First-year courses · Humanities

Canadian history survey: New France to 1982

Canadian history survey flashcards: New France, the Conquest, Confederation, western expansion, the Indian Act, both world wars, the Quiet Revolution and 1982.

42 cards5 topicsAbout 15 minutes a roundTypical first-year survey of Canadian history

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About this deck

This deck follows the arc of a first-year Canadian history survey, from the founding of New France through British rule, Confederation and western expansion, the Indian Act, the two world wars, postwar change in Quebec and across the country, and the constitutional settlement of 1982. Each card gives a date or period and a short, neutral explanation of why the event matters.

History courses reward understanding cause and consequence more than memorizing dates, but a small set of anchor dates makes everything else easier to place: 1608, 1759 and 1763, 1867, 1876, 1885, 1914 to 1918, 1939 to 1945, the 1960s and 1982. Learn these first, then hang other cards on them.

A good study method is to build a simple timeline on one page and add each card as you learn it, noting who was affected and how. Many events had very different meanings for different groups, including Indigenous nations, French and English Canadians, immigrants and women. Being able to describe those perspectives fairly is a key skill in history essays.

Common mistakes include dating Confederation to the whole country (only four provinces joined in 1867), mixing up the Royal Proclamation and the Treaty of Paris (both 1763 but different documents), and assuming women gained the federal vote all at once. Several groups were excluded from voting on the basis of race or Indigenous status for decades after 1918.

Before you start: None; high school Canadian history or social studies is helpful.

All 42 cards

Cover the definitions with a sheet of paper and test yourself, or use the study modes above.

New France and British North America

Founding of Quebec (1608): Samuel de Champlain set up a permanent French trading post on the St. Lawrence, which became the centre of New France.Example: The settlement depended on fur trade alliances with the Wendat and Innu.
Hudson's Bay Company (1670): English trading company granted a royal charter to trade in the vast drainage basin of Hudson Bay, called Rupert's Land.Example: Its posts relied on Cree and other Indigenous trappers and guides.
Seigneurial system: Land system of New France in which seigneurs held long narrow lots along rivers and granted farms to tenants, called censitaires, who owed dues.Example: Its strip-shaped lots still mark the landscape along the St. Lawrence.
Expulsion of the Acadians: Forced removal by British authorities, beginning in 1755, of thousands of French-speaking Acadians from Nova Scotia and nearby areas.Example: Many were sent to the American colonies; some later settled in Louisiana.
Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759): British victory outside Quebec City during the Seven Years' War in which both commanders, Wolfe and Montcalm, died.Example: It led to the surrender of Montreal in 1760.
Treaty of Paris (1763): Agreement ending the Seven Years' War in which France ceded New France to Britain, keeping only Saint-Pierre and Miquelon nearby.Example: Often called the Conquest from the French Canadian point of view.
Quebec Act (1774): British law that restored French civil law for private matters, allowed Catholics to hold office and enlarged Quebec's boundaries.Example: It helped secure French Canadian loyalty during the American Revolution.
Loyalists: Colonists who remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolution, many of whom moved north after 1783.Example: Their arrival led to the creation of New Brunswick in 1784.
Constitutional Act (1791): Law that split Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada, each with an elected assembly.Example: Upper Canada was mostly English-speaking; Lower Canada mostly French-speaking.
War of 1812: Conflict between the United States and Britain in which American invasions of the Canadas were repelled with help from Indigenous allies and militia.Example: Tecumseh and Isaac Brock captured Detroit in 1812.
Rebellions of 1837 and 1838: Armed uprisings in Lower and Upper Canada against colonial oligarchies, led by Papineau and Mackenzie, that were defeated.Example: They prompted Lord Durham's inquiry.
Durham Report (1839): Report recommending union of the two Canadas and responsible government, and openly aiming to assimilate French Canadians.Example: It led to the Act of Union, in force in 1841.
Achievement of responsible government (1848): The point at which colonial governors in Nova Scotia and the Province of Canada began choosing ministers who had the support of the elected assembly.Example: Baldwin and LaFontaine formed a reform ministry in the Province of Canada.

Confederation and expansion

Confederation (1867): Union of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada, split into Ontario and Quebec, into the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.Example: Planned at the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences of 1864.
John A. Macdonald: Leading architect of the 1867 union and first prime minister, whose record includes nation-building projects and harmful policies toward Indigenous peoples.Example: Debates continue over how to commemorate him.
Red River Resistance (1869 to 1870): Métis-led movement under Louis Riel that formed a provisional government after Canada acquired Rupert's Land without consulting local people.Example: It led to the Manitoba Act and Manitoba joining in 1870.
North-West Resistance (1885): Armed conflict in present-day Saskatchewan in which Métis and some Cree and other First Nations fought Canadian forces; Riel was later hanged.Example: Battles included Duck Lake and Batoche.
Canadian Pacific Railway completion (1885): The last spike of the transcontinental line was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia, fulfilling a promise made to bring BC into the federation.Example: Thousands of Chinese labourers built the most dangerous mountain sections.
Chinese head tax: Fee imposed from 1885 on Chinese immigrants, raised to $500 in 1903, followed by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 that largely banned their entry until 1947.Example: The federal government formally apologized in 2006.
Alberta and Saskatchewan (1905): Year two new provinces were created from the North-West Territories as settlement on the Prairies grew rapidly.Example: Many settlers came from Britain, the US and Eastern Europe.
Newfoundland joins Canada (1949): Newfoundland became the tenth province after two referendums in 1948.Example: Joey Smallwood led the campaign for joining.

