Editing Canada (section)

===European colonization===
[[File:Benjamin West 005.jpg|thumb|left|[[Benjamin West]]'s ''[[The Death of General Wolfe]]'' (1771) dramatizes [[James Wolfe|Wolfe]]'s death during the [[Battle of the Plains of Abraham]] at [[Quebec City|Quebec]] in 1759]]
[[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]] began when [[Norsemen]] settled briefly at [[L'Anse aux Meadows]] in Newfoundland around 1000.<ref>
{{cite book
|title=The Norse Discovery of America
|first=Arthur Middleton
|last=Reeves
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HkoPUdPM3V8C&pg=PA7
|publisher=BiblioLife
|page=82
|year=2009
|isbn=9780559054006}}</ref>
No further European exploration occurred until 1497, when Italian seafarer [[John Cabot]] explored Canada's Atlantic coast for England.<ref>{{cite web|title=John Cabot's voyage of 1498|url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/cabot1498.html |publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland|year=2000|accessdate=2011-05-23}}</ref>
Basque and Portuguese mariners established seasonal whaling and fishing outposts along the Atlantic coast.<ref name=hornsby/> In 1534 [[Jacques Cartier]] explored the Saint Lawrence River for France.<ref name=historian>{{cite book|title = A Short History of Canada|first = Desmond | last= Morton|authorlink = Desmond Morton (historian)
|publisher = McClelland & Stewart|year = 2001|edition = 6th|isbn = 0771065094|pages = 9–19, 33, 89–104}}</ref>

In 1583, Sir [[Humphrey Gilbert]] claimed [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's, Newfoundland]] as the first North American [[Colonial empire of the Kingdom of England|English colony]] by royal prerogative of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]].<ref name=DCgil>
{{cite web|title=Gilbert (Gylberte, Jilbert), Sir Humphrey|work=Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online|publisher=University of Toronto|date=May 2, 2005|url=http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34374|accessdate=2011-09-10}}</ref> French explorer [[Samuel de Champlain]] arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at [[Port Royal, Nova Scotia|Port Royal]] in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. Among [[French colonization of the Americas|French colonists]] of New France, ''[[French Canadian|Canadiens]]'' extensively settled the Saint Lawrence River valley and [[Acadians]] settled the present-day [[Maritimes]], while [[Coureur des bois|fur traders]] and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, [[Hudson Bay]], and the [[Mississippi watershed]] to [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]]. The [[Beaver Wars]] broke out over control of the [[North American fur trade]].<ref name=historian/>

The English established additional colonies in [[Cupids, Newfoundland and Labrador|Cupids]] and [[Ferryland, Newfoundland and Labrador|Ferryland]], [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] beginning in 1610 and soon after founded the [[Thirteen Colonies]] to the south.<ref name=hornsby>{{cite book|last=Hornsby|first=Stephen J|title=British Atlantic, American frontier : spaces of power in early modern British America|year=2005|publisher=University Press of New England|isbn=9781584654278|pages=14, 18–19, 22–23}}</ref> A series of four [[French and Indian Wars]] erupted between 1689 and 1763.<ref name=historian/> Mainland [[Nova Scotia]] came under British rule with the [[Treaty of Utrecht]] (1713); the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]] ceded Canada and most of New France to [[British Empire|Britain]] after the [[French and Indian War|Seven Years' War]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Allaire|first=Gratien|title=From "Nouvelle-France" to "Francophonie canadienne": a historical survey|journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language|date=May 2007|issue=185|pages=25–52|doi=10.1515/IJSL.2007.024}}</ref>

The [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]] carved the [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Province of Quebec]] out of New France and annexed [[Cape Breton Island]] to Nova Scotia.<ref name="buckner"/> St. John's Island (now [[Prince Edward Island]]) became a separate colony in 1769.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hicks|first=Bruce M|title=Use of Non-Traditional Evidence: A Case Study Using Heraldry to Examine Competing Theories for Canada's Confederation|journal=British Journal of Canadian Studies|date=March 2010|volume=23|issue=1|pages=87–117|doi=10.3828/bjcs.2010.5}}</ref> To avert conflict in Quebec, the British passed the [[Quebec Act]] of 1774, expanding Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and [[Ohio River|Ohio Valley]]. It re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law there. This angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies and helped to fuel the [[American Revolution]].<ref name="buckner"/>

The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)]] recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. [[New Brunswick]] was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the [[Constitutional Act of 1791]] divided the province into French-speaking [[Lower Canada]] (later [[Quebec#Canadian Confederation|Quebec]]) and English-speaking [[Upper Canada]] (later [[Ontario#Canada West|Ontario]]), granting each its own elected legislative assembly.<ref>{{cite book|last=McNairn|first=Jeffrey L|title=The capacity to judge|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2000|page=24|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=T_A3pZQrHzIC&pg=PA24|isbn=0802043607}}</ref>

[[File:Fathers of Confederation LAC c001855.jpg|left|thumb|[[Robert Harris (painter)|Robert Harris]]'s [[Fathers of Confederation definition|''Fathers of Confederation'']],<ref>This is a photograph taken in 1885 of the now-destroyed 1884 painting.</ref> an amalgamation of the [[Charlottetown Conference|Charlottetown]] and [[Quebec Conference, 1864|Quebec conferences]]]]

[[The Canadas]] were the main front in the [[War of 1812]] between the United States and Britain. Following the war, large-scale immigration to Canada from Britain and [[Ireland]] began in 1815.<ref name=Steckel/> From 1825 to 1846, 626,628 European immigrants landed at Canadian ports.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/ImmigrationHistoryofCanada.htm|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20071216101207/http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/ImmigrationHistoryofCanada.htm|archivedate=2007-12-16|title=Immigration History of Canada|year=2004|publisher=Marianopolis College|accessdate=2011-05-23}}</ref>
Between one-quarter and one-third of all Europeans who immigrated to Canada before 1891 died of infectious diseases.<ref name="dying"/>

The desire for [[responsible government]] resulted in the aborted [[Rebellions of 1837]]. The [[Report on the Affairs of British North America|Durham Report]] subsequently recommended responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into English culture.<ref name="buckner"/> The [[Act of Union 1840]] merged The Canadas into a united [[Province of Canada]]. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Romney|first=Paul|date=Spring 1989|title=From Constitutionalism to Legalism: Trial by Jury, Responsible Government, and the Rule of Law in the Canadian Political Culture|journal=Law and History Review|publisher=University of Illinois Press|volume=7|issue=1|page=128}}</ref> The signing of the [[Oregon Treaty]] by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the [[Oregon boundary dispute]], extending the border westward along the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]]. This paved the way for British colonies on [[Colony of Vancouver Island|Vancouver Island (1849)]] and in [[Colony of British Columbia|British Columbia (1858)]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Evenden|first=Leonard J|coauthors=Turbeville, Daniel E|title=Geographical snapshots of North America|editor=Janelle, Donald G|publisher=Guilford Press|year=1992|page=52|chapter=The Pacific Coast Borderland and Frontier|isbn=0898620309}}</ref>