HISTORY OF CANADA
~ 40,000 – 30,000 BC:
Prehistoric hunters
migrate from Asia
across the Bering
strait land bridge to
settle North America
~ 9000 BC: Native people are living along the
Eramosa River near todays Guelph, Ontario
~ 5000 BC: Native people have spread into todays
Northern Ontario and Southeastern Quebec
Other migrants from Asia came later,
perhaps as recently as 4,000 years
ago, bringing new languages and
different types of tools and weapons.
Different cultures and nations
developed throughout Canada, with at
least 11 separate language groups with
hundreds of individual languages and a
variety of ways of living.
~ 2000 BC: Inuit people begin to move into what is
now the Northwest Territories
Viking colonists of Iceland and Greenland were
the first Europeans known to have reached
North America. They began to visit the northeast
coast of Canada about AD 985, when they
settled Greenland. Leif Ericson of Greenland
sailed west about AD 1000 to a place he called
Vinland and built a settlement there. This may
have been L’Anse aux Meadows, a place on the
island of Newfoundland and Labrador where
remains of a Viking village were found in the
1960s. But the colony did not last long.
THE VIKING SAGA
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/rock/pages/presentation.html
John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), an
Italian in the service of England,
sailed to Newfoundland in 1497.
Cabot searched for a Northwest
Passage, a westward sea route to
the wealthy empires known to exist
in Asia.
JOHN CABOT
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/rock/pages/cabot.html
Jacques Cartier came from the French
court of King Francis I to explore North
America. In 1534, on his first voyage, he
explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In
Chaleur Bay, he met aboriginal people for
the first time. They were Micmac people,
and their meeting was the first time that
the French and the natives traded furs. For
centuries to come, fur trading would be
important in the development of the North
American colonies.
When Cartier sailed up the gulf and into the Bay of Gaspé, he and
his men were greeted warmly by a group from the Iroquoian nation
of Stadaconé. They had come from their home, which is now the site
of Québec City, on a fishing expedition. The story goes that Cartier
asked the chief, Donnacona, what the land was called. The chief,
who was inviting Cartier into their camp, replied "kanata," their word
for village, as well as their name for the area around their home.
Maybe Cartier understood Donnacona, or maybe he did not, but
"Canada" has remained the name of the whole vast territory that
comprises our country.
Jaques Cartier auf http://www.histori.ca/
NOW IT‘S YOUR TURN TO FIND OUT
MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF
CANADA