Editing History of Canada (section)

==Confederation==
{{Main|Canadian Confederation}}
[[File:Fathers of Confederation LAC c001855.jpg|thumb|1885 photo of [[Robert Harris (painter)|Robert Harris']] 1884 painting, ''Conference at Quebec in 1864''. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees, the [[Fathers of Confederation]].]]
The [[Seventy-Two Resolutions]] from the [[Quebec Conference, 1864|1864 Quebec Conference]] and [[Charlottetown Conference]] laid out the framework for uniting British colonies in North America into a federation.<ref name=Confederation/> The Resolutions became the basis for the [[London Conference of 1866]], which led to the formation of the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.<ref name=Confederation>{{cite web |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/index-e.html |title=Introduction |website=Canadian Confederation |publisher=[[Library and Archives Canada]] |date=January 9, 2006 |issn=1713-868X}}</ref> The term [[Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion|''dominion'' was chosen]] to indicate Canada's status as a self-governing [[polity]] of the British Empire, the first time it was used about a country.<ref name="Heard">{{cite web|title = Canadian Independence |first1=Andrew |last1=Heard |url = https://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/324/Independence.html|publisher=Simon Fraser University |year = 1990 |access-date=April 10, 2010}}</ref> With the coming into force of the [[British North America Act, 1867]] (enacted by the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]]), Canada became a federated country in its own right.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/101/102-eng.cfm| last=Department of Canadian Heritage| title=Ceremonial and Canadian Symbols Promotion: The crown in Canada| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| access-date=February 19, 2009| archive-date=August 27, 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827092532/http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/101/102-eng.cfm| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Buck1>{{cite web| url=https://www.royal.uk/canada| publisher=The Royal Household| title=Canada|access-date=8 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/heritage/CorporateSeal/heraldry.htm |title=Heritage Saint John > Canadian Heraldry |publisher=Heritage Resources of Saint John and New Brunswick Community College |access-date=July 3, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617120638/http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/heritage/CorporateSeal/heraldry.htm |archive-date=June 17, 2011 }}</ref> (According to James Bowden, writing in [[The Dorchester Review]], "Ottawa turned its back on 'Dominion' in the 1940s and 1950s," impelled by what historian C.P. Champion referred to as "neo-nationalism.")<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Bowden |first=J.W.J. |title='Dominion': A Lament |url=https://jameswjbowden.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/bowden-2015-the-death-of-the-dominion.pdf |magazine=The Dorchester Review |date=Autumn–Winter 2015}}</ref>
Federation emerged from multiple impulses: the British wanted Canada to defend itself; the Maritimes needed railroad connections, which were promised in 1867; [[English Canadians|English-Canadian]] [[Canadian nationalism|nationalism]] sought to unite the lands into one country, dominated by the English language and [[Loyalism|loyalist]] culture; many French-Canadians saw an opportunity to exert political control within a new largely French-speaking Quebec<ref name=Gwyn/><sup>pp.&nbsp;323–324</sup> and exaggerated fears of possible U.S. expansion northward.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2017.1406965 | doi=10.1080/02722011.2017.1406965 | title=But There Was No War: The Impossibility of a United States Invasion of Canada after the Civil War | year=2017 | last1=MacKenzie | first1=Scott A. | journal=American Review of Canadian Studies | volume=47 | issue=4 | pages=357–371 | s2cid=148776615 }}</ref><ref name="Heard"/> On a political level, there was a desire for the expansion of responsible government and elimination of the legislative deadlock between Upper and Lower Canada, and their replacement with provincial legislatures in a federation.<ref name="Heard"/> This was especially pushed by the liberal [[Reform movement (pre-Confederation Canada)|Reform movement]] of Upper Canada and the French-Canadian ''[[Parti rouge]]'' in Lower Canada who favoured a decentralized union in comparison to the Upper Canadian Conservative party and to some degree the French-Canadian ''[[Parti bleu]]'', which favoured a centralized union.<ref name="Heard"/><ref>{{cite book|first1=Paul |last1=Romney|title=Getting it Wrong: How Canadians Forgot Their Past and Imperiled Confederation|year=1999 |page=78|publisher=University of Toronto Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gOqcacMkvX4C&pg=PA78|isbn=978-0-8020-8105-6|access-date=August 24, 2010}}</ref>

