Colonial Canada Before Europeans arrived, Canada was inhabited by numerous tribes of First Nations Peoples1 and by the Eskimos in the Arctic area. The earliest discovery of Canada was probably made by Norse2 seamen, the Vikings, as narrated in their sagas. Historical records, however, document a European presence only from 1497, when the Italian Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), landed on what he called Terranova (Newfoundland). Like Columbus, he was in search of a new trade route to the Orient for his patron King Henry VII of England, which gave the English claims3 to North America. This discovery is considered as the beginning of the British Empire, a fact reinforced on 5 August 1583, when Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland as England s first overseas colony under Royal Charter4 of Queen Elizabeth I, in this way officially establishing the British Empire. The explorers reports of immensely rich fishing waters attracted other Europeans. In 1524, King Francis I of France sponsored a Florentine, Giovanni da Verrazzano, to navigate the eastern coastline of North America. It was, however, Jacques Cartier who penetrated into the interior and officially claimed the land for France in 1534. Initial French attempts to settle in the country were not successful, but the profitable fur trade attracted more colonists. The first settlement was at Port Royal (in present Nova Scotia) in 1604. Four years later, the colonists moved to Quebec led by Samuel de Champlain, who founded France s first permanent Canadian colony known as Acadia (from Arcadia, the name given by Verrazzano to all the coastal land north of Virginia). In 1621, King James VI of England, of Scottish origin, gave Sir William Alexander a charter to establish a Scottish Colony, in what is today s Nova Scotia, which was re-conquered by the French in 1631. While French colonizers were well established in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, the British had control not only over the Thirteen Colonies to the south, but also over the Hudson Bay area through the Hudson s Bay Company, established in 1670 and dealing in the fur trade. Meanwhile, La Salle s exploration of the Mississippi river to its mouth in 1682 had given France a claim to a vast area bordering the Thirteen Colonies (a vast territory known as New France , including today s Louisiana). A new conflict between the French and English was inevitable. Queen Anne s War broke out in 1710, ending three years later with the Treaty of Utrecht. France lost Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The peace didn t last long. During the Seven Years War (1756-1763), England extended its conquest, and James Wolfe won his famous victory over Louis Montcalm outside Quebec on September 13, 1759. The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, gave England control over almost all of eastern North America. After the American Revolution, approximately 50,000 loyalists left the U.S. and settled in the British North American colonies. Conflicts between the U.S. and the British colonies occurred between 1812-14. Later, the U.S. agreed to the 49th parallel north as its border with British North America. In 1867, the colonies were united into the Canadian Confederation, which became a dominion of the British Empire in 1907, that is, a self-governing colony. The Statute of Westminster in 1931 finally gave Canada complete legislative independence from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canadian citizenship was first distinguished from British in 1947. 1. First Nations Peoples: indigenous populations of the Americas. 2. Norse: coming from Scandinavia. 3. claim: belief in a right to have something. 4. charter: written permit.