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