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• This course focuses mainly on Canada during the 20th century
• But what about Canada before that time?
• Here is a brief backgrounder to help bring this course in perspective
• 1000 AD – Vikings land at L’anse aux Meadows
• After a winter stop-over in North America the Vikings headed back to Europe
• It would be another 500 yrs, in the 1490s, before any other recorded Europeans explored North America
• In 1497 John Cabot discovers Newfoundland for England
• returned telling people that he had reached Asia
• Instead of reporting spices, Cabot told of huge schools of fish in the coastal waters
• 1534 – 1542 Jacques Cartier made three voyages to the New World for France
• Over this span he explored the Strait of Belle Isle & Western Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence region, & also sailed up the St. Lawrence River to Stadacona (Québec) and Hochelaga (Montréal).
• 1608 – Champlain founds Québec (July 3), creating in effect the first permanent European settlement.
• It was the name of the French colony in North America
• de Champlain is considered the ‘Father of New France’
• It lasted until 1763
• The current province of Quebec is the last remaining element of New France
• The fur trade centered on the beaver which fueled the European fashion industry for centuries.
• It was conducted in the areas of present-day Canada west of Quebec known as Rupert’s Land.
• This area comprised all of the territory that drained into Hudson Bay.
• The fur trade sparked the exploration & beginning of the settlement of Western Canada
• One of the early companies involved in the North American fur trade was the Hudson’s Bay Company which was formed by Royal Charter in 1670.
• This charter granted English merchants trading rights in Rupert’s Land.
• So, at the beginning of the 1600's the French and English began to settle North America.
• The influence of England & France on Canada’s future can be traced to this time
• With increased presence, both groups established relations with the Native peoples, establishing a fur-trading, farming, and fishing economy.
• However, France and Britain were old rivals and were often at war with each other in Europe.
• One issue they fought over was control of North America
• Beginning in the early 1750s, the British began a campaign to destroy the French presence in North America
– expelled the Acadians (French-speaking settlers in Acadia)
– captured Fort Louisbourg (naval base, fishing / trading center)
• As a final step, in June 1759 the Royal Navy travelled up the St. Lawrence & carried a powerful British army to Quebec
• Following a three-month bombardment, Quebec was attacked on Sept 13, 1759
• British Gen Wolfe defeated the French Gen Montcalm on the Battle of the Plains of Abraham
• By 1760, they had defeated the French in North America, known today as the Conquest.
• By 1763, the British had effectively ended France’s colonial presence in in North America
• French settlers still lived in Quebec & areas of the Maritimes (Acadia), but the colony of New France had ended
