Territorial evolution of Canada

This article is part of a series on
Canadian Confederation
Conferences
People
Related
Canada Canada Portal

The history of post-confederation Canada began on July 1, 1867, when the British North American colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were united to form a single Dominion within the British Empire.[1] Upon Confederation, the United Province of Canada was immediately split into the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.[2] The colonies of Prince Edward Island and British Columbia joined shortly after, and Canada acquired the vast expanse of the continent controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, which was eventually divided into new territories and provinces.[3] Canada evolved into a fully sovereign state by 1982.[4]

Before being part of British North America, the constituents of Canada consisted of the former colonies of Canada and Acadia from within New France which had been ceded to Great Britain in 1763 as part of the Treaty of Paris.[5] French Canadian nationality was maintained as one of the "two founding nations" and legally through the Quebec Act which ensured the maintenance of the Canadian French language, Catholic religion, and French civil law within Canada, a fact which remains true today.[6]

Canada today has ten provinces and three territories; it only lost significant territory in the border dispute over Labrador with the Dominion of Newfoundland, which later joined Canada as the 10th province.[7]

  1. ^ Patrick James; Mark J. Kasoff (2008). Canadian Studies in the New Millennium. University of Toronto Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-8020-9468-1.
  2. ^ David Lublin (2014). Minority Rules: Electoral Systems, Decentralization, and Ethnoregional Party Success. Oxford University Press. pp. 279–280. ISBN 978-0-19-994882-6.
  3. ^ Phillip Alfred Buckner (2008). Canada and the British Empire. Oxford University Press. pp. 58–60. ISBN 978-0-19-927164-1.
  4. ^ Frederick Lee Morton (2002). Law, Politics and the Judicial Process in Canada. University of Calgary Press. pp. 63–66. ISBN 978-1-55238-046-8.
  5. ^ Dale Miquelon (2016). New France 1701-1744: A Supplement to Europe. University of Saskatchewan. pp. 74–76. ISBN 978-0-7710-0338-7.
  6. ^ Michael D. Behiels; Matthew Hayday (2011). Contemporary Quebec: Selected Readings and Commentaries. McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 579–580. ISBN 978-0-7735-3890-0.
  7. ^ Fred M. Shelley (2013). Nation Shapes: The Story Behind the World's Borders. University of Oklahoma. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-61069-106-2.