Timeline of Canadian history

From Freepedia

This is a brief timeline of the history of Canada.

See also: Timeline of Ontario history, Timeline of Quebec history, Canadian incumbents by year

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Contents 1 First Peoples 2 Viking Exploration 3 Early European Exploration and Settlement 4 18th Century 5 19th Century 6 20th Century 7 Books

First Peoples

30,000 BP

• First people arrive in North America via the Bering Strait

18,000 BP

• Wisconsin ice sheet reaches maximum extent

15,000 BP

• Wisconsin ice sheet retreats; exposes ice-free corridor

13,000 BP

• Descendants of Old World hunters migrate south

9,000 BP

• Mammoths become extinct; hunters adjust hunting practices; more mobile, less numerous

5,000 BP

• Paleo-Eskimos (Denbigh) cross Bering Strait; move east along Arctic coast

3,000 BP

• Dorset, descendants of Denbigh, develop more suitable Arctic technology

1,000 BP

• Thule migrate across Arctic; reach Labrador

Viking Exploration

968

• Bjarni Herjólfsson lands on Labrador

1000

• Leif Erikson explores east coast
• L'Anse aux Meadows (Northern tip of Labrador) founded

Early European Exploration and Settlement

1497

• Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) lands on Newfoundland or Cape Breton
  • Exact landing point uncertain
  • Tales of fish entice Europeans to visit Grand Banks
  • Small temporary settlements appear

1534

• Jacques Cartier meets Donnaconna (Iroquois Chief) on Gaspe coast
  • He captures several indians; relations sour
  • Brings iron pyrite back to France
  • French king becomes disinterested in new world

1605

• Port Royal founded
  • First permanent settlement

1608

• Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec City (Stadacona)
• Second attempt at French settlement

1609

• Huron chiefs meet with Champlain
  • For trade and military alliance

1608 - 1763

• New France
  • 1665 Jean Talon introduces seigneurial system; from Montreal to Quebec City
  • St. Lawrence valley core; fur trading empire
  • Interior fur trading posts; British on Hudson's Bay coast
  • Ends with Treaty of Paris

1642

• Montreal founded
  • By Paul Maisonneuve

18th Century

1713

• Treaty of Utrecht
  • France surrenders Acadia to Britain; renamed Nova Scotia
  • Many Acadians remain; 12,000 by 1750
  • French allowed to fish off the southwest Newfoundland shore; "French Shore" till 1904

1719

• Louisbourg construction begins

1745

• Louisbourg construction completes

1749

• Halifax founded
  • To become centre of British power; to counterbalance Louisbourg
  • First serious attempt by Britain to settle the Maritimes

1756

• Seven Year's War
  • Britain deports ~6,000 Acadians who do not swear loyalty to the British crown
  • Acadians emigrate to Quebec and Louisiana

1759

• Battle of the Plains of Abraham
  • British take Quebec City
  • James Wolfe / Louis-Joseph de Montcalm

1760

• Defeat of France / British capture Montreal
  • British begin 100 year rule
  • Seigneurial system retained until 1854

1763

• Treaty of Paris
  • France ceeds all territory to the British (except for the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon)
  • France chose to keep Guadaloupe instead

1774

• Quebec Act
  • Recognizes Quebec as having special rights
    • French language; Catholic religion; French civil law

1775 - 1783

• American Revolution
  • ~40,000 British loyalists immigrate; many settle in Nova Scotia

1791

• Constitutional Act
  • Quebec seperated into Upper and Lower Canada

19th Century

1837

• Lower Canada Rebellion
  • Louis-Joseph Papineau; French-Canadians revolt
  • Ninety-Two Resolutions were rejected by the British Parliament
  • Armed uprisings broke out

1840

• Atlantic Canada begins "Golden Age"
  • Shipbuilding; trade routes; fishing; timber; minerals
• Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849); immigration increases

1848

• Act of Union
  • To dissuade rebellions; assimilate French
  • Province of Canada created
  • Lord Durham advocated English majority in Lower Canada

1853 - 1856

• Crimean War

1861 - 1865

• American Civil War

1866

• "Golden Age" of Atlantic Canada ends
  • Iron replaces wood in shipbuilding
  • Low sugar prices deemphasize trade
  • Reciprocity Treaty cut off access to New England

1867

• Confederation
  • Canada is Born
• British North America Acts
  • Dominion of Canada formed;
    • Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia included

1869

• Red River Rebellion
  • Louis Riel; Manitoba Act; Land set aside for Metis

1870

• Hudson's Bay Company land transferred by Britain to Canada

1872

• Dominion Lands Act
  • To populate West
  • Divided land into square townships
    • (36 sections each 1 mile by 1 mile)

1873

• Prince Edward Island joins confederation

1876

• Intercolonial Railway completed
  • Never a commercial success, but stimulated growth in Maritimes

1879

• National Policy
  • Introduced by Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservatives
  • High tariffs to protect manufacturing industry

1885

• Canadian Pacific Railway completed

1885 - 1914

• Western Immigration

1898

• Quebec boundary extended
  • To the Eastman River

20th Century

1905

• Alberta and Saskatchewan created

1912

• Quebec boundary extended
  • Territory of Ungava; into Inuit lands

1927

• Boundary between Canada and Newfoundland decided
  • Follows the Hudson Bay and Atlantic Ocean watersheds
  • Quebec does not recognize it

1949

• Newfoundland joins confederation

1960

• Quiet Revolution
  • Rise of Quebec nationalism
  • Expansion of industry
  • Removal of old elite; mostly Clergy
  • State's aggressive role in the province's affairs
• Election of Jean Lesage
• Creation of Hydro-Quebec

1965

• Auto Pact

1969

• Bilingualism Official

1980

• First Quebec referendum on seperation

1982

• Constitution Act
• Charter of Rights and Freedoms

1995

• Second Quebec referendum on seperation

Books

• Bone, Robert M. The Regional Geography of Canada, 2004. ISBN 0195419332