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Jan 1, 1497
The European Fisheries
After the discovery of Newfoundland by John Cabot in 1497, Europeans fished along the coast of Newfoundland Island, Labrador and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Fish was in high demand because the chrch banned meat consumption for 150 days in Europe. -
Jan 1, 1500
The Amerindians' trading system
In the 1500's the Iroquois and the Algonquians traded in the St. Lawrence Valley. The Iroquois offered their farming surplus for the Algonquians' hunting surplus. The trading occured on the territory occupied by Algonquian bands' summer camps. They didn't trade with money, but with objects. -
Tadoussac
In 1600, the king of France granted Pierre Chauvin the monopoly of the fur trade. He founded Tadoussac in the same year but it was abandoned in 1601 due to the Europeans inability to survive the winter. -
Foundation of Quebec City
In 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded a trading post in Quebec City on the St-Lawrence river due to its strategic position. This was France's first succesful trading post in North America. -
Company of One Hundred Associates
The company was founded by Cardinal de Richelieu in 1627, it was financed by one hundred French shareholders including Samuel de Champlain. The company was the monopoly on the fur trade, and they had to develop and populate New France, which they ignored. -
Foundation of Trois-Rivières
Sieur de Laviolette was put in charge of creating a second settlement where the St-Lawrence and St. Maurice rivers meet. The settlement allowed furriers to communicate with each other and prevent the Iroquois from taking their trades. -
Agriculture in New France
Throughout the French Regime, the majority of the population practiced agriculture. It was a subsistence activity. Wheat was the main crop and the cultivated territory expanded as the poplation grew. -
Mercantilism
Mercantilism was a finacial organization theory practiced under the French regime. European countries believed in exporting more than you import, take in natural ressources from colonies to possess as much gold as possible. -
Hudson's Bay Company
Two French adventurers named Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart, explored the Hudson Bay where they tried to establish the fur trade. Since France didn't support them, they turned to Great Britain and founded the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. The company built trading post's throughout the bay. -
Expansion of New France due to the fur trade
The search for furs led to the expansion of New France in North America. Adventurers travelled the territory on rivers. They explored the Great Lakes, the Prairies, the Rocky Mountains, Hudson Bay, the Ohio Valley and the Mississippi River to Louisiana. -
Blockade by Napoleon
In 1806, the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte created a blockade on the United Kingdom. Desperate for timber for infrastructure of houses, ships, etc. they turned to their colony full of trees, Canada. -
Bank of Montreal
The blockade by Napoleon in 1806 led to