===Territorial expansion west (1867–1914)===
{{Main|Post-Confederation Canada (1867–1914)}}
{{see also|Territorial evolution of Canada}}
{{see also|Numbered Treaties}}
[[File:Canadian Pacific Railway Crew at lower Fraser Valley (1881).jpg|thumb|Construction for the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] at the lower [[Fraser Valley]] in 1881]]
Using the lure of the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]], a transcontinental line that would unite the nation, Ottawa attracted support in the Maritimes and in British Columbia. 
In 1866, the Colony of British Columbia and the Colony of Vancouver Island merged into a [[Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871)|single Colony of British Columbia]]. After Rupert's Land was transferred to Canada by Britain in 1870, connecting to the eastern provinces, British Columbia joined Canada in 1871. In 1873, [[Prince Edward Island]] joined. Newfoundland—which had no use for a transcontinental railway—voted no in 1869, and did not join Canada until 1949.<ref>{{cite book |first1=J. M. |last1=Bumsted |title=The Peoples of Canada: A Post-Confederation History |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195406900/page/8 8]–11 |isbn=978-0-1954-0914-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195406900|url-access=registration}}</ref>
[[File:Battle of Fish Creek.jpg|thumb|The [[Battle of Fish Creek]] in 1885 was a [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] victory over the [[Canadian Militia]] during the [[North-West Rebellion]]]]
In 1873, [[John A. Macdonald]] ([[List of Prime Ministers of Canada|First Prime Minister of Canada]]) created the [[North-West Mounted Police]] (now the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]]) to help police the [[Northwest Territories]].<ref name=rcmp/> Specifically the Mounties were to assert Canadian sovereignty to prevent possible American encroachments into the area.<ref name=rcmp>{{cite web|title=The RCMP's History|url=http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/hist/index-eng.htm|publisher=Royal Canadian Mounted Police|date=2009|access-date=April 12, 2010|archive-date=March 2, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100302191141/http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/hist/index-eng.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Mounties' first large-scale mission was to suppress the second independence movement by [[Manitoba]]'s [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]], a [[Mixed blood|mixed-blood]] people of joint First Nations and European descent, who originated in the mid-17th century.<ref name=testt>{{cite web
 |title=What to Search: Topics-Canadian Genealogy Centre-Library and Archives Canada 
 |work=Ethno-Cultural and Aboriginal Groups 
 |publisher=Government of Canada 
 |date=May 27, 2009 |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogie/022-905.004-e.html 
 |access-date=October 2, 2009 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006095911/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogie/022-905.004-e.html 
 |archive-date=October 6, 2014}}</ref> The desire for independence erupted in the [[Red River Rebellion]] in 1869 and the later [[North-West Rebellion]] in 1885 led by [[Louis Riel]].<ref name=rcmp/><ref name=Boulton>{{cite book |last1=Boulton |first1=Charles A. |date=1886 |url=http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3718748 |title=Reminiscences of the North-West Rebellions |location=Toronto |publisher=The Grip Printing and Publishing |access-date=January 28, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206075652/http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3718748 |archive-date=February 6, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Suppressing the Rebellion was Canada's first independent military action and demonstrated the need to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway. It guaranteed Anglophone control of the Prairies and demonstrated the national government was capable of decisive action. However, it lost the Conservative Party most of their support in Quebec and led to a permanent distrust of the Anglophone community on the part of the Francophones.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Thomas |last1=Flanagan |title=Riel and the Rebellion: 1885 Reconsidered |publisher=University of Toronto Press |date=2000 |pages=4–8 |edition=second |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4u4RGj742v0C&pg=PA4 |isbn=9780802082824}}</ref>
[[File:David Laird explaining Treaty 8 Fort Vermilion 1899 - NA-949-34.jpg|thumb|The [[lieutenant governor of the North-West Territories]] explaining the terms of [[Treaty 8]] to First Nations at [[Fort Vermilion]], 1899]]
As Canada expanded, the Canadian government rather than the British Crown negotiated treaties with the resident First Nations' peoples, beginning with ''[[Treaty 1]]'' in 1871.<ref>{{cite web |first=Gretchen |last=lbers |date=September 25, 2015 |title=Treaties 1 and 2 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/treaties-1-and-2 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=June 3, 2021}}</ref> The treaties extinguished [[aboriginal title]] on traditional territories, created [[Indian reserves|reserves]] for the indigenous peoples' exclusive use, and opened up the rest of the territory for settlement. Indigenous people were induced to move to these new reserves, sometimes forcibly.<ref>{{cite book |last=Daschuk |first=James|page=123|title=Clearing The Plains: disease, politics of starvation, and the loss of Indigenous life |year=2019 |publisher=University of Regina Press |isbn=9780889776227}}</ref> The government imposed the ''[[Indian Act]]'' in 1876 to govern the relations between the federal government and the Indigenous peoples and govern the relations between the new settlers and the Indigenous peoples.<ref name="revparl_IndianAct2002">{{cite journal|url=http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?art=255&param=83|title=The Indian Act: An Historical Perspective|first1=John F. |last1=Leslie|journal=Canadian Parliamentary Review|volume=25|number=2|date=2002}}</ref> Under the ''Indian Act'', the government started the [[Canadian Indian residential school system|Residential School System]] to convert the Indigenous peoples to "industrious Christian Canadians" and extinguish native language and culture.<ref name="GordonWhite">{{cite journal|last1=Gordon |first1=Catherine E. |last2=White |first2=Jerry P. |title=Indigenous Educational Attainment in Canada |url=http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1195&context=iipj |journal=International Indigenous Policy Journal |date=June 2014 |volume=5 |issue=3 |doi=10.18584/iipj.2014.5.3.6 |doi-access=free |access-date=June 27, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130184321/http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1195&context=iipj |archive-date=November 30, 2015}}</ref><ref name="IndigenousFoundations">{{cite web|title=The Residential School System|url=http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/|website=Indigenous Foundations|publisher=UBC First Nations and Indigenous Studies|access-date=April 14, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Luxen">{{cite news|last1=Luxen |first1=Micah |title=Survivors of Canada's 'cultural genocide' still healing |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33001425 |access-date=June 28, 2016 |publisher=BBC |date=June 24, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160725181119/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33001425 |archive-date=July 25, 2016}}</ref>

