HistoryThe following text was taken from this site:
Aborginal People:
When Europeans explored Canada they found all regions occupied by
native peoples they called Indians, because the first explorers thought
they had reached the East Indies. The native people lived off the land,
some by hunting and gathering, others by raising crops. The
Huron-Wendat of the Great Lakes region, like the Iroquois, were farmers
and hunters. The Cree and Dene of the Northwest were hunter-gatherers.
The Sioux were nomadic, following the bison (buffalo) herd. The Inuit
lived off Arctic wildlife. West Coast natives preserved fish by drying
and smoking. Warfare was common among Aboriginal groups as they
competed for land, resources and prestige. The arrival of
European traders, missionaries, soldiers and colonists changed the
native way of life forever. Large numbers of Aboriginals died of
European diseases to which they lacked immunity. However, Aboriginals
and Europeans formed strong economic, religious and military bonds in
the first 200 years of coexistence which laid the foundations of Canada. |  | First EuropeansThe Vikings from Iceland who colonized
Greenland 1,000 years ago also reached Labrador and the island of
Newfoundland. The remains of their settlement, l’Anse aux Meadows, are
a World Heritage site.
European exploration began in earnest in
1497 with the expedition of John Cabot, who was the first to draw a map
of Canada’s East Coast.
Between 1534 and 1542, Jacques Cartier
made three voyages across the Atlantic, claiming the land for King
Francis I of France. Cartier heard two captured guides speak the
Iroquoian word kanata, meaning “village.” By the 1550s, the name of
Canada began appearing on maps. | Struggle for a ContinentIn 1670, King Charles II of England
granted the Hudson’s Bay Company exclusive trading rights over the
watershed draining into Hudson Bay. For the next 100 years the Company
competed with Montreal-based traders. The skilled and courageous men
who travelled by canoe were called voyageurs and coureurs des bois, and
formed strong alliances with First Nations.
English colonies
along the Atlantic seaboard, dating from the early 1600s, eventually
became richer and more populous than New France. In the 1700s France
and Great Britain battled for control of North America. In 1759, the
British defeated the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at
Québec City — marking the end of France’s empire in America. The
commanders of both armies, Brigadier James Wolfe and the Marquis de
Montcalm, were killed leading their troops in battle.
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