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To learn more about Canadian history click the link below

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When Europeans explored Canada they found all regions occupied by native peoples they called Indians, because the first explorers thought they had reached the East Indies. The native people lived off the land, some by hunting and gathering, others by raising crops. The Huron-Wendat of the Great Lakes region, like the Iroquois, were farmers and hunters. The Cree and Dene of the Northwest were hunter-gatherers. The Sioux were nomadic, following the bison (buffalo) herd. The Inuit lived off Arctic wildlife. West Coast natives preserved fish by drying and smoking. Warfare was common among Aboriginal groups as they competed for land, resources and prestige.

The arrival of European traders, missionaries, soldiers and colonists changed the native way of life forever. Large numbers of Aboriginals died of European diseases to which they lacked immunity. However, Aboriginals and Europeans formed strong economic, religious and military bonds in the first 200 years of coexistence which laid the foundations of Canada.

The First Europeans

The Vikings from Iceland who colonized Greenland 1,000 years ago also reached Labrador and the island of Newfoundland. The remains of their settlement, l'Anse aux Meadows, are a World Heritage site.

European exploration began in earnest in 1497 with the expedition of John Cabot, who was the first to draw a map of Canada's East Coast.

Exploring a River, Naming Canada

Between 1534 and 1542, Jacques Cartier made three voyages across the Atlantic, claiming the land for King Francis I of France. Cartier heard two captured guides speak the Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village." By the 1550s, the name of Canada began appearing on maps.

Royal New France

In 1604, the first European settlement north of Florida was established by French explorers Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain, first on St. Croix Island (in present-day Maine), then at Port-Royal, in Acadia (present-day Nova Scotia). In 1608 Champlain built a fortress at what is now Québec City. The colonists struggled against a harsh climate. Champlain allied the colony with the Algonquin, Montagnais, and Huron, historic enemies of the Iroquois, a confederation of five (later six) First Nations who battled with the French settlements for a century. The French and the Iroquois made peace in 1701.

The French and Aboriginal people collaborated in the vast fur-trade economy, driven by the demand for beaver pelts in Europe. Outstanding leaders like Jean Talon, Bishop Laval, and Count Frontenac built a French Empire in North America that reached from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Beginnings of Democracy
Democratic institutions developed gradually and peacefully. The first representative assembly was elected in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1758. Prince Edward Island followed in 1773, New Brunswick in 1785. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (later Ontario), which was mainly Loyalist, Protestant and English-speaking, and Lower Canada (later Quebec), heavily Catholic and French-speaking.

The Act also granted to the Canadas, for the first time, legislative assemblies elected by the people. The name Canada also became official at this time and has been used ever since. The Atlantic colonies and the two Canadas were known collectively as British North America.

The first elected Assembly of Lower Canada, in Québec City, debates
whether to use both French and English, January 21, 1793

Abolition of Slavery

Slavery has existed all over the world, from Asia, Africa and the Middle East to the Americas. The first movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade emerged in the British Parliament in the late 1700s. In 1793, Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, a Loyalist military officer, became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition. In 1807, the British Parliament prohibited the buying and selling of slaves, and in 1833 abolished slavery throughout the Empire. Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed "the North Star" and settled in Canada via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network.

A Growing Economy

The first companies in Canada were formed during the French and British regimes and competed for the fur trade. The Hudson's Bay Company, with French, British and Aboriginal employees, came to dominate the trade in the northwest from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and Fort Edmonton to Fort Langley (near Vancouver) and Fort Victoria-trading posts that later became cities.

The first financial institutions opened in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries. The Montreal Stock Exchange opened in 1832. For centuries Canada's economy was based mainly on farming and on exporting natural resources such as fur, fish and timber, transported by roads, lakes, rivers and canals.

(From left to right)

Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe was Upper Canada's first Lieutenant Governor and founder of the City of York (now Toronto). Simcoe also made Upper Canada the first province in the British Empire to abolish slavery

Mary Ann Shadd Cary was an outspoken activist in the movement to abolish slavery in the U.S.A. In 1853 she became the first woman publisher in Canada, helping to found and edit The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper dedicated to anti-slavery, black immigration to Canada, temperance (urging people to drink less alcohol), and upholding British rule
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Lord Durham, an English reformer sent to report on the rebellions, recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be merged and given responsible government. This meant that the ministers of the Crown must have the support of a majority of the elected representatives in order to govern. Controversially, Lord Durham also said that the quickest way for the Canadiens to achieve progress was to assimilate into English-speaking Protestant culture. This recommendation demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of French Canadians, who sought to uphold the distinct identity of French Canada.

Some reformers, including Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché and Sir George-Étienne Cartier, later became Fathers of Confederation, as did a former member of the voluntary government militia in Upper Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald.

Responsible Government

In 1840, Upper and Lower Canada were united as the Province of Canada. Reformers such as Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine and Robert Baldwin, in parallel with Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia, worked with British governors toward responsible government.

The first British North American colony to attain full responsible government was Nova Scotia in 1847-48. In 1848-49 the governor of United Canada, Lord Elgin, with encouragement from London, introduced responsible government.

This is the system that we have today: if the government loses a confidence vote in the assembly it must resign. La Fontaine, a champion of democracy and French language rights, became the first leader of a responsible government in the Canadas.

Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, a champion of French language rights, became the first head of a responsible government (similar to a prime minister) in Canada in 1849

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From 1864 to 1867, representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada, with British support, worked together to establish a new country. These men are known as the Fathers of Confederation. They created two levels of government: federal and provincial.

The old Province of Canada was split into two new provinces: Ontario and Quebec, which, together with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, formed the new country called the Dominion of Canada. Each province would elect its own legislature and have control of such areas as education and health.

The British Parliament passed the British North America Act in 1867. The Dominion of Canada was officially born on July 1, 1867. Until 1982, July 1 was celebrated as "Dominion Day" to commemorate the day that Canada became a self-governing Dominion. Today it is officially known as Canada Day.

The Fathers of Confederation established
the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867,
the birth of the country that we know today
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Dominion from Sea to Sea
Sir Leonard Tilley, an elected official and Father of Confederation from New Brunswick, suggested the term Dominion of Canada in 1864. He was inspired by Psalm 72 in the Bible which refers to "dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth." This phrase embodied the vision of building a powerful, united, wealthy and free country that spanned a continent. The title was written into the Constitution, was used officially for about 100 years, and remains part of our heritage today.
Expansion of the Dominion
1867 - Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick

1870 - Manitoba, Northwest Territories ( N.W.T.)

1871 - British Columbia

1873 - Prince Edward Island

1880 - Transfer of the Arctic Islands (to N.W.T.)

1898 - Yukon Territory

1905 - Alberta, Saskatchewan

1949 - Newfoundland and Labrador

1999 - Nunavut

Did you know? In the 1920s, some believed that the British West Indies (British territories in the Caribbean Sea) should become part of Canada. This did not occur, though Canada and Commonwealth Caribbean countries and territories enjoy close ties today.

Canada's First Prime Minister

(From top to bottom)

Maple leaf cap badge from the First World War. Canada's soldiers began using the maple leaf in the 1850s

The Vimy Memorial in France honours those who served and died in the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917, the first British victory of the First World War

Most Canadians were proud to be part of the British Empire. Over 7,000 volunteered to fight in the South African War 1899-1902), popularly known as the Boer War, and over 260 died. In 1900, Canadians took part in the battles of Paardeberg ("Horse Mountain") and Lillefontein, victories that strengthened national pride in Canada.

When Germany attacked Belgium and France in 1914 and Britain declared war, Ottawa formed the Canadian Expeditionary Force (later the Canadian Corps). More than 600,000 Canadians served in the war, most of them volunteers, out of a total population of eight million.

