Lesson 8

By wluOnline

  • in 1824, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) began to establish a fur trading network along the Pacific coast.

  • Fort Langley was built

  • In 1839 the old fort was replaced by a new one 35 kilometers upstream.

  • By the 1840s Fort Langley was the largest salted fish exporter on the Pacific coast.

  • Period: to

    The population rose from 1,000 in 1855 to 10,000 in 1871

  • Gold was discovered in British Columbia.

  • Governor James Douglas of Vancouver Island decreed that British Columbia was an official colony.

  • Fitzgerald and Samuel Cleary settled on land at the site of future city of Vancouver and established a farm.

  • Period: to

    Overall, there were two major periods of Chinese immigration to British Columbia.

    The first began in 1858 when Chinese immigrants were drawn north from San Francisco to the Fraser Valley gold rush and ended in 1923 when the Chinese Exclusion Act barred further Chinese immigration until 1947 when immigration reform lifted the ban. By 1860 the Chinese population of BC and Vancouver Island reached 7,000. These numbers were increased to 15,000 between 1880 and 1885 when Chinese labourers helped to construct the Canadian Pacific Railway west to British Columbia and then settled in

  • the colony of Vancouver Island and the colony of British Columbia were merged into the single colony of British Columbia.

  • British Columbia entered Confederation and joined Canada in 1871

  • . In July of 1871, British Columbia became the latest former British colony to become a province in the Dominion of Canada.

  • Period: to

    Over the first four decades as a province, the voting rights of Asians were withdrawn:

    The Chinese in 1874; Japanese in 1895; and South Asians in 1907. In 1907, Japanese homes and businesses were attacked during the Vancouver Riot
  • Period: to

    Head taxes rose from $50.00 in 1885 to $500 or person in 1903.

  • Period: to

    Henry Bell-Irving arrived in Vancouver in 1886 and remained a resident until his death in 1931.

  • Vancouver was the location of an earlier anti-Chinese riot in 1887.

  • The first south Asian immigrants to Vancouver arrived in 1903 and most were Sikhs.

  • Japanese immigration to Canada was restricted to 400 entrants annually in 1907 and then to 150 in 1928.

  • Vancouver Riot on Saturday September 7th, 1907.

  • By 1911, 70% of Canada's Chinese lived in British Columbia

  • Passengers on the Komagata Maru challenged the regulation and travelled to Vancouver where they experienced a two month standoff in the harbour with Canadian authorities who would not let them leave the ship.

  • The Chinese Exclusion Act that remained in force until 1947.

    Only 150 Chinese were allowed into Canada each year if they were consuls, student or merchants until 1928 when wives and children of Chinese residents in Canada were included in this quota.
  • Period: to

    three waves of anti-Japanese sentiment in BC prior their evacuation.

    From the coast and the internment (detention) of Japanese residents of all ages as enemy aliens during World War II. Ward dates the resurgence of anti-Japanese at 1937-38, 1940, and 1941-42.

  • Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii in December of 1941.

  • 1947 was an important year for Chinese Canadians.

    They gained both the provincial vote in BC and the federal right to vote in 1947 and the ban on Chinese immigration was revoked.

  • . An apology for the interment was given by Prime Minister.

    Brian Mulroney on September 22, 1988, surviving internees were awarded $21, 000 in compensation and those who were deported to Japan had their Canadian citizenship reinstated.
  • Period: to

    Wealthy families and individuals immigrated to Canada to establish citizenship

    So they were prepared for the surrender of Hong Kong by the British to the Chinese in 1999. Since 1999 the main source of Chinese immigration to Vancouver and Canada has been from the Peoples Republic of China. In 2006, Prime Minister Harper made an official apology to the first wave of Chinese immigrants for the discriminatory head tax faced by those generations of immigrants. Compensation of $20,000 each was paid to survivors or their spouses.
  • Period: to

    70 percent of Chinese Canadians lived in either Toronto or Vancouver

    By 2011 the overall population with Chinese ancestry reached 1,324,700. In 1788, fifty Chinese men came to Nootka Sound to help Captain John Meares establish a trading post and ship sealskin pelts to Guangzhou.

  • In Canada the growing numbers of Sikhs in Canada from the late nineteenth century

    Strengthened their persistent lobbying of federal politician for an apology and compensation due to the racism of federal immigration policy in 1914. A 2008 apology from Prime Minister Harper accompanied a fund established for memorial projects including a museum, a website, publications and a memorial. The memorial was unveiled on July 23, 2012.

  • 2010 Winter Olympics and the Paralympic Games were hosted by Canada in and near the city of Vancouver, British Columbia.