Canadian history begins at the end of the last Ice Age, c.25,000 BC, when the glaciers retreated. It was then that the first human beings made their way to Canada by walking across the land connection that then existed between Asia and North America. The history of the great Indian, and later Eskimo, migrations is a complex and still unclear story. A bone scraper found in the Yukon has been dated to 25,000 BC. Some Indian remains in the Skeena River valley in British Columbia show a site continually occupied for 5,000 years. EUROPEAN DISCOVERY Norse sagas written in the 13th century tell the story of \TEric the Red\t, who reached Greenland AD c. 985, and of his son who founded a short-lived settlement on the northern tip of Newfoundland, at what is now called L'Anse aux Meadows. The \TVikings\t apparently made numerous voyages across the Atlantic, as did later Europeans, mostly fishermen of whom no record remains. Jacques \TCartier\t, on his first voyage in 1534, found a French ship lost in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Cartier--like John \TCabot\t, who preceded him on voyages in 1497 and 1498--was seeking things of value. Cabot found fish so thick on the Grand Banks that he said they slowed his ship--fish that had been known of in western ports of England and France for years. Cartier found furs as well as fish. Canadian history thus began as a search--for food and for riches. Granted the explorers' bravery and curiosity, granted in some cases true missionary zeal, still, the driving force for Cabot in 1497, Cartier in 1534, Samuel de \TChamplain\t in 1603, and many others after them--to say nothing of the backers of all these expeditions--was financial. NEW FRANCE Many of the early enterprises of the French regime took their character from these conditions. The fur companies of New France, on whom early colonization depended, fought in the court of \TLouis XIII\t (r. 1610-43) for monopoly privileges, made their money as rapidly as possible, and avoided--when they could--fulfilling conditions of settlement laid down by the crown. Such early settlements as were founded--at Port Royal (1605) by the sieur de \TMonts\t and at Quebec (1608) by Champlain--were entirely based on the fur trade. The staple of the fur trade was beaver, a fur especially suited to the felting process of the 17th century. The Indians were the essential middlemen of the trade. Indian wars were made more serious by the arms provided them by the Europeans and were further aggravated because the Indians now had needs they had not had before: knives, axes, guns, iron pots, and worst of all, brandy or rum. The wars in North America, however, were also caused by European conflicts, notably during the great Franco-British rivalry that began in 1689. The ensuing series of conflicts in North America are sometimes called the \TFrench and Indian Wars\t. In 1710 the peninsula of Nova Scotia fell into English hands, while the French retained Ile Royale (Cape Breton). The French built \TLouisbourg\t there, to defend the St. Lawrence approaches and to act as entrepot between New France and the West Indies. Louisbourg fell to the English in 1745 but was restored to France in 1748; the British then built Halifax to flank it. The struggle known in Europe as the Seven Years' War (1756-63) began in 1754 with an undeclared war between Britain and France over control of the Ohio Valley. News of the defeat of General Braddock's army before \TFort Duquesne\t in July 1755 helped persuade the governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to expel 10,000 French inhabitants of \TAcadia\t, an element he believed dangerous. Baron \TAmherst\t captured Louisbourg again in 1758, and James \TWolfe\t followed up this victory with the seizure (1759) of Quebec. The fall of Montreal came in September 1760. BRITISH REORGANIZATION British acquisition of New France was confirmed in the Peace of Paris of 1763. Approximately 60,000 French Canadians (and 1,500 Acadians who had drifted back) now faced a North America that was British from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. For the French, this meant adjustment to an utterly alien way of life, despite the fact that subsequent British rule was, on the whole, benevolent. English criminal law was adopted, but it soon proved essential that French civil law be retained. Both were recognized by the \TQuebec Act\t of 1774. After the American Revolution, immigration to Canada rapidly increased as the \TLoyalists\t--both gentry and farmers--fled the new United States. The arrival of these people posed formidable problems of adjustment between two quite different peoples and their legal, religious, and social systems. These problems were partly solved in 1791 by dividing the old province of Quebec into two parts, Lower Canada (modern Quebec) and Upper Canada (modern Ontario), each with its own legislature. The province of Nova Scotia was also divided: Prince Edward Island had been established as a separate colony in 1769; New Brunswick was created in 1784. Newfoundland was still a fishing station and was not given representative government until 1832. NORTHWEST EXPLORATION North and west of the Canadas lay the chartered territory of the \THudson\t's \Tbay\t COMPANY (founded in 1670), comprising the huge watershed of all the rivers flowing into Hudson Bay. Across the Rockies lay territory largely unknown until the voyages of Capt. James \TCook\t in 1776-79. By the time