On the battlefield, the Canadians proved to be tough, innovative soldiers. Canada shared in the tragedy and triumph of the Western Front. The Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge in April 1917, with 10,000 killed or wounded, securing the Canadians' reputation for valour as the "shock troops of the British Empire." One Canadian officer said: "It was Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade... In those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation." April 9 is celebrated as Vimy Day.

Regrettably, from 1914 to 1920, Ottawa interned over 8,000 former Austro-Hungarian subjects, mainly Ukrainian men, as "enemy aliens" in 24 labour camps across Canada, even though Britain advised against the policy.

In 1918, under the command of General Sir Arthur Currie, Canada's greatest soldier, the Canadian Corps advanced alongside the French and British Empire troops in the last hundred days. These included the victorious Battle of Amiens on August 8, 1918-which the Germans called "the black day of the German Army"-followed by Arras, Canal du Nord, Cambrai and Mons. With Germany and Austria's surrender, the war ended in the Armistice on November 11, 1918. In total 60,000 Canadians were killed and 170,000 wounded. The war strengthened both national and imperial pride, particularly in English Canada.

(From left to right)
Sergeant, Fort Garry Horse, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1916
Sir Arthur Currie, a reserve officer, became Canada's greatest soldier
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More than 3,000 nurses, nicknamed "Bluebirds,"
served in the Royal
Canadian Army Medical
Corps, 2,500 of them
overseas
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Agnes Macphail,
a farmer and teacher,
became the first woman
MP in 1921
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(From left to right)

Canadian soldiers observe Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day poppy
Canadian war veteran

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Phil Edwards was a Canadian track and field champion. Born in British Guiana, he won bronze medals for Canada in the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Olympics, then graduated from McGill University Medical School. He served as a captain in the Canadian Army during the Second World War, and, as a Montreal doctor, became an expert in tropical diseases.
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Between the Wars

After the First World War, the British Empire evolved into a free association of states known as the British Commonwealth of Nations. Canada remains a leading member of the Commonwealth to this day, together with other successor states of the Empire such as India, Australia, New Zealand, and several African and Caribbean countries.

The "Roaring Twenties" were boom times, with prosperity for businesses and low unemployment. The stock market crash of 1929, however, led to the Great Depression or the "Dirty Thirties." Unemployment reached 27% in 1933 and many businesses were wiped out. Farmers in Western Canada were hit hardest by low grain prices and a terrible drought.

There was growing demand for the government to create a social safety net with minimum wages, a standard work week and programs such as unemployment insurance. The Bank of Canada, a central bank to manage the money supply and bring stability to the financial system, was created in 1934. Immigration dropped and many refugees were turned away, including Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany in 1939.

In the Second World War, the Canadians captured Juno Beach as part of
the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944
The D-Day Invasion, June 6, 1944
In order to defeat Nazism and Fascism, the Allies invaded Nazi-occupied Europe. Canadians took part in the liberation of Italy in 1943-44. In the epic invasion of Normandy in northern France on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, 15,000 Canadian troops stormed and captured Juno Beach from the German Army, a great national achievement shown in this painting by Orville Fisher. Approximately one in ten Allied soldiers on D-Day was Canadian. The Canadian Army liberated the Netherlands in 1944-45 and helped force the German surrender of May 8, 1945, bringing to an end six years of war in Europe.

The Second World War began in 1939 when Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist (Nazi) dictator of Germany, invaded Poland and conquered much of Europe. Canada joined with its democratic allies in the fight to defeat tyranny by force of arms.

More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders (Newfoundland was a separate British entity) served in the Second World War, out of a population of 11.5 million. This was a high proportion and of these, 44,000 were killed.

The Canadians fought bravely and suffered losses in the unsuccessful defence of Hong Kong (1941) from attack by Imperial Japan, and in a failed raid on Nazi-controlled Dieppe on the coast of France (1942).

The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) took part in the Battle of Britain and provided a high proportion of Commonwealth aircrew in bombers and fighter planes over Europe. Moreover, Canada contributed more to the Allied air effort than any other Commonwealth country, with over 130,000 Allied air crew trained in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) saw its finest hour in the Battle of the Atlantic, protecting convoys of merchant ships against German submarines. Canada's Merchant Navy helped to feed, clothe and resupply Britain. At the end of the Second World War, Canada had the third-largest navy in the world.

In the Pacific war, Japan invaded the Aleutian Islands, attacked a lighthouse on Vancouver Island, launched fire balloons over B.C. and the Prairies, and grossly maltreated Canadian prisoners of war captured at Hong Kong. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945-the end of four years of war in the Pacific.

Regrettably, the state of war and public opinion in B.C. led to the forcible relocation of Canadians of Japanese origin by the federal government and the sale of their property without compensation. This occurred even though the military and the RCMP told Ottawa that they posed little danger to Canada. The Government of Canada apologized in 1988 for wartime wrongs and compensated the victims.

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citizenship; citizenship education; teaching resources; handbooks; rights and responsibilities of citizenship

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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

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Growing up both Canadian and Jamaican you learn about both historical backgrounds of your identity. Growing up in school, you would learn all there was to Canadian culture such as the duality of using both English and french within the country, the first settlers who arrived and built their foundation of Canada when the country was previously known as a group of colonies that came together to form the origin of what we know today, etc. It was a great opportunity to know how this side of my culture operates and has built itself up to where it is today. As well, I had the opportunity of learning about my Jamaican roots and history as well, such as English and Spanish settlers arriving on the island and colonizing it, to the uprising of the Maroon people that led a series independent movements that allowed the people of Jamaica to have the right to rule and make judgment over their inhabitants to build a more civilized and forward-thinking nation.

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Understanding our history means understanding why Jamaicans are as resilient and laid-back as we're known to be. We are a diverse nation because of our past and continue to be a multicultural melting pot offering experiences dipped in unique blends of traditions preserved from centuries ago.

Indegenous People of Jamaica

Our documented history begins when Christopher Columbus first came to Jamaica in May of 1494. He was thoroughly impressed with what he saw as noted in his logs "the fairest island that eyes have beheld: mountains and the land seem to touch the sky ... all full of valleys and fields and plains."

He later brought other Spanish settlers who colonized the land and forced the Tainos, American-Indian people who had already occupied the land, into unpaid labor. The Tainos were a gente people who named the island "Xaymaca," meaning "land of wood and water." The words "hurricane," "tobacco," and "barbecue" were also derived from their language. Konoko Falls is home to an extensive museum dedicated to the Tainos.

Eventually, the Taino population perished completely due to a combination of forced labor as well as the diseases the Spanish brought with them, like the common cold, for which the Tainos had no immunity.

The Spanish established the city we now know as Ocho Rios where explorations continue in an effort to unearth Columbus' ships beached somewhere in this region.

The History of Jamaica

The Spanish were the first to bring sugarcane and slavery to the island. They ruled the land for a century and a half until they were defeated by the English in 1655. Slavery and sugar cultivation became Jamaica's main trade, making the English planters incredibly wealthy.

Buccaneers soon operated out of Jamaica, attacking the treasure ships of Spain and France. One was a young indentured laborer from Wales named Henry Morgan. He would prosper and rise to Lieutenant Governor. His home base, Port Royal, was known as the "richest and wickedest city in Christendom." However, in 1692, an earthquake destroyed Port Royal, pushing it below the sea.

What's left of Port Royal today stands proudly as a relic of its colored past. A visit to the naval base and the museum there, followed by a fresh seafood meal at an outdoor seaside restaurant, makes for a memorable cultural outing.

The Maroons

When the English arrived, the Spaniards fled to the neighboring islands. Their slaves escaped into the mountains and formed their own independent groups, called Maroons. The Maroons were in time joined by other slaves who escaped from the English.