In the 1890s, legal experts codified a framework of criminal law, culminating in ''[[Criminal Code (Canada)|The Criminal Code, 1892]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Criminal Code, 1892 |publisher=Printed by Samuel Edward Dawson |location=Ottawa |year=1892 |url=https://archive.org/details/criminalcodevic00canagoog |author=Dominion of Canada}}</ref> This solidified the liberal ideal of "equality before the law" in a way that made an abstract principle into a tangible reality for every adult Canadian.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Ian |last1=McKay |title=The Liberal Order Framework: A Prospectus for a Reconnaissance of Canadian History |date=December 2000 |journal=Canadian Historical Review |volume=81 |issue=4 |pages=616–678 |doi=10.3138/chr.81.4.616|s2cid=162365787}}</ref> [[Wilfrid Laurier]] who served 1896–1911 as the Seventh Prime Minister of Canada felt Canada was on the verge of becoming a world power, and declared that the 20th century would "belong to Canada"<ref name=Herd>{{cite book |first1=John Herd |last1=Thompson |first2=Stephen J. |last2=Randall |title=Canada and the United States: ambivalent allies |publisher=University of Georgia Press |date=2008 |page=79 |isbn=978-0-8203-2403-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4KxDd4K1X-gC&pg=PA79}}</ref>

The [[Alaska boundary dispute]], simmering since the [[Alaska Purchase]] of 1867, became critical when gold was discovered in the [[Yukon]] during the late 1890s, with the U.S. controlling all the possible ports of entry. Canada argued its boundary included the port of [[Skagway, Alaska|Skagway]]. The dispute went to arbitration in 1903, but the British delegate sided with the Americans, angering Canadians who felt the British had betrayed Canadian interests to curry favour with the U.S.<ref name="D.M.L.FARR">{{cite encyclopedia |date=March 4, 2015 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alaska-boundary-dispute |title=Alaska Boundary Dispute |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |edition=online |access-date=January 17, 2016 |first1=D.M.L. |last1=Farr |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612163203/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/alaska-boundary-dispute/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1905, [[History of Saskatchewan|Saskatchewan]] and [[History of Alberta|Alberta]] were admitted as provinces. They were growing rapidly thanks to [[Agriculture in Canada|abundant wheat crops]] that attracted immigration to the plains by [[Ukrainian Canadian|Ukrainians]] and Northern and Central Europeans and by settlers from the United States, Britain and eastern Canada.<ref name="AoC-dominion">{{cite web|title=Territorial evolution |work=Atlas of Canada |publisher=Natural Resources Canada |url=http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/anniversary_maps/terr_evol |access-date=October 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809154930/http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/anniversary_maps/terr_evol |archive-date=August 9, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Canada: History |work=Country Profiles |publisher=Commonwealth Secretariat |url=http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/145152/history/ |access-date=October 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012021238/http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/145152/history/ |archive-date=October 12, 2007}}</ref>

Laurier signed a reciprocity treaty with the U.S. that would lower tariffs in both directions. Conservatives under [[Robert Borden]] denounced it, saying it would integrate Canada's economy into that of the U.S. and loosen ties with Britain. The Conservative party won the [[1911 Canadian federal election]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=L. Ethan |last1=Ellis |title=Reciprocity, 1911: A Study in Canadian-American Relations |publisher=Yale University Press |date=1939 |url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94573370 |access-date=August 29, 2017 |archive-date=November 3, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041103011801/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94573370 |url-status=dead }}</ref>