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Alexander Mackenzie
Sir Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish explorer. He was the first person to cross the continent north of Mexico. His 6400 km trek to the Pacific on behalf of the North West Company revealed the promise of the Canadian Northwest and much of the geography of western North America -
Simon Fraser goes up the River
Simon Fraser lead the expedition up the now known "Fraser River" in 1808. This opened up a new area for settlers to colonize and explore deep into the mainland; rather than just along the coast. -
Fur?!
Independent fur traders came to BC looking for furs. It appealed to them because it was untapped territory for them and had been untouched by the white man. All this attention would lead to the earliest stages of colonization. -
Fur Trading Posts were Built
With all of the fur being collected, posts were starting to be built in order to trade with others. The construction required people to work and build the forts, resulting in a boost in population and economy with more jobs being available than just hunting and trading. -
Coal is Found on Vancouver Island
Coal is found on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, bringing a lot more people there in order to mine it. Creating a small pop up settlement and boosting the local economy. This was Vancouver Island's first serious contribution to bringing people West. -
Simon Fraser
Scottish fur trader and an explorer who charted much of the coast of BC. Built first European settlement in BC on the Island. Oversaw the project of Building Fort Vancouver -
HBC Sets up Fort Victoria
With the merger of the HBC and NWC, they decided to set up more trading posts. One was on Vancouver Island, called Fort Victoria. Since the HBC was owned by the british they saw this as a good opportunity to claim this area as British to stop the inevitable American invasion. -
Oregon Treaty
The Oregon treaty was signed between the United States of America and Great Britain to properly state the boundary between the two colonies. This was done to Legally prevent an American invasion and claim that land as their own. The British also knew that their land was very valuable and they would further use this to their advantage against the US. -
Vancouver Island Becomes a Crown Colony
Vancouver Island becomes a colony ruled by the British. This is significant because it shows that the british felt confident that they could support themselves on just what the island had to offer. This would soon prove to be a mistake -
Gold quartz discovered in Chalotte Islands
Gold quartz (fools gold) was discovered in the queen charlotte islands. This was huge for the colony because it was starting to look like the decision they had made to be their own colony separated from the mainland was starting to pay off. This was also good for them because their recently found coal deposit was almost depleted. -
Queen Charlotte islands become a dependency of Vancouver Island
The Queen Charlotte islands were now a huge dependency of Vancouver island because now most of their resources had been depleted and the newly found deposits were necessary to keep the colony out of debt. -
Gold Rush begins in the fraser river
With gold quartz being found over on the Islands, there were already many miners still over there and in the mainland. This was the perfect opputrunity for the mainland to show that they had a lot of value for the british colony. Thousands of miners were pouring in and provided a great chance to help BC get out of their massive debt, -
Colony of BC is formed
With the gold rush going off, New Caledonia and Vancouver Island join together to form British Columbia. It made economic sense so they could help each other out with their debts, and also be easier for miners in the gold rush to go back and forth between the 2. -
New Westminster is named capital of BC
Named after the part of London where the parliament buildings are, New Westminster was named the capital of the newly formed BC. All miners had to pass through here at some point in there journey to the gold rush, resulting in New West becoming a boom town, which lead to the big city it is today. -
Smallcox Epidemic
The miners would begin trading their goods with the Natives along their journey to the gold rush. These goods would periodically carry bacteria and their diseases that the natives had not been exposed to. This breakout of smallpox specifically led to about 15 000 first nations dying of the disease -
Victoria named capital of BC
They thought for this new colony, a new capital was needed. They deemed Victoria on Vancouver Island fit because it was a large, established city that thrived from the boom of the gold rush. It has stayed the capital ever since. -
BC joined Confederation
BC became the 6th Canadian province to join the Dominion of Canada in 1871. They were promised a railroad to join them to East Canada, and would be helped out with their debt. -
Amor De Cosmos
Amor De Cosmos was an American Nationalist who beleived that the NW needed a strong economic province. He became a member of the legislative assembly in Victoria and was one of the main people responsible for the merging of the mainland and the island. He was also very confidant that joining Confederation was the best option for BC and was thefounding father of Confederation in BC. Without his nationalistic ideas BC may not be a part of Canada today. -
Frederick Seymour
Frederick Seymour was one of BC's greatest Governers because of his great ideas and recomondations. He was responsible for getting BC upwards out of debt and structuraly improving Vancouver. Unfortunately for such a remarkable man, he was blind to the fact that joining confederation was the best option for BC and was opposed to it. -
The "dry factory" rule is put in place
Workers were now not allowed to drink at work or during work hours. This annoyed many of the hard working men who wanted to relax with a drink from time to time -
Gassy Jack
John Deighton was a former British sailor who came to California during the gold rush. He didnt find any gold so he became a steam ship captain transporting miners along the Fraser River. When he started to develop health problems he was forced to find another line of work. He took up bar tending in Vancouver and was a hit, people loved him especially now that the Dry laws were in place. He got the name "Gassy Jack" because he loved to talk and tell stories and now Gastown is named after him. -
First Nations rebel against the unfair treaties
Groups of first nations rebel in northern BC due to unfair treaties and the governments failed promise to help. -
The CPR is completed
The railway that was promised to link BC to the rest of Canada was completed and had the government completed their promise to join them all together. The last spike was in Craigalleche in BC. -
Discrimination
Now that the railway was completed, thousands of Chinese workers were now unemployed and did not have enough money to get home. This led to many of them settling in Vancouver which the White people were not fond of. The Chinese still had a hard working mentality and were willing to take any job for much cheaper than most white workers. At first the whites were happy to let them take the crappy jobs but they soon found out that getting hired would be difficult withe the Chinese accepting less pay -
Head Tax raised to $500
The Canadian Government raised the tax for Chinese immigrants to 500$ to further prevent the families of Chinese workers from coming to Canada. They felt that there were too many Chinese in Canada and they wanted to stop them from coming in without seeming completely racist.