For a long time, they fought against the English who sought to re-enslave them. So successful were the Maroons, fighting from their fortresses, that the English were forced to sign peace treaties granting the Maroons self-government and ceding to them the mountain lands that they inhabited.

The runaways periodically staged rebellions until the treaty in 1739 that gave them a measure of local autonomy that they still retain today. Every year on January 6, the Maroons celebrate the signing of this treaty and visitors are welcomed to partake in the lively song and dance within the sacred lands.

Abolishment of Slavery

Slavery was abolished in 1834. In the economic chaos that followed emancipation, one event stood out: the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865. The uprising was led by a black Baptist deacon named Paul Bogle and was supported by a wealthy Kingston businessman, George William Gordon. Both were executed and are now among Jamaica's national heroes. Monuments to all Jamaican heroes can be viewed in the National Heroes Park in Kingston where the Jamaica Defence Force performs an entertaining Changing of the Guards ceremony each day at noon.

In the years that followed, much of modern Jamaica was forged. Migrants from India and China came as indentured workers for sugar estates and rapidly moved to other occupations. Soon Jewish settlers came to Jamaica, followed by migrant traders from the Middle East. All together these groups created the diverse people of Jamaica today, to which we owe the national motto "Out of Many, One People.'

In the 1930s, politics in Jamaica was born. Two very dissimilar men, Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante-who, in a uniquely Jamaican coincidence, happened to be cousins-founded the two major political parties, the People's National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party, respectively. On August 6, 1962, at a midnight ceremony witnessed by Britain's Princess Margaret and U.S. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, the British Union Jack was lowered; the new black, gold, and green Jamaican flag was raised and Jamaica became an independent nation.

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Jamaican History | Learn More About Jamaica's Past and People

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Understanding our history means understanding why Jamaicans are as resilient and laid-back as we're known to be. We are a diverse nation because of our past and continue to be a multicultural melting pot offering experiences dipped in unique blends of traditions preserved from centuries ago.

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This has to be one of the most energy driven things about our culture. Every year Jamaicans host what is called a carnival, and not like a Canadian carnival with rides and games but a Jamaican cultural carnival that is held every year in Jamaica and in Ontario as well, known as Caribana (Caribbean and island carnival). With so much music, live entertainment, floats, mass performers with their many unique colorways of costumes and parade floats, it would be hard to find yourself not entertained by the rich culture that brings out such positive and joyful emotions and experiences that will give you one of the times of your life. Canadians host these things too so I look at it as part of both my Canadian and Jamaican identity and culture in Canada's sense of multiculturalism.

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Since i was born the whole time growing up the music culture was solely based on Jamaican music. It was the rhythm and flow that i really enjoyed. My parents grew up listening to this type of music called reggae, there's more genres under the Jamaican umbrella of music, but reggae was the thing to play for almost all moods and occasions for as long as I can remember and it has been one of the greatest experiences I take from Jamaican side of culture.

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Growing up I had the please of enjoying the best of both worlds when it came on to the food I got to enjoy. Culturally, Canadians have the signature dish of poutine which I enjoy. There are other Canadian cultural foods I enjoyed growing up such as sweet and delicious beaver tails, beef pot pie, Canadian bacon etc.. The list can go on. When it came on to Jamaican food, I got to enjoy many cultural dishes like the famous Jerk chicken with rice and pea's with coleslaw, Ackee and salt fish with dumpling, yam, banana and plantain and not to mention rice and curry goat and oxtail with fish and bread fruit. The list can go on but I would have to say Jamaican dishes are my favorite.

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I was born and raised in Canada, however, my roots are Jamaican so I had the opportunity to experience both cultures. Growing up Canadian I had the pleasure of learning all there was towards being a Canadian citizen, while also at the same time I was able to practice my culture of being Jamaican as well.