and economic neighbour, the United States. Since the conclusion of the Second World War, Canadians have supported multilateralism abroad and socioeconomic development domestically. Canada currently consists of ten provinces and three territories and is governed as a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state.

Contents

[hide]

1 Pre-colonization

1.1 Paleo-Indians and Archaic periods

1.2 Post-Archaic periods

1.3 European contact

2 New France 1534-1763

2.1 Wars during the colonial era

3 Canada under British rule (1763-1867)

3.1 American Revolution and Loyalists

3.2 War of 1812

3.3 Rebellions and the Durham Report

3.4 Pacific colonies

3.5 Confederation

4 Post-Confederation Canada 1867-1914

5 World Wars and Interwar Years 1915-1945

6 Post-war Era 1945-1960

7 1960-1981

8 1982-1992

9 Recent history: 1992-present

10 See also

11 References

12 Further reading

13 External links

[edit] Pre-colonization

Main article: Pre-colonization history of Canada

Further information: Timeline of Canadian history

[edit] Paleo-Indians and Archaic periods

Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont, by Heinrich Harder, c. 1920

According to North American archeological and Aboriginal genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation.[1][2] During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50,000 - 17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the Bering land bridge (Beringia) that joined Siberia to north west North America (Alaska).[3][4] At that point, they were blocked by the Laurentide ice sheet that covered most of Canada, which confined them to Alaska for thousands of years.[5]

Around 16,000 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada.[6] The exact dates and routes of the peopling of the Americas are the subject of an ongoing debate.[2][7][8][9] The Queen Charlotte Islands, Old Crow Flats, and Bluefish Caves are some of the earliest archaeological sites of Paleo-Indians in Canada.[10][11][12] Ice Age hunter-gatherers left lithic flake fluted stone tools and the remains of large butchered mammals.

The North American climate stabilized around 8000 before the Common Era (BCE), 10,000 years ago. Climatic conditions were similar to modern patterns; however, the receding glacial ice sheets still covered large portions of the land, creating lakes of meltwater.[13][14] Most population groups during the Archaic periods were still highly mobile hunter-gatherers.[15] However, individual groups started to focus on resources available to them locally; thus with the passage of time there is a pattern of increasing regional generalization (i.e.: Paleo-Arctic, Plano and Maritime Archaic traditions).[15]

[edit] Post-Archaic