Canada Facts

16th Century and 17th Century

The first Europeans to reach Canada were the Vikings. In 986 a Viking called Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off course by a storm and he spotted a new land. In 1001 a man named Leif Eriksson landed in the new land, which he named Vinland (it was part of Canada). Later the Vikings did establish a colony in North America but they abandoned it because of conflict with the natives.

In 1603 a Frenchman named Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) sailed up the St Lawrence River. In 1604 he founded Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia), and in 1608 he founded Quebec. The French settlers traded with the natives for furs and farmed the land. Unfortunately, they also brought European diseases like smallpox, to which the natives had no resistance. By 1685 the population of New France was about 10,000; by 1740 it was 48,000.

20th and 21st Century

In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the population of Canada grew rapidly. The Canadian economy also expanded rapidly helped by the spread of railways. A transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885.

More than 60,000 Canadian men died in the First World War. Manitoba was the first province to allow women to vote in provincial elections. Canada suffered from a huge drop in exports of timber, grain, and fish in the 1930s. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Canadian economy boomed and Canada became an affluent society.

Canada, like other nations, struggled during the 2009 recession. However, Canada quickly rebounded. In April 2012, Canada's unemployment rate was 8.1%. By September 2013, it had dropped to 6.9%. Canada is now an affluent country with abundant natural resources. Canada's population was 37 million in 2019.