CANADA - GENERAL INFORMATION

Geography and History of Canada

Canada occupies most of the northern portion of North America. By total area, Canada is the world’s second largest country. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Canada was inhabited by the Native Indians and Inuit people. The name Canada is believed to have originated from a Huron/Iroquoian word, Kanata, meaning village or settlement.

The first contact between the Canadian indigenous people with the Europeans occurred around 1000 A.D. when a group of Vikings arrived on the shores of Labrador and Newfoundland. They established a settlement near the city of L'Anse aux Meadows, however they left after a few years due to the conflict with the native people. The Basque fishermen were the second arrival of Europeans onto the eastern shores of North America. In the early 15th century, prior to Columbus' discovery of America, Basques were fishing in the waters east and southeast of Newfoundland. Only a few years after the official date of the discovery of America, the Basques founded a settlement near Red Bay in Newfoundland as a fishing outpost. The settlement existed during the end of the 16th century. The population numbered up to 900.

The third arrival of Europeans to the shores of what is now Canada is historically known as the beginning of the continued European colonization. Navigator and explorer John Cabot disembarked in 1497 on the shores of Newfoundland and claimed the land for his ruler, King Henry VII of Britain.
Afterwards, that territory had repeatedly been visited by Portuguese and Spanish explorers, followed by the French who started to explore inland and set up settlements. Jacques Cartier arrived in 1534, while Samuel de Champlain in 1608, who founded a settlement what later became Quebec City. French settlers declared the new territories as the property of the French Crown. Thereupon they started to settle along the St. Lawrence River and Atlantic coast. British colonists also were settling in coastal areas, which later lead to conflict between England and France. After some period of time two zones of French and British influence formed: New France and 13 British colonies. At its peak in 1712, the territory of New France extended from Newfoundland to Lake Superior and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico and was divided into five colonies, each with its own administration: Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Louisiana.

The war between Britain and its colonies and France and its colonies broke out in 1754. In order to force out the British from their territory, the French fought many indigenous tribes, including the Algonquin and Huron.  The British forces had allied with the Iroquois people. At the same time, the Seven Years' War broke out in Europe. With the end of the Seven Years' War and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France ceded almost all of its territory in North America to Britain.
On July 1, 1867, with the passing of the British North America Act by the British Parliament, Dominion Canada was created as a federation consisting of four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In the following decades, six new provinces joined the Dominion of Canada (Newfoundland and Labrador joined in 1949).  The Dominion of Canada gradually separated from Britain and Canada became an independent state.