Riendeau A Roger E. Brief History of Canada

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

The Natural Domain

anada is a vast country, extending more than 4,000 miles from east

to west and upwards of 3,000 miles from north to south. With an

area of 3,850,000 square miles, it is the second-largest nation in the

world, exceeded in size only by Russia. Yet only about one-eighth of the

land is considered habitable, and only about one-twelfth is cultivable,

largely accounting for the fact that Canada’s population has consistently

been about one-tenth the size of that of the United States, even though

Canada’s land area is slightly larger than that of its southern neighbor.

Furthermore, because of the limited quantity of arable land available

for settlement, well over 90 percent of the Canadian population live

within 300 miles of the American border. In his book Canada and the

Canadian Question (1891). Goldwin Smith recognized the implications

of this physical reality for national unity in terms that are no less perti-

nent today than they were more than a century ago:

The habitable and cultivable parts of [Canada] . . . are not

contiguous, but are divided from each other by great barriers

of nature, wide and irreclaimable wilderness or manifold chains

of mountains. . . . Each [part], on the other hand, is closely con-

nected by nature, physically and economically, with that portion

of the habitable and cultivable continent to the south of it which

it immediately adjoins, and in which are its natural markets . . .

(Smith 1891, 1–2).

While Smith had ample reason to question the geographical viability of

Canadian nationhood, people of all cultures and from all places have

always been lured by the challenges and opportunities that Canada

offers. Originally, people of unknown origin crossed this vast land from

the north and west to establish unique civilizations that were thousands

of years old by the time that Europeans arrived from the east and south

over the past ﬁ ve centuries. While the latecomers were equipped with

the technology that enabled them to defy and eventually conquer

nature, the Native peoples learned to live in harmony with nature and

to carve out their legacy in the Canadian wilderness.

In Deﬁ ance of Nature

The paradox that the lines of geographic division in North America tend

to run north and south across the entire continent whereas the direction

of discovery and development has tended to be east and west across the

northern half of the continent has fostered a continuing tension between

nationalism and regionalism in Canada. Geographically, Canada is

divided into seven regions, each with its distinct patterns of landform

and natural resources (Warkentin 1968; Harris and Matthews 1987).

The Atlantic Region

On the East Coast is the Atlantic or Appalachian region, including the

four provinces of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and

Prince Edward Island as well as parts of eastern Quebec south of the

St. Lawrence River. The landscape of this region is dominated by the

Appalachian Highlands, ancient worn-down mountains and plateaus

seldom exceeding 4,000 feet above sea level. As the Appalachian

Highlands extend southward into the New England states, the coastal

plain widens, with the result that the Atlantic Provinces can accom-

modate only about one-tenth as many people as their southern coun-

terpart, even though the two regions cover basically the same land

area. The generally poor soil of the Appalachian Highlands has

restricted agricultural settlement in the Atlantic Provinces to the river

valleys and the narrow coastal plain, while the rugged terrain has been

a barrier to land transportation both within the region and with the

rest of Canada. The fact that, throughout most of their history, the

Atlantic Provinces have had easier contact with the New England

states than with the other Canadian provinces has been a constant

source of political discontent.

On the other hand, the Appalachian Highlands have endowed the

Atlantic Provinces with signiﬁ cant forest and mineral wealth, notably

coal, which sustained economic interest in the region well into the 20th

century. But the foremost natural resource of the Atlantic region is

derived from its maritime location. The deeply indented coastline with

numerous excellent harbors became the launching point for one of the

world’s greatest ﬁ shing grounds, including the once-renowned cod

ﬁ sheries of Newfoundland’s Grand Banks. The lure of the sea in addi-

tion to a ready supply of timber enabled the region to become a proliﬁ c

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA

shipbuilding and shipping center by the middle of the 19th century.

Ultimately, nature would prove to be less generous to the Atlantic

region than it was to other regions to the west and south. A shortage of

fertile land remained a deterrence to population growth, and a limited

resource base could not withstand human exploitation.

