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The Quebec Act was intended to appease French Canadians and to gain their loyalty to the British after the 7 years war. First and foremost, the Act allowed them to freely practice Roman Catholicism. The Quebec Act also permitted the French to re-establish the seigneurial system. It also allowed French Catholics to get good jobs. It gave more power to the Catholic Church too. Thanks to the Quebec Act, the Church could collect money again. -
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolution. Many Loyalists migrated to British North America. Many Loyalists found their property vandalized, looted, and burned by Patriots. Around 10k Loyalists fled to what is now called Quebec and Ontario.
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At the end of the 18th century, Peter Pond contributed to the mapping of Canada by drawing the general outline of the river basin that Mackenzie recorded in 1789 that gained him his recognition. The maps that Peter Pond drew, were based on his own explorations and on the information provided to him by First Nations peoples. -
During late 1787–88, Mackenzie was assigned to the NWC post on the Athabasca River. He was Peter Pond's #2, who had explored the region thoroughly. Pond left the NWC in 1788 and Mackenzie replaced him as its head of operations in the northwest. Best known for his 1789 and 1793 journeys to the Arctic and Pacific coasts, Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to cross the continent north of Mexico. -
Simon Fraser is best known for his exploration of the Fraser River (they then thought to be Columbia). On 28 May 1808, hoping to discover a new transportation route to the Pacific, Fraser left Fort George with a small crew. This ranks as one of Canada's greatest explorations. Entering territory unknown to Europeans he struggled through the of the Fraser River canyon. With Indigenous help and perseverance they survived. Unfortunately, Fraser was not the one to find Columbia. -
David Thompson was referred to as “the greatest land geographer who ever lived.” He travelled 80,000 km, mapping most of western Canada, parts of the East and the North-Western United States. At the HBC, he was a fur trader, but he wanted to explore rather than trade. He left HBC and joined the rival North West Company where he spent the next 15 years exploring. In 1811, he became the first European to travel the length of the Columbia, -
Thomas Douglas, the Fifth Earl of Selkirk asked the British government for land in the Red River Valley that was part of Rupert's Land. Because HBC held fur-trading monopoly in the area, the government refused to give Selkirk any land. Selkirk then bought enough shares in the HBC to let him gain influence over land. He purchased 40 468 hectares of land and named it Assiniboia. His goal was to create a colony of Irish and Scottish immigrant farmers. The first group of immigrants came in 1812.
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In 1838, Lord Durham was sent to British North America to investigate the causes of the rebellions of 1837–38 in the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada. Durham's famous Report on the Affairs of British North America led to a series of reforms and changes. These included uniting the two Canadas into a single colony in 1841. The report also paved the way for responsible government. This development of Canadian democracy and independence from Britain was critical to Canada's history. -
The Great Migration was the period of high immigration to Canada. Most immigrants came to Canada from the Britain and the American colonies. From 1815 to 1850, 960 000 people came from Britain alone. -
It was on August 2nd of this year that an imperial act established the colony of BC. Beginning that spring, the Fraser River Gold Rush unleashed a chain of events that lead to British Columbia joining the confederation. American miners would make their way to BC to find the gold. Britain declared the mainland a separate British colony, named British Columbia, with Sir James Douglas in charge, who is a fur trader that governed the colony of Vancouver island. -
The Charlottetown Conference in 1864 was an important meeting that brought together political leaders of British North America started the process for the Canadian Confederation on 1 July 1867. At the Charlottetown Conference, P.E.I, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick agreed to the union of the colonies.
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Sir John A. Macdonald was first prime minister of Canada. John A. Macdonald produced the British North America Act and the union of provinces that became Canada at the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences. Macdonald's greatest achievements were guiding and building a successful national government for the new Dominion and leading the Conservative Party serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. -
British North American provinces were united into one confederation called the Dominion of Canada, on July 1, 1867.
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Cartier was responsible for bringing British Columbia , Manitoba and French Canada into the Dominion. He also negotiated the purchase of Rupert’s Land and the North-West Territories from the Hudson’s Bay Company. He is known as a Father of Confederation.