George \TVancouver\t made his survey (1792-94) of the northwest coastline, the \TNorth West Company\t, a fur company based in Montreal, was already exploring the interior of the Canadian Northwest. Sir Alexander \TMackenzie\t crossed the entire continent in 1793, and Simon \TFraser\t, with great effort, made his way down the Fraser River in 1808. David \TThompson\t spent the years 1798 to 1812 working out the geography of the Columbia River. During the War of 1812 the North West Company took over the American John Jacob Astor's (see \TAstor\t family) Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia. WAR OF 1812 AND REBELLIONS OF 1837-38 The \TWar of\t 1812 was a conflict both the Americans and the Canadians believed they had won, whereas the British, who did no small share of the fighting, largely forgot it. Canada was defended, with difficulty, by British troops, Canadian local militia regiments, and Indians. By the end of the war (in December 1814 with the Treaty of Ghent), Britain held Maine as far south as Penobscot Bay. The main issues were left to be settled by the convention of 1818. Altogether, the settlement kept Canada and the United States relatively peaceful until the disruptions caused by the \TRebellions of\t 1837-38. During the 1830s serious political problems arose in Lower Canada. Although not dissimilar to issues in other colonies (in Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick), in Lower Canada such problems were aggravated by an assembly with a French Canadian majority trying to acquire--under the magnetic leadership of Louis Joseph \TPapineau\t--control over an executive council composed mainly of Englishmen. A deep-seated problem in Lower Canada was the agricultural crisis caused by declining yields of wheat on old, seigneurial lands, the result of generations of improper farming. On top of this came the commercial crisis of 1837, which affected both the United States and Canada. Rebellion broke out in Lower Canada in November 1837. However, Papineau's followers, the Patriotes, were no match militarily for the British troops and the more ruthless British-Canadian militia. In Upper Canada a smaller rebellion took place under the volatile leadership of William Lyon \TMackenzie\t. It too was put down. Mackenzie and Papineau both escaped to the United States, where the former succeeded, with American help, in fomenting border troubles for another year. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT In May 1838 there arrived in Canada a liberal, but strong-minded and able English aristocrat, the earl of \TDurham\t, commissioned by the British government to inquire into the Canadian troubles and recommend changes. Durham recommended that the French Canadians be assimilated with the English, and to further this, urged that the colonies of Lower Canada and Upper Canada be joined. This was done in 1840 with the creation of the new Province of Canada. Durham also recommended that the ministerial government be made responsible to the elected assembly rather than to the crown-appointed governor. The Conservative government in London believed that this system of responsible government would be impossible to implement. However, a change of ministry in London and a great deal of local agitation (in Nova Scotia and in the Province of Canada, where the the movement was spearheaded by Robert \TBaldwin\t and Louis Hippolyte \TLafontaine\t) effectively achieved responsible government by 1848. Other colonies--Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick--worked out their own approaches to the same question by 1855. RAILROADS AND POLITICAL UNION Railroads changed all of British North America during the 1850s. The building of the Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal to Toronto (and eventually from Portland, Maine, through Montreal and Toronto to Chicago) and other railroads produced permanent changes in Canadian society. The railroads made possible the development of cities; by breaking down isolation, and thus changing the countryside, they made possible the concepts that led to the union movement of the 1860s. Of course, other forces were necessary. The American Civil War caused a climate of tension between the United States and British North America. This became increasingly noticeable after the \TTrent Affair\t in November 1861. Great Britain itself was going through a phase of profound disillusionment with its colonies. These conditions made radical political changes justifiable to some and essential to others in British North America. Internally, the driving force for change came from Canada West (the former Upper Canada). Increasingly dissatisfied with the union of 1840, this section wanted the political power its numbers warranted. It now had half again as large a population as Canada East (Lower Canada), yet by the union of 1840 it had equal representation. The Conservative party, under John A. \TMacDonald\t and George Etienne \TCartier\t, resisted these demands as long as possible, but by 1864 it was clear that no government could long survive unless some changes were made. In June 1864 a strong coalition government was formed by Conservatives and the Reform party, with the affirmed goal of achieving a British North American federation. The Atlantic colonies were separated from the Province of Canada by miles of forest, the hills of the Appalachian range, and the huge salient of Maine. Each colony had its own history and orientation, and Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland were both distant from mainland concerns. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, however, evinced interest in a union with Prince Edward Island, and a conference was called on the subject at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on Sept. 1, 1864. Representatives from the Province of Canada were invited, and their proposal for a union of all British North America swept everything else aside. The proposal for British North American union, "Confederation" as it was called, was elaborated more formally in a conference at Quebec in October 1864. It was accepted enthusiastically by the British government. The proposal had also to be ratified by the legislatures of the five colonies. The Province of Canada approved it in March 1865. New Brunswick, however, had an election in which the proposal was defeated. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland also said no. Nova Scotia could only move when New Brunswick did. In 1866 strong pressure from the British government, combined with threatening gestures from the United States (exemplified in raids by the \TFenians\t in April and June 1866), swung New Brunswick around. Nova Scotia then passed the Confederation. The \TBritish North America Act\t, uniting the provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, was passed by the British Parliament early in 1867, to go into effect on July 1, 1867. The name of the new union was the Dominion of Canada. CONFEDERATION TO 1914 The union was federal and created four provinces out of the old three by splitting the Province of Canada into two--Ontario and Quebec. It provided for the future admission of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, the Hudson's Bay Company territory in the west, and the Pacific colony of British Columbia. The federal union was strongly weighted at the center; the federal government was given the right of veto over provincial legislation, and an aggrieved religious minority in any province could, in special circumstances, appeal educational rights to the federal government. The British system of cabinet government, responsible to an elected legislature, prevailed everywhere. The first prime minister of the new Canada was Sir John A. Macdonald. Except for the years 1873-78, he was to remain in power until he died in 1891. By 1873 he had put together the rest of the dominion. Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were included in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, and Prince Edward Island in 1873. The problems of governing the vast new western territories were formidable, and the Canadian government had as yet very little experience or understanding. The province of Manitoba was created in 1870 only because French and English metis (half-breeds) under the leadership of Louis \TRiel\t forced the issue by the \TRed River Rebellion\t. When British Columbia joined in 1871, the Macdonald government rashly committed itself to start a railroad to the Pacific within 2 years and finish it by 1881. The task was impossible; routes and surveys were needed over difficult terrain of some 4,800 km (3,000 mi). Private interests were involved that wanted to build such a railroad, but the whole project--and the Conservative government of Macdonald--collapsed amid charges of corruption in the \TPacific Scandal\t of 1873. Alexander \TMackenzie\t, the new Liberal prime minister, tried to pursue the project, using government surveys and construction as resources allowed. Again, it was hard going. The Conservative government could do little more when it returned to power in 1878. Only in 1880 was a private group found that was strong enough to undertake the enormous task. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company then went to work, and within 5 years the last spike was hammered in place, thanks to a driving general manager, William van Horne (1843-1915), some feats of finance, and strong support from the Macdonald government. It was the Canadian Pacific Railway too that enabled the government to send in Canadian troops to defeat combined metis and Indian forces, again led by Louis Riel, in the Saskatchewan rebellion of 1884-85. The North-West Mounted Police had done a remarkable job of policing the west from 1873 onward, but it could not handle the political problems that caused this rebellion, foremost of which was the administration's shortsighted policy toward the west. The execution of Riel created much controversy, even more in the east than in the west. Although the Roman Catholic church condemned him as an apostate, his fate engaged the sympathies of French Canadians and served to weaken the Conservative party in Quebec for a long time to come. Macdonald's death in 1891 also weakened the Conservative party, although his tough-minded and capable successor, Sir John S. D. \TThompson\t, did much to keep it in power. Thompson's sudden death in 1894 was a disaster, and the complicated and difficult \TManitoba Schools Question\t finally brought the Conservatives down in 1896. Manitoba had abolished denominational schools and the official use of French in 1890, but the Conservative government avoided the controversial issue until 1895, when the courts impelled it to introduce a bill restoring Catholic schools in the province. The Liberals blocked the bill and won the ensuing election. For the next 15 years the prime minister was the