Important Moments in Canadian History PREHISTORY TO 1800 Note: Dates before 1497 are approximate. 9000 B.C. Native peoples are living along the Eramosa River near what is now Guelph, Ontario. 5200 B.C. The Sto:lo people are living alongside the Fraser River near what is now Mission, B.C. (Some say they may have been as early as 9000 B.C.) 5000 B.C. Native peoples have spread into what is now Northern Ontario and Southeastern Quebec. 2000 B.C. Inuit peoples begin to move into what is now the Northwest Territories. 500 B.C. Northwest Coast native peoples begin to flourish. 1000 Leif (the Lucky) Ericsson visits Labrador and L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. 1497 During a voyage underwritten by Bristol merchants, John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) claims Cape Breton Island or Newfoundland or Labrador for Henry VII of England (June 24). 1498 Cabot makes a second voyage to North America. 1534 Jacques Cartier visits the Strait of Belle Isle (Newfoundland), and charts the Gulf of St. Lawrence (landing in Gaspe, July 14). He takes two native Indians with him back to France. 1535 Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River to Stadacona (Quebec) and Hochelaga (Montreal). 1541 At the mouth of the Cap Rouge River, Cartier founds Charlesbourg-Royal, the first French settlement in America. 1542 Charlesbourg-Royal is abandoned. Cartier meets the sieur de Roberval, who was officially part of the same expedition, in Newfoundland. 1576 Martin Frobisher of England makes the first of three attempts to find a Northwest Passage, sailing as far as Hudson Strait. What he thought was gold discovered on his journey was later proven worthless. 1600 King Henry IV of France grants a fur-trading monopoly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to a group of French merchants. 1605 Samuel de Champlain and the sieur de Poutrincourt found Port Royal (Annapolis, N.S.). 1608 Champlain founds Quebec (July 3), creating in effect the first permanent European settlement. 1609 Champlain supports the Algonquins against the Iroquois at Lake Champlain. 1610 Etienne Brule goes to live among the Huron and eventually becomes the first European to see Lakes Ontario, Huron and Superior. Henry Hudson explores Hudson Bay in spite of a mutinous crew. 1617 Louis Hebert, an apothecary who had stayed at Port Royal twice, brings his wife and children to Quebec, thus becoming the first true habitant (permanent settler supporting his family from the soil). 1625 Jesuits begin missionary work among the Indians in the Quebec area. Jean de Brebeuf founds missions in Huronia, near Georgian Bay. 1627 The Company of One Hundred Associates (a.k.a. the Company of New France) is given a fur monopoly and title to all lands claimed by New France (April 29). In exchange, they are to establish a French colony of 4000 by 1643, which they fail to do. 1629 The adventurer David Kirke takes Quebec for Britain (July 19). 1632 The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye returns Quebec to France. 1633 Kirke is knighted. 1634-40 The Huron nation is reduced by half from European diseases (smallpox epidemic, 1639). 1637 Kirke is named first governor of Newfoundland. 1642 The sieur de Maisonneuve founds Montreal (May 18). 1648-49 The Iroquois disperse the Huron nation. 1649 The Jesuit father Jean de Brebeuf is martyred during Iroquois raids on the Hurons at St- Ignace (March 16). 1659 Francois de Laval arrives in Quebec as vicar general of the pope (June). 1660 Adam Dollard des Ormeaux and about sixty others withstand an attack by over 500 Iroquois at Long Sault (May). It is traditionally said that the small party fights so well that the Iroquois decide not to attack Montreal. 1663 Quebec becomes a royal province. Laval organizes the Seminaire du Quebec, a college of theology which eventually becomes Universite Laval (1852). 1664 Hans Bernhardt is the first recorded German immigrant. 1665 Jean Talon becomes Quebec's first intendant (administrative officer overseeing agriculture, education, justice, trade, and the like). The Carignan-Salisres regiment is sent from France to Quebec to deal with the Iroquois. 1666 The Carignan-Salisres regiment destroys five Mohawk villages, eventually leading to peace between the Iroquois and the French. 1667 The result of Canada's first census is 3215 non-native inhabitants. 1668 The Carignan-Salisres regiment is recalled to France, but several hundred choose to remain behind, many in return for local seigneuries. 1670 The Hudson's Bay Company is founded by royal charter and, underwritten by a group of English merchants, is granted trade rights over Rupert's Land -- i.e., all territory draining into Hudson Bay (May 2). 1672 Comte de Frontenac becomes governor general of New France, later quarrelling frequently with the intendant and the bishop. 1673 Frontenac sends Marquette and Jolliet to explore the Missippi. 1674 Laval becomes the first bishop of Quebec. 1686 De Troyes and D'Iberville capture three English posts on James Bay (June-July). 1689 The Iroquois kill many French settlers at Lachine. 1690 Sent by Massachusetts, Sir William Phips captures Port Royal (May 11). Frontenac repels Phips' attack on Quebec (October). These events are part of what is sometimes called King William's War. 1697 The Treaty of Ryswick assures that all captured territories in the struggle between England and France are returned. 