The St. Lawrence Lowlands

A stark contrast to the limited resources of the Appalachian region is

the natural abundance of the St. Lawrence Lowlands to the west.

THE NATURAL DOMAIN

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA

Encompassing most of southern Quebec and southern Ontario, this

predominantly ﬂ at fertile plain occupies less than 2 percent of Canada’s

total area but accommodates over 60 percent of the nation’s population.

Blessed with a favorable climate, excellent soil, and easy access by land

and water, the upper St. Lawrence Valley and Great Lakes basin was the

original agricultural heartland before becoming the commercial, indus-

trial, and ﬁ nancial center of the nation. Indeed, the contrasting fates of

the St. Lawrence and Atlantic regions demonstrate the importance of

agriculture in laying the foundation for future economic and popula-

tion growth in Canada.

Transportation was another key to development. From the outset,

the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes formed a vital water high-

way linking the Atlantic Ocean with the continental interior. Ironically,

this east-west route proved to be an agent of both continentalism and

nationalism. On the one hand, the waterway facilitated the movement

of people and goods to and from New York and Pennsylvania as well as

the Ohio-Mississippi Valley, a natural extension of the St. Lawrence

lowlands. On the other hand, the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes system

launched a succession of explorers and traders along a transcontinental

course leading to the northwest and Paciﬁ c regions, later followed by

the railroad. Thus, the St. Lawrence region emerged as a hub of trans-

portation and trade, thriving as a beneﬁ ciary of the north-south pull of

the United States and as a catalyst for east-west integration within a

national economic framework.

The Canadian Shield

The dominance of the St. Lawrence region was reinforced by still

another geographical factor—access to a resource frontier to the

north and west. Initially, the vast wilderness to the north, known as

the Canadian Shield, was considered to be the chief obstacle to

Canadian development. This expanse of Precambrian rock, worn

down by millions of years of glaciation, covers almost half of Canada’s

land surface, including much of the northern frontiers of Quebec,

Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, as well as Nunavut and the

eastern edge of the Northwest Territories. The rugged terrain of the

Shield is interspersed with forest, scrub bush, muskeg swamp, numer-

ous lakes and streams, and isolated pockets of arable land that offered

little or no attraction to the farming pioneer. Thus, until the late 19th

century, the Shield remained a colossal barrier to the spread of settle-

ment westward from the St. Lawrence region. Only the fur trader

voyaging by canoe and portage was capable of regularly negotiating

the 1,000-mile trek.

Advancing technology and industrialization, however, would trans-

form the Shield from an uninhabitable wilderness to a valuable hinter-

land. The building of the Canadian Paciﬁ c Railway during the 1880s

not only regularized transportation and communication across this bar-

rier but also uncovered a treasure house of natural resources. Minerals

both base and precious, pulpwood for paper production, and hydro-

electric power harnessed from the fast-ﬂ owing rivers and streams have

greatly enhanced industrial development, particularly in southern

Ontario and southern Quebec, and have provided another exportable

commodity for the increasingly important U.S. market. Furthermore,

the forest areas of the southern Shield, with their numerous lakes and

rivers, have become an attractive sporting and vacation land in the lei-

sure-conscious 20th century. While the opening of the northern

resource frontier has led to the establishment of small communities

around centers of activity, the lack of cultivable land in addition to a

less favorable climate has limited population growth to less than 5 per-

cent of the national total.

The Hudson Bay Lowlands

and the Arctic Region

To the north of the Shield lie two other sparsely settled regions that

together encompass nearly one-third of Canada’s land area. Surrounding

Hudson and James Bays along the northern edges of Manitoba and

Ontario, the Hudson Bay Lowlands make up an infertile plain, locked

in permafrost and characterized by marshes, peat, and innumerable

ponds. The vast Arctic region, including the northern coastal mainland

of Canada and the Arctic islands, is mostly treeless tundra and rock,

frozen eight to nine months of the year. Aside from the indigenous

population, the region has sustained small-scale fur trading posts and

whaling stations since the mid-19th century. In recent times, the region

has taken on strategic value as a location for weather and radar stations.

The future also holds out the promise of signiﬁ cant mineral and energy

resources, but the cost of northern development and exploration tends

to place a considerable strain on an economy sustained by a population

of 31.6 million. In the ﬁ nal analysis, the vast expanse of northland,

including the Shield, the Hudson Bay Lowlands, and the Arctic region,

is a major factor contributing to the population discrepancy between

the two North American nations.

THE NATURAL DOMAIN

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA

The Great Central Plains

Nowhere are the limiting and divisive effects of geography more evident

than in the Great Central Plains region to the west of the Canadian

Shield. A northern extension of the great continental plain that stretches

unbroken and ever-widening from the Arctic Ocean toward the Gulf of

Mexico, this region is almost evenly divided into two distinct subregions.

The portion immediately north of the international boundary consists of

the ﬂ at, treeless Prairie triangle extending 750 miles from eastern

Manitoba to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and projecting 400

miles northward into Alberta. The Prairie region—including the dry belt

in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan where the

American desert reaches across the border—represents three-quarters of

the cultivable land in Canada. The area to the north of the main Prairie

region is generally characterized by more undulating forested land of low

agricultural potential and deteriorating climate conditions, although fer-

tile pockets of land that are difﬁ cult to access can be found in the Peace

and Mackenzie River valleys. While this northern parkland was attractive

to the early fur traders, the grain-growing potential of the southerly

Prairie region was the catalyst for national development in the late 19th

and early 20th centuries and a source of sectional discontent thereafter.

Distance from major markets and suppliers, dependence on ﬂ uctuat-

ing world prices, and vulnerability to the hazards of nature, including

cyclic droughts and an erratic growing season—have all combined to

make Prairie farming a precarious occupation. Within this context, Prai-

rie farmers have grown resentful of national government policies that

appear to serve the interests of central Canadian manufacturers and

bankers at their expense. The prosperity generated by discovery of oil

and natural gas in Alberta and Saskatchewan in the mid-20th century

and subsequent disagreements between the provincial and national gov-

ernments over pricing and marketing policies have intensiﬁ ed western

discontent over central Canadian “imperialism.” This political alien-

ation has reinforced a prevailing sense of physical isolation caused by

formidable mountain barriers to the east and west. Thus, prairie inhabit-

ants invariably feel a closer afﬁ nity to the plains dwellers south of the

border than to their fellow Canadians to the east, west, or north.

The Western Cordilleras

Western alienation and isolation is compounded by the imposing

Cordilleras, a mountain system extending the length of the Paciﬁ c coast

of North and South America. The Canadian part of the Cordilleras,

which covers about one-sixth of the nation’s total area, dominates the

landscape of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory to the north.

Unlike those of the Canadian Shield and the Appalachian Highlands,

these are young mountains rising to a height of 13,000 feet. Early trav-

elers from the east faced the daunting prospect of surmounting the

Rockies, which loom majestically over the Alberta ﬂ atlands. Before

reaching the Paciﬁ c shores they had to cross three other formidable

ranges—the Selkirk, Coast, and Cascade—rising parallel to one another.

It is therefore not surprising that this region, like the Canadian Shield,

remained the private domain of the fur traders and the indigenous

people until the completion of the Canadian Paciﬁ c Railway in 1885.

Thereafter, the development of British Columbia paralleled that of

the Shield region with the recognition of its abundant mineral, forest,

and hydroelectric power potential for industrial production, in addition

to its coastal ﬁ sheries. But unlike the Shield region, British Columbia is

blessed with fertile soil and a temperate climate in its southern river

valleys, which proved attractive for agricultural settlement. In particu-

lar, the Fraser Valley in the southwest corner contains over half of the

province’s population even though it covers less than 1 percent of the

province’s area. As a result of this concentration of population close to

the U.S. border, along with the mountain barriers and the vast distance

from central Canada, British Columbians have developed a distinctly

Paciﬁ c outlook with stronger connections with the people of California

and the nearby American northwestern states than with their fellow

Canadians to the east.

Given the prevailing geographic realities, it seems remarkable that

Canada could have been conceived as a transcontinental nation in the

modern sense, let alone enduring and even prospering for the past 130

years. Not only have Canadians had to overcome the challenges of geog-

raphy but they have had to resist the temptation to follow the dictates

of nature and to cast their lot with a better endowed and more powerful

neighbor, as Goldwin Smith urged them to do. In choosing to defy

nature for the sake of nationalism, modern Canadians have effectively

pursued a course somewhat different from that of their indigenous

ancestors who also sought an independent existence but one essentially

in harmony with nature.

In Harmony with Nature

The original inhabitants of North America left no direct written account

of their evolution prior to sustained European contact beginning in the

THE NATURAL DOMAIN

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA

late 15th century. But archaeological evidence suggests that they

migrated from Siberia to Alaska via a land bridge known as Beringia

toward the end of the last ice age at least 10,000 years ago. Even when

the glacial ice sheets melted and Beringia was submerged by the pres-

ent-day Bering Sea, it was still possible to make the approximately 50-

mile crossing between Siberia and Alaska. As many as 10 million people

may have gradually spread across the continent in search of more favor-

able hunting and ﬁ shing sites. To these ﬁ rst peoples, North America

was truly a boundless frontier; their freedom of movement was

restricted only by geographical barriers or by clashes with more power-

ful enemies. Unencumbered by political boundaries in the modern

sense, the indigenous people tended to cluster in small, culturally

diverse tribes or bands wherever it suited their needs.

The estimated 250,000 to 500,000 indigenous people who roamed

the Canadian territory probably belonged to even more than the 11

linguistic families speaking at least 53 distinct languages that currently

exist among the Native people of Canada (Dickason 2002; Jenness

2000). Although common language and customs could form the basis

of tribal organization, the nomadic lifestyle of the Native people and

the extent of territory over which they wandered often worked against

political or cultural unity on this basis. A more enduring and distin-

guishable basis of unity was more often evident among those Native

bands who adapted their way of life to the conditions and resources of

the regions that they occupied. Thus, Native cultural divisions tend to

coincide with Canada’s geographic divisions.

Eastern Woodlands

The dense forests of the Appalachian Highlands, the St. Lawrence

Lowlands, and the lower fringes of the Canadian Shield in Quebec and

Ontario provided a common environment for a Native population that

belonged to two unrelated linguistic families. An estimated 30,000 to

40,000 Algonquian-speaking people occupied the Maritime and lower

Shield regions. Most notable among the eastern Algonquians were the

Micmac of Nova Scotia and the Malecite of New Brunswick, and per-

haps the now-extinct Beothuk of Newfoundland. The Algonquians

further inland included the Montagnais along the lower St. Lawrence

Valley, the Algonquin of the Ottawa River valley, the Nipissing in the

Lake Nipissing region, the Ottawa on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron,

and the powerful Ojibwa or Chippewa along the north shore of Lakes

Huron and Superior.

Depending on their location, the nomadic Algonquians hunted deer,

moose, caribou, bear, seal, and walrus as a source of food, clothing, tools,

and weapons. They gathered wild rice and an assortment of berries, nuts,

tubers, and plants, in addition to harvesting maple and birch sap. Agri-

culture as a subsistence activity was either marginal or nonexistent

among most of the Algonquians. To assist one another in obtaining

food, several closely related families joined together to form a band,

and the band-village led by a hereditary male chief became the principal

political unit. Band-villages, however, were not strictly demarcated,

and all members had equal access to basic subsistence resources. To

navigate the waterways of the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes system, the

central Algonquians became skilled in making and handling the birch-

bark canoe, which later European traders and explorers would ﬁ nd

indispensable in opening up the Canadian frontier.

An estimated 70,000 to 90,000 Iroquoian-speaking people inhabited

much of the St. Lawrence lowlands and the neighboring New York,

THE NATURAL DOMAIN