Liberal French-Canadian leader Wilfrid \TLaurier\t. Laurier, a tall, graceful, charming politician, had some genuine liberal convictions. His regime was a period of tremendous expansion in Canada. Two more transcontinental railroads were added during the years before 1914; Canada's population increased more than 30 percent in the decade from 1901 to 1911. In 1911, Laurier's government was defeated at the polls by a strong nationalist reaction against a reciprocity treaty that the United States had proposed and the Liberals espoused. The Conservative party under Robert L. \TBorden\t took full advantage of their opportunity. The Borden government garnered its basic strength from a persuasive mixture of Canadian economic nationalism with the upholding of imperial ties. THE WORLD WARS World War I tested the implications of Borden's imperial policies. In October 1914, 33,000 Canadian troops sailed for Europe, many of them never to return. Other divisions followed. Canadians soon became the Allied shock troops on the western front, where the casualties were staggering. The losses were so heavy that Borden returned to Canada from Europe in May 1917 convinced that Canada would have to have conscription. Others at home were not yet convinced, among them many French Canadians. Borden tried to avoid a cleavage by inviting Laurier to join a coalition government. Laurier refused, however, and although a coalition government was formed that included proconscription Liberals, the French Canadians were largely alienated by the issue. Borden insisted on Canada's voice in imperial war policy, and he procured Canada's signing of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) in its own right. A major step in the development of full autonomy was thus taken. This autonomy was confirmed by the Statute of Westminster (1931), by which Canada and the other self-governing units of the British Empire were recognized as dominions with status equal to that of Britain. The war caused inflation and maladjustment within Canada, reflected in the Winnipeg general strike of May 1919 and the great diversity of regional interests and parties that emerged in the general election of 1921. The prime minister was now W. L. Mackenzie \Tking\t, a prosy, clever, rotund bachelor who had become leader of the Liberal party following the death of Laurier in 1919. Canada in the 1920s had traveled a considerable distance from the decade before. Automobiles were now commonplace; women had won (1918) the vote; and the movement for prohibition of alcoholic beverages had gained strength. The old saloon, with its sawdust and spittoons, had become a casualty of war and women's interests, and it never returned. Canada, however, did not adopt peacetime prohibition, as the United States did; although banned in all provinces by the end of the war, the sale of beer, wine, and liquor was gradually resumed after 1920 under provincial government control. The stock market had a great impact during the late 1920s. Canadians were caught in its rise and, disastrously, in its crash in October 1929. Savings disappeared, and so did Mackenzie King's government in 1930. Prime Minister Richard Bedford \TBennett\t and his new Conservative government urged Canadians to tighten their belts. Government budgets were cut, as were private ones. Wheat and other primary exports became unsellable. The price of wheat dropped from $1.60 a bushel to 60 cents. Even at that price the farmers might have squeezed by, but what devastated the Canadian west was that the farmers could not grow wheat. A series of severe droughts in the summer of 1931 and afterward ruined thousands of western farmers, turning their farms into dust bowls. Canadians, disillusioned with the frightening vagaries of the free enterprise system, turned to other economic philosophies and political parties. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a socialist party, was founded in 1933; the \TSocial Credit party\t won the Alberta election of 1935; the Union Nationale under Maurice \TDuplessis\t came to power in Quebec in 1936; even Richard Bennett, conservative though he was, launched, early in 1935, his own desperate version of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the United States. It did not save Bennett or his party, which was defeated decisively by Mackenzie King in the 1935 general election. King was to remain in power, through World War II, until he retired in 1948. Beneath a vague and woolly manner, he had the toughness of a ward politician. He was no wartime leader, and he knew it. He could pick good men, however, and his cabinet was a remarkable aggregation. King had long disliked European and British commitments, and the Canadian government entered the war on Sept. 10, 1939 (7 days after Britain did), with his conception of a limited commitment abroad. By June 1940, however, the war was vastly different. Between Nazi Germany and mastery of Europe stood only Britain, Canada, and the other Commonwealth countries. Canada's war effort now became total. The Canadian navy took on most of the convoy duty in the northwest Atlantic. Divisions of troops crossed to England. The Dieppe raid of 1942, a disastrous test of the German defenses on the coast of France, the Normandy Invasion of 1944, and the Italian campaign produced heavy casualties in the Canadian army, and by the autumn of 1944 reinforcements were badly needed. King's government had promised in 1939 that there would