1702 Having begun in Europe in 1701, The War of the Spanish Succession spreads to North America (Queen Anne's War) in Acadia and New England. 1710 Francis Nicholson captures Port Royal for England. 1713 The Treaty of Utrecht ends Queen Anne's War, confirming British possession of Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Acadia (except l'Ile- Royale [Cape Breton Island]). France starts building Fort Louisbourg near the eastern tip of l'Ile-Royale. 1730s The Mississauga drive the Seneca Iroquois south of Lake Erie. 1731-43 The La Verendrye family organize expeditions beyond Lake Winnipeg and direct fur trade toward the east. 1740s The Mandan Indians west of the Great Lakes begin to trade in horses descended from those brought to Texas by the Spanish. Itinerant Assiniboine Indians bring them from Mandan settlements to their own territories southwest of Lake Winnipeg. 1744 Having begun in Europe in 1770, The War of the Austrian Succession spreads to North America (King George's War). 1745 Massachusetts Governor William Shirley takes the French fortress of Louisbourg. 1748 Louisbourg and l'Ile-Royale are returned to France by the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle. 1749 Britain founds Halifax to counter the French presence at Louisbourg. c. 1750 The Ojibwa begin to emerge as a distinct tribal amalgamation of smaller independent bands. German immigrants begin to arrive in numbers at Halifax. 1752 Canada's first newspaper, the weekly Halifax Gazette, appears (March 23). 1754 Beginning of the French and Indian War in America, though not officially declared for another two years. 1755 Britain scatters the Nova Scotia Acadians throughout other North American colonies. 1756 The Marquis de Montcalm assumes a troubled command of French troops in North America. (The Seven Year's War between Britain and France begins in Europe). 1758 Generals Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe take Louisbourg. 1759 Wolfe takes Quebec by defeating Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham (Sept. 13), but both generals are killed. 1760 The British Conquest. General James Murray is appointed first British military governor of Quebec. 1763 France cedes its North American possessions to Britain by the Treaty of Paris. A royal proclamation imposes British institutions on Quebec (Oct.). Western Cree and Assiniboine traders who had benefited from agreements with the French begin to lose profits to the British. 1764 Murray becomes civil governor of Quebec, but his attempts to appease French Canadians are disliked by British merchants. 1768 Guy Carleton succeeds Murray as governor of Quebec. 1772 The Hudson's Bay Company opens Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan. 1774 Carleton's recommendations are instituted in the Quebec Act, which introduces British criminal law but retains French civil law and guarantees religious freedom for Roman Catholics. The Act's geographical claims were so great that it helped precipitate the American Revolution. 1775 The American Revolution begins. Americans under Richard Montgomery capture Montreal (Nov. 13) and attack Quebec (Dec. 31), where Montgomery is killed. 1776 Under Carleton, Quebec withstands an American siege until the appearance of a British fleet (May 6). Carleton is later knighted. 1778 On the last of three voyages to the west coast, Captain James Cook travels as far north as the Bering Strait and claims Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island for the British (Mar. 29- Apr.26). 1783 In Montreal and Grand Portage (in present-day Minnesota), the North West Company is formed by a group of trading partners. The American revolutionary war ends. The border between Canada and the U.S. is accepted from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake of the Wood. In the area around the mouth of the St. John River, those who fled the thirteen American colonies by 1783 are called United Empire Loyalists. Those who arrive after 1783 are called Late Loyalists. Pennsylvania Germans begin moving into southwestern Ontario. 1784 With the Loyalists swelling the population, the province of New Brunswick is created. 1785 The city of Saint John, N.B. is incorporated. Fredericton opens a Provincial Academy of Arts and Sciences, the germ of the University of New Brunswick (1859). 1789 At the behest of the North West Company, Alexander Mackenzie journeys to the Beaufort Sea, following what would later be named the Mackenzie River. 1791 Constitutional Act divides Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. 1792 George Vancouver begins exploration of the Pacific coast. 1793 Mackenzie reaches the Pacific at Dean Channel. 1794 An American diplomat, John Jay, oversees the signing of Jay's Treaty (Nov. 19) between the U.S. and Britain. It promises British evacuation of the Ohio Valley forts and marks the beginning of international arbitration to settle boundary disputes. 1796 York becomes the capital of Upper Canada. 1797 Having worked for the Hudson's Bay Company since 1784, David Thompson joins the North West Company as a surveyor and mapmaker, eventually surveying hundreds of thousands of square miles of western North America. 1798 A new fur-trading company is formed to compete with the North West Company. Confusingly called the New North West Company, it is nicknamed the XY Company from the way it differentiates its bales from those of its competitor. Copyright©2000 Daniel Lessard. All Rights Reserved