Indigenous policy

Indian Act (1876): Federal law that consolidated earlier legislation and gave the government sweeping control over First Nations status, land, governance and daily life.Example: Still in force today, though amended many times.
Numbered Treaties (1871 to 1921): Eleven treaties between the Crown and First Nations covering much of the Prairies, northern Ontario and parts of the North.Example: Treaty 7, signed in 1877, covers southern Alberta, including Calgary.
Residential school system: Network of government-funded, mostly church-run boarding schools that removed Indigenous children from their families to assimilate them; the last closed in 1996.Example: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented its harms.

World wars

Vimy Ridge (April 1917): First World War battle in France where all four Canadian divisions attacked together and captured a strongly defended ridge.Example: About 3,600 Canadians were killed.
Conscription Crisis of 1917: Bitter national division when the federal government introduced compulsory military service, opposed strongly in Quebec.Example: The Military Service Act passed in August 1917.
Halifax Explosion (1917): Collision of a munitions ship with another vessel in Halifax Harbour that caused a massive blast, killing about 2,000 people.Example: It remains one of the largest accidental human-made explosions.
Women's federal vote (1918): Law extending the federal vote to many women aged 21 and over, though people excluded on grounds of race or Indigenous status had to wait longer.Example: Asian Canadians gained the federal vote in the late 1940s; status First Nations people in 1960.
Persons Case (1929): Ruling by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council that women are 'persons' under the 1867 constitution and can be appointed to the Senate.Example: Brought by five Alberta women known as the Famous Five.
Statute of Westminster (1931): British law confirming that dominions such as Canada had full legislative independence, though amending Canada's constitution still required Britain.Example: Canada later declared war separately in 1939.
Canada enters the Second World War (1939): Canada's Parliament declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939, a week after Britain, showing its independent foreign policy.Example: More than one million Canadians served in uniform.
Internment of Japanese Canadians: Forced removal from 1942 of more than 21,000 Japanese Canadians from the BC coast to camps and work sites, with their property seized and sold.Example: The federal government apologized and offered redress in 1988.
Juno Beach (June 6, 1944): One of five Allied landing beaches in Normandy on D-Day, assigned to Canadian forces.Example: Canadians advanced farther inland that day than most Allied units.

Postwar and modern Canada

Canadian citizenship (1947): A 1946 federal law that took effect on January 1, 1947 created a distinct legal status for Canadians, who had until then been classed only as British subjects.Example: Prime Minister Mackenzie King received certificate number 0001.
Quiet Revolution: Period of rapid change in 1960s Quebec, starting with Jean Lesage's 1960 election, when the provincial state replaced the Church in education and welfare and Quebec nationalism grew.Example: Private power companies were brought into Hydro-Québec in 1963 and a provincial Ministry of Education was created in 1964.
Medicare: Publicly funded hospital and physician care; Saskatchewan led in 1962, federal cost-sharing followed in 1966 and the Canada Health Act set national principles in 1984.Example: Tommy Douglas is closely linked to its origins.
Official Languages Act (1969): Federal law making English and French the official languages of federal institutions with equal status.Example: Federal services must be available in both languages in designated areas.
October Crisis (1970): Kidnappings by the FLQ in Quebec, including the murder of cabinet minister Pierre Laporte, led to the federal use of the War Measures Act.Example: Hundreds were detained without charge.
Multiculturalism policy (1971): Federal policy announced by Pierre Trudeau supporting cultural diversity within a bilingual framework, later given legal form in the Canadian Multiculturalism Act of 1988.Example: Funding for heritage language programs and ethnic community groups.
Quebec referendums (1980 and 1995): Two provincial votes on sovereignty proposals; the 1980 vote was rejected by about 60 percent and the 1995 vote by a margin of about one percentage point.Example: The 1995 result was 50.58 percent No.
Patriation and the Charter (1982): Canada gained full control over its constitution and entrenched the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, without the agreement of the Quebec government.Example: Proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth II in Ottawa on April 17, 1982.
Creation of Nunavut (1999): Division of the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, creating a territory with a majority Inuit population, flowing from the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.Example: Iqaluit is its capital.