be no conscription for overseas service. Now, however, powerful elements in the army and throughout the country felt that sending conscripts overseas was vital. The argument nearly broke the King government, but he survived the resignation of ministers on both sides. Conscripted troops were sent overseas in November 1944. POSTWAR CANADA King survived the elections of 1945, too, and he retired undefeated in 1948, to be succeeded by Louis \TSt. Laurent\t, who presided over the entrance of Newfoundland into the Confederation in 1949. He had qualities that King lacked--good sense, an enjoyment of common folk and common pleasures, and a charming, avuncular manner that people trusted. During St. Laurent's period in power, Canada underwent remarkable postwar development. The gross national product rose from $12 billion in 1946 to $61 billion in 1966. Oil and gas were discovered in quantity in Alberta in 1947, and by 1956 oil led all other mineral resources in value. An enormous iron-ore complex in Labrador-Ungava began to be developed in 1954, and this spurred the development of the St. Lawrence Seaway, a joint Canadian-U.S. project finished in 1959. One project--a natural-gas pipeline planned to run 3,500 km (2,170 mi) from Alberta to Montreal--dealt the St. Laurent government a fatal blow. The financing was complicated, and in Parliament it had such a stormy passage that it led to the defeat of the government in the 1957 election. That surprising upset brought the Conservative party back to power under John G. \TDiefenbaker\t. Diefenbaker was a Saskatchewan criminal lawyer and a dynamic political leader. In the 1958 elections he received the largest majority of any government in Canadian history--208 Conservatives as against 49 Liberals and 8 CCF. Diefenbaker looked invincible, and for a time he was. A period of economic recession took its toll, however, and in the 1962 elections the Conservative majority vanished. Diefenbaker held on with a minority government until 1963, when the Liberal party took over under Lester \TPearson\t. Leader of the Liberals since the retirement of St. Laurent in 1958, Pearson was a genial former civil servant. The highlight of his premiership was Canada's celebration of its achievements in the centennial year of 1967. Expo '67 in Montreal was Canada's first world's fair. It showed what French-Canadian flair and logistical talent, buttressed by English-Canadian expertise in construction, could do. Pearson retired in 1968 and was succeeded by Pierre Elliott \TTrudeau\t, the third French-Canadian prime minister since 1867. An intellectual with considerable experience of the world, Trudeau had to contend with an external problem--massive importations of U.S. capital and its consequences--and a major internal one--French Canada's desire for greater power. "Maitres chez nous" ("masters of our own house") was the slogan of the Quebec government (1960-66) of Jean Lesage. It meant control by the province over Quebec's way of life as well as its economy. Ten years later, in 1976, Quebec's provincial elections were won by the Parti Quebecois, a party committed to making Quebec into an independent republic. Amid the crisis caused by this separatist threat and economic difficulties, the Liberals were defeated in the national elections of May 1979. A minority Conservative government headed by Joseph \TClark\t, however, lasted only until February 1980, when new elections returned Trudeau and the Liberals to power. In May 1980 a referendum in Quebec turned down the proposal for political independence. In 1981 the federal and provincial governments (except Quebec) reached agreement on constitutional reforms, which were enacted in the \TConstitution Act\t of 1982. When Trudeau retired, resigning on June 30, 1984, he was succeeded as party leader and prime minister by John \TTurner\t. Turner's tenure was brief. In September 1984 the Conservatives, led by Brian \TMulroney\t, won a victory of historic proportions--211 of the 282 parliamentary seats. In 1987, Mulroney reached an agreement with Quebec regarding the signing of the 1982 Constitution Act by providing an amendment recognizing Quebec as a "distinct society." By the 1990 deadline, however, he had not gained the required unanimous provincial approval to the amendment, and the so-called Meech Lake agreement failed. A 1988 free-trade agreement with the United States precipitated a general election in November 1988, which the Conservatives won. P. B. Waite Bibliography: Bercuson, D. J., and Granatstein, J. L., The Collins Dictionary of Canadian History (1988); Berger, Thomas, Fragile Freedoms (1981); Bretner, J. B., North Atlantic Triangle (1945); Brown, R. C., and Cook, R., Canada: 1896-1921 (1974); Careless, J. M. S., The Canadians, 1867-1967 (1967) and Union of the Canadas (1967); Clement, W., and Williams, G., eds., The New Canadian Political Economy (1989); Craig, G. M., Upper Canada (1963); Creighton, Donald, The Story of Canada (1971); Donaldson, Gordon, Eighteen Men (1985); Eccles, W. J., The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1821, rev. ed. (1983); (1974); McNaught, Kenneth, The Penguin History of Canada (1988); Schull, Joseph, Laurier (1965); Stanley, G. F. G., Louis Riel (1963); Verney, Douglas V., Three Civilizations, Two Cultures, and One State (1986); Waite, P. B., Canada, 1874-1896 (1971) and Macdonald, His Life and World (1975); Woodcock, George, The Century That Made Us: Canada, 1814-1914 (1989).