Canada: Difference between revisions
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==History== | ==History== | ||
The | Aboriginal tradition holds that the [[Aboriginal peoples in Canada|First Peoples]] inhabited parts of Canada since the dawn of time. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern [[Yukon]] to 26,500 years ago, and in southern [[Ontario]] to 9,500 years ago.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Cinq-Mars | first = J. | year = 2001 | title = On the significance of modified mammoth bones from eastern Beringia | journal = The World of Elephants - International Congress, Rome | url = http://www.cq.rm.cnr.it/elephants2001/pdf/424_428.pdf | accessdate = 2006-05-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Wright, J.V |publisher= Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation |url=http://www.civilization.ca/archeo/hnpc/npvol04e.html |title=A History of the Native People of Canada: Early and Middle Archaic Complexes|date=[[2001-09-27]]|accessdate=2006-05-14}}</ref> Europeans first arrived when the [[Vikings]] settled briefly at [[L'Anse aux Meadows]] circa AD 1000. | ||
[[Image:Fer - Le Canada, ou Nouvelle France, la Floride, la Virginie, Pensilvanie, Caroline.png|thumb|left|Map of [[New France]] showing location of [[First Nations]] - 1702]]The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included [[John Cabot]] in 1497 for [[Kingdom of England|England]] and [[Jacques Cartier]] in 1534 for [[France]]. French explorer [[Samuel de Champlain]] arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at [[Port Royal, Nova Scotia|Port Royal]] in 1605 and [[Quebec City]] in 1608. Among [[French colonization of the Americas|French colonists]] of [[New France]], ''[[Canadiens]]'' extensively settled the [[St. Lawrence River]] valley, [[Acadians]] settled the present-day [[Maritimes]], while [[Coureurs de bois|French fur traders]] and [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle|Catholic missionaries]] explored the [[Great Lakes]], [[Hudson Bay]] and the [[Mississippi River#Watershed|Mississippi watershed]] to [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]]. The [[French and Iroquois Wars]] broke out over control of the [[fur trade]]. | |||
The [[Kingdom of England|English]] established fishing outposts in [[Newfoundland]] around 1610 and [[British colonization of the Americas|colonized]] the [[Thirteen Colonies]] to the south. A series of four [[French and Indian Wars|Intercolonial Wars]] erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland [[Nova Scotia]] came under British rule with the [[Treaty of Utrecht]] (1713); the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]] ceded all of [[New France]] to [[British Empire|Britain]] following the [[French and Indian War|Seven Years' War]]. | |||
[[Image:Benjamin West 005.jpg|thumb|left|''[[The Death of General Wolfe]]'' on the [[Battle of the Plains of Abraham|Plains of Abraham]] at [[Quebec City|Quebec]] in 1759.]] | |||
The [[Royal Proclamation of 1763|Royal Proclamation (1763)]] carved the [[Province of Quebec (1763-1791)|Province of Quebec]] out of [[New France]] and annexed [[Cape Breton Island]] to [[Nova Scotia]]. It also restricted the language and religious rights of [[French Canadians]]. In 1769, St. John's Island (now [[Prince Edward Island]]) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the [[Quebec Act]] of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the [[Great Lakes]] and [[Ohio Valley]], and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the [[American Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web | author= |publisher= |title= Wars on Our Soil, earliest times to 1885 |accessdate=2006-08-21 |url=http://www.civilization.ca/cwm/gallery1/revolution2_e.html}}</ref> The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)]] recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the [[Great Lakes]] to the [[Unites States]]. Approximately 50,000 [[United Empire Loyalists]] fled the [[United States]] to Canada.<ref name="moore">{{cite book |first= Christopher |last=Moore |year=1994 |title=The Loyalist: Revolution Exile Settlement |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |location= Toronto |id=ISBN 0-7710-6093-9}}</ref> [[New Brunswick]] was split from [[Nova Scotia]] to recognize Loyalist settlements in the [[Maritimes]]. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in [[Province of Quebec (1763-1791)|Quebec]] , the [[Constitutional Act of 1791 ]] divided the province into French-speaking [[Lower Canada]] and English-speaking [[Upper Canada]], granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. | |||
[[Image:Canada upper lower map.PNG|thumb|left|The Canadas 1791, upper (orange) and lower (green)]] | |||
Canada was a major front in the [[War of 1812]] between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The [[timber industry]] would also surpass the [[fur trade]] in importance in the early 1800s. | |||
The desire for [[Responsible Government]] resulted in the aborted [[Rebellions of 1837]]. As a result, [[Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839)|The Durham Report(1839)]] recommended responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture.<ref name="ce_durhamreport">{{cite web |author=David Mills |publisher= Historica Foundation of Canada |url=http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0002473 |title=Durham Report |accessdate=2006-05-18}}</ref> The [[Act of Union (1840)]] merged [[The Canadas]] into a [[United Province of Canada]]. French and English Canadians would work together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. They later established [[Responsible government#British North America|responsible government]] in 1849, as would all British North American colonies. | |||
The signing of the [[Oregon Treaty]] by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the [[Oregon boundary dispute]], extending the border westward along the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]], and paving the way for British colonies on [[Colony of Vancouver Island|Vancouver Island (1849)]] and in [[Colony of British Columbia|British Columbia (1858)]]. Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim [[Rupert's Land]] and the [[Arctic]] region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to [[New England]]. | |||
===Confederation=== | |||
[[Image:Canada provinces evolution.gif|thumb|left|Animated map of evolution of the borders and names of Canada's provinces and territories.]] | |||
Following several constitutional conferences, the [[Constitution Act, 1867|British North America Act]] brought about [[Canadian Confederation|Confederation]] creating "one dominion under the name of [[Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion|Canada]]" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: [[Ontario]], [[Quebec]], [[Nova Scotia]], and [[New Brunswick]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Farthing |first= John |title= Freedom Wears a Crown |location= Toronto |publisher=Kingswood House |date=1957 |id = ASIN B0007JC4G2}}</ref> Canada assumed control of [[Rupert's Land]] and the [[North-Western Territory]] to form the [[Northwest Territories]]. [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] grievances ignited the [[Red River Rebellion]] and the creation of the province of [[Manitoba]] in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had [[United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia|united]] in 1866) and the colony of [[Prince Edward Island]] joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[John A. MacDonald]]'s [[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative Party]] established a [[National Policy]] of [[tarrifs]] to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]), opened the prairies to settlement with the [[Dominion Lands Act]], and established the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|North West Mounted Police]] to assert it's authority over this territory. Under [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Wilfrid Laurier]], continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and [[Alberta]] and [[Saskatchewan]] became provinces in 1905. | |||
[[Image:Canadian tank and soldiers Vimy 1917.jpg|thumb|right|Canadian soldiers advance behind a tank at the [[Battle of Vimy Ridge]] in 1917.]] | |||
Canada automatically entered the [[First World War]] in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front to fight as a national contingent. The [[Conscription Crisis of 1917]] erupted when [[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|conservative]] Prime Minister [[Robert Borden]] brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the [[League of Nations]] independently of Britain; in 1931 the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]] affirmed Canada's independence. | |||
The [[Great Depression of 1929]] brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the [[Co-operative Commonwealth Federation]] (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by [[Tommy Douglas]] in the 1940s and 1950s. Liberal Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] secured Parliament’s approval for [[Military history of Canada during World War II|entry into the Second World War]] in September 1939, after Germany invaded Poland. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939.<ref name="stacey">{{cite book | last = Stacey |first= C.P.| authorlink =C.P. Stacey | title=History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War | publisher = Queen's Printer | year= 1948}}</ref> The economy boomed as industry manufactured military [[materiel]]<!--This is not a misspelling. Follow the link to find out the difference between material and materiel--> for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another [[Conscription Crisis of 1944|Conscription Crisis]] in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest militaries in the world.<ref name="stacey"/> | |||
[[Image:PearsonPeacePrizeA.jpg|thumb|left|Future [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Lester B. Pearson]] with 1957 [[Nobel Peace Prize]].]] | |||
In 1949, [[Newfoundland]] joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a [[Post-World War II baby boom|baby boom]] and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries, changing the country's demographics.<ref>{{cite web | author= Harold Troper |publisher= Ontario Institute for Studies in Education |url=http://ceris.metropolis.net/Virtual%20Library/Demographics/troper1/troper1.html |title=History of Immigration to Toronto Since the Second World War: From Toronto 'the Good' to Toronto 'the World in a City' |date=2000-03 |accessdate=2006-05-19}}</ref> Canada asserted an independent foreign policy, acting as a neutral broker to diffuse the [[Suez Crisis]] of 1956 and deploying Canadian soldiers as part of the first [[peacekeeping|United Nations peacekeeping force]]. | |||
[[Quebec]] underwent profound social and economic changes during the [[Quiet Revolution]] of the 1960s. [[Québécois]] [[Quebec nationalism|nationalists]] began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The [[Quebec sovereignty movement|separatist]] [[Parti Québécois]] first came to power in 1976. A [[referendum]] on [[sovereignty-association]] in [[1980 Quebec referendum|1980]] was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in [[1995 Quebec referendum|1995]] was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%.<ref name="dickinson">{{cite book |first= John Alexander |last=Dickinson |coauthors=Young, Brian |year=2003 |title=A Short History of Quebec |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |edition=3rd edition |location= Montreal |id=ISBN 0-7735-2450-9}}</ref> In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled [[Reference re Secession of Quebec|unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional]]; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless.<ref name="dickinson" /> | |||
[[Image:Charter.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms]], 1982]] | |||
Under successive [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] governments of [[Lester B. Pearson]] and [[Pierre Trudeau]], a new [[Canadian nationalism]] emerged. Canada adopted its current [[Flag of Canada|Maple Leaf Flag]] in 1965. In response to a more assertive [[francophone|French-speaking]] [[Quebec]], the federal government became [[Bilingualism in Canada|officially bilingual]] with the [[Official Languages Act (Canada)|Official Languages Act]] of 1969. Non-discriminatory [[Immigration to Canada|Immigration Acts]] were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official [[Multiculturalism#Origins in Canada|multiculturalism]] in 1971; waves of non-European immigration have changed the face fo the country. [[Social democratic]] programs such as [[Medicare (Canada)|Universal Health Care]], the [[Canada Pension Plan]], [[Canada Student Loans]] were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister [[Pierre Trudeau]] pushed through the [[patriation]] of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a [[Charter of Rights and Freedoms]] based on [[individual rights]] in the [[Constitution Act of 1982]]. | |||
Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The [[Canada-United States Automotive Agreement]] (or Auto Pact) in [[1965]] and the [[Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement]] of [[1987]] were defining moments in integrating the two economies. [[Canadian nationalism|Canadian nationalists]] continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent.<ref name="granatstein">{{cite book |first= J.L. |last=Granatstein |year=1997 |title=Yankee Go Home: Canadians and Anti-Americanism |publisher=HarperCollins |location= Toronto |id=ISBN 0-00-638541-9}}</ref> However, Canadians take special pride in their [[Health care in Canada|system of universal health care]] and their commitment to multiculturalism. | |||
==Politics== | ==Politics== | ||
Revision as of 22:14, 3 April 2007
Canada is the world's second largest country by total area, occupying most of northern North America. Extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, Canada shares land borders with the United States to the south and to the northwest. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. Currently, Her Majesty Queen of Canada Elizabeth II is the head of state, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean is Governor General, and the Right Honourable Stephen Harper is the Prime Minister.
History
Aboriginal tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada since the dawn of time. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon to 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario to 9,500 years ago.[1][2] Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000.
The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade.
The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded all of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War.
The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution.[3] The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the Unites States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada.[4] New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia to recognize Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec , the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly.
Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s.
The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. As a result, The Durham Report(1839) recommended responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture.[5] The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians would work together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. They later established responsible government in 1849, as would all British North American colonies.
The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England.
Confederation
Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.[6] Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories. Métis grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. MacDonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tarrifs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert it's authority over this territory. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905.
Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front to fight as a national contingent. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence.
The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King secured Parliament’s approval for entry into the Second World War in September 1939, after Germany invaded Poland. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939.[7] The economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest militaries in the world.[7]
In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries, changing the country's demographics.[8] Canada asserted an independent foreign policy, acting as a neutral broker to diffuse the Suez Crisis of 1956 and deploying Canadian soldiers as part of the first United Nations peacekeeping force.
Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. Québécois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti Québécois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%.[9] In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless.[9]
Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian nationalism emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration have changed the face fo the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982.
Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent.[10] However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism.
Politics
Canada acheived confederation in 1867.
Canada is composed of ten provinces and three territories. The provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. The three territories are the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon Territory. Provincial jurisdiction is laid out in the Canada Act.
Geography
Many parts of Canada are covered by Boreal forest.
Language
English and French are Canada's two official languages. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrines the personal freedoms and language rights in Canada.
- ↑ Cinq-Mars, J. (2001). "On the significance of modified mammoth bones from eastern Beringia". The World of Elephants - International Congress, Rome. Retrieved on 2006-05-14.
- ↑ Wright, J.V (2001-09-27). A History of the Native People of Canada: Early and Middle Archaic Complexes. Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. Retrieved on 2006-05-14.
- ↑ Wars on Our Soil, earliest times to 1885. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ↑ Moore, Christopher (1994). The Loyalist: Revolution Exile Settlement. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-6093-9.
- ↑ David Mills. Durham Report. Historica Foundation of Canada. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
- ↑ Farthing, John (1957). Freedom Wears a Crown. Toronto: Kingswood House. ASIN B0007JC4G2.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Stacey, C.P. (1948). History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. Queen's Printer.
- ↑ Harold Troper (2000-03). History of Immigration to Toronto Since the Second World War: From Toronto 'the Good' to Toronto 'the World in a City'. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Dickinson, John Alexander; Young, Brian (2003). A Short History of Quebec, 3rd edition. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-2450-9.
- ↑ Granatstein, J.L. (1997). Yankee Go Home: Canadians and Anti-Americanism. Toronto: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-638541-9.