In the last post, we explored, "Where in the World is Canada?". Today, we will explore, "When in the World was Canada made?". We are going to look at the earliest history of Canada.
Technically, there are 2 answers to this question. 1 is the geological answer and 2 is the anthropologic answer. For those who don't like words, that is rocks and humans.
As far as the geological answer is concerned. This means Canada was formed with the creation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth, etc. Canada can be said to be as old as its oldest rocks. Well, the Canadian shield is said to be from 2.5 to 4.2 billion years old. This is a rock that covers half of Canada in a semi-circular area around Hudson's Bay. Here is a lovely article. Basically, Canada's rocks are old. There is nothing new about most of them.
However, the geological answer is a somewhat useless answer. So we are better off looking at the anthropological answer. According to the prevailing evidence, Canada was first settled by humans sometime around 17000 years ago. However, at this time, people in North America were only settled in Alaska which is part of the modern US and Yukon which is Canada. Massive ice sheets blocked the way.
This is a photo of a painting of the father's of confederation, it's the closest thing to Canada's foundation. Sorry, not a very interesting story unless you like mid-19th century politics. Source
There are some strange theories about how people got around them. However, there is no substantial evidence that humans were in North America beyond the northwest until around 15,000 years ago. Eventually, the ice melted enough and people walked down. However, most of Canada was still ice. So if people lived on top of the ice or along sea ice, it is difficult to know for sure.
Also, it is known that the sea-levels were lower because of the ice-age. People like living along the coast, however, when the sea levels went up again, evidence would have been lost. Most of Canada was uninhabitable until 10000 years ago when the majority of the ice was gone and the last ice-age ended.
If you listen to the First Nations people (Indians) and Inuit (Eskimos) or use evidence such as pottery, strong evidence of humans were settled in Canda since 2000 BC exists. Sure people were around before then, but they may have not settled down. Canadian people have around 4000 years of history that isn't prehistoric.
However, things don't really get interesting again until 1000 years ago. At this time, the Vikings came to Canada. The oldest European settlement in Canada is at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. Actually, they were in Greenland first, but that isn't Canada. In any case, this was nearly 500 years before any other Europeans definitely arrived. If someone says Columbus discovered America, well he wasn't even the first European, also he never went to USA so that technicality doesn't exist (he may have gone to Puerto Rico).
In 1497, 5 years after Columbus first went to the Caribbean, John Cabot landed in Easter Canada. For the next 100 or so years, parts of the Atlantic coast were lightly settled. Mostly it was for fishing and whaling or trading. However, true modern Canada wasn't founded until 1608 when Champlain founded Quebec City and actually started settling Canada. This is when the European Colonialization of Canada started.
There were some wars between Europeans and between natives and between Europeans and natives, then finally there were wars between colonists and Europeans. The first major war was in the 1750s. In 1759, the British defeated the French and gained control of most of Canada. This was made famous in the book Last of the Mohicans. Then the American revolution happened and Canada was left as the only European Colony in Eastern North America.
Some more stuff happened, but other than the war of 1812 and a few waves of European immigrants that led to rioting, there wasn't much substantial until near when Americans had their Civil War. The Americans started madly expanding in every direction and Canadians needed to act.
In 1867, Canada successfully petitioned the Brittish government to grant Canada with Confederation. This is a weird way of saying Canada became a country in the modern sense sort of. Canada was able to have an Independent government, but were still under British rule on non-North American affairs. This is technically when Canada celebrates Canada Day!
In 1931, the Statute of Westminster granted Canada full independence. This was necessary because Canada was actually forced into WW1 by being a colonial subject of Britain. After, Canada was said to be equal and was finally independent. The British parliament had no more authority. However, technically, the commonwealth monarch (Canadian King or Queen) could still do something especially for constitutional changes, but there isn't an example.
In 1965, Canada got its maple leaf flag. Before it was the Union Jack with some Canadian animals and symbols on it, sort of like the Australian and New Zealand flags still are.
Eventually, in 1982, Canada made a separate constitution and started their own common law. Canada is still part of the commonwealth and the queen is the same as the United Kingdom, but Canada has been fully independent legally since then. The United Kingdom could no longer pass legislation for Canada and Royal Ascent was only a formality.
So when did Canada become independent? Well, technically, Canada was always independent since the first humans arrived in prehistoric times. Canada is still a parliamentarian monarchy, but the Queen is a Canadian citizen and the head of state.
I know my Canada, but I got some precise info from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Canada
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