Canada’s History

Explorations

John Cabot

Fur Trade•Charter from King Charles II•Included the region watered by all rivers and streams feeding the Hudson Bay• Provided money to Britain through the Fur Trade•Made Canada valuable

French Influence

• French tried to settle Canada for Fur Trade• Battles with the Native Americans and British

prevented them from settling firmly.• King Louie XIV took control of New France– Created Civil Law (still evident today)

Yellow = New FranceGreen = Disputed AreaTan = France‘s Acknowledgment of British land

Seven Year War

• Treaty of Paris• Britain gained New France– Deported Many French from Canada

• Doubled Britain's National Debt• Natives lost France as ally to keep Britain out

Seven Year War Consequences

War of 1812

• British and U.S. fight for possessions of British Colonies in Canada

• British are victorious• United British-Canadians and French-

Candadians• What would have happened in the U.S. had

defeated Britain?

Act of Union

• 1840• United Upper and Lower Canada• Unfair to the French population• Established a single Parliament• Still part of the British Empire but Canada

ruled themselves

Statute of Westminster 1931

• Formaly declared Canada was no longer under British authority

• Meant Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Newfoundland where no longer British colonies

• Canada’s Federal government was now in charge

Quiet Revolution

Commonwealth

Road to Independence• Important dates in the road to independence were the withdrawal of the British troops from

Canada (1871), the negotiation of the Washington Treaty (1871) where for the first time a Canadian was included in a British negotiating team to sign a treaty on behalf of Canada, the establishment of the Supreme Court of Canada (1875), the creation of a High Commissioner's Office in London to "represent" Canada (1878), Macdonald’s refusal to send Canadian troops to the Sudan (1885), the last use of the veto (1873) and reserve powers by Britain (1886) under ss. 55-57 of the Constitution Act, 1867, and the establishment of the Department of External Affairs (1909). It was the First World War that accelerated the process to independence. The major colonies played a role of such magnitude that it could not be said, by the end of the war, that they were mere colonies of Great Britain. Hence, the international status of Canada evolved rapidly in the post-World War period: in 1919, Canada signed the Treaty of Versailles and was elected as an independent member of the League of Nations ( a Canadian, Raoul Dandurand became a President of the League in 1925); in 1923, Canada signed for the first time a treaty on its own (Halibut Treaty) and, finally in 1926, the Balfour resolution was adopted at the Imperial Conference. Arthur Balfour presented this resolution to the Imperial conference of the self-governing dominions. In it Great Britain recognized that the Dominions were "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations".