History of Canada Notes
Part II: Canada’s Independence
New Brunswick
American Revolution exiles move to Nova Scotia
1784 Britain created province of New Brunswick for exiles
Quebec Act
Other loyalist moved to Quebec Cultural differences 1774 Quebec Act- French Canadians
allowed Catholic religion and French civil law British Upper Canada and French Lower
Canada
War of 1812
French and British worked together against invading US
Draw; defined US-Canadian border & increased a sense of Canadian nationalism
Unity
After the War of 1812
French Canadians & British Canadians realized that they hated being under British rule
Great Britain too far away to understand economic & political needs
Province of Canada
1837—Canadians began to rebel against British control Britain sent a government reformer to examine
the Canadian problem Economic need to unify 1841—Upper & Lower Canada were united,
establishing the Province of Canada
British North America Act (1867)
1867-British North America Act: created a federation union of Canada Joined four colonies (Quebec, Ontario, New
Brunswick, & Nova Scotia) unifying constitution
- Britain accepted; rid of the responsibility of protecting the colonies (expensive)
Results of the British North America Act
Easier to sell goods to one another Improved trade helped the economy Enough money to build a railroad across the
country Transcontinental Railroad was built in
1886; easily travel from the Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean
Expanding Canada
Leaders desired to expand the new country from the Atlantic to the Pacific Bought land from the Hudson’s Bay Company Thought the purchase would be a simple
process, but problems occurred with the native peoples
Expanding Canada
First Nations (Inuit) agreed to relocate to reservations (now Nunavut) Transcontinental Railroad was built on this land
3 new provinces & 1 territory were created: Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, and the Northwest Territories
Canada 1886
Results of the Railroad:
Increased shipment of goods across the country
Increased travel from coast to coast Created new provinces & territories Birth of Canadian nationalism
Transcontinental Railroad
Yukon
GOLD was discovered along the western coast of Canada in 1896
Canada’s government created Yukon territory in 1898 to meet the needs of the area’s growing population
Saskatchewan & Alberta (1905)
Originally part of Northwest Territories, many people wanted this to change
Reason 1: economy had shifted from fur trade to farming, mining, logging & railway
Reason 2: population grew quickly because of the new industries
Reason 3: area could not afford everything people needed (schools) Collect taxes to pay for these things.
Farming Oats in Alberta--1911
Newfoundland (1949)
Newfoundland joined the country of Canada because: Canada promised to
help them by building many things such as railroads & roads
Britain didn’t want the cost of supporting Newfoundland anymore.
Nunavut (1999)
In the 1970s, Inuit wanted to create a territory called Nunavut because: Wanted their own territory so that they could
start making decisions for themselves. They needed their own government.
Wanted control of their land—for many years Canada had used the resources of the Arctic without asking the Inuit
Nunavut