Upper Canada

In 1763, at the end of the Seven Years War France ceded almost all of its North American colonies to Great Britain, including the colony of Quebec. In 1791 Great Britain split Quebec into two.

The more populous, almost entirely francophone Lower Canada comprised all the land along the St Lawrence River, from its confluence with the Ottawa River, and almost all the land surrounding the Gulf of St Lawrence, with the exception of the Island of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and the land south of Prince Edward Island.

Upper Canada, which, at the time, was very loosely settled, compromised all the land around the Great Lakes, North of the newly independent United States, and the land adjacent to the St Lawrence, from Lake Ontario, to the river's confluence with the Ottawa River.

Most of the few European settlers were loyalist refugees, from the newly independent United States, or land-hungry immigrants from the United States.

In 1793 the Province of Upper Canada's first Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, chose York, Upper Canada as the Province's first official Capital. Upper Canada's Lieutenant Governors were subordinate to the Governor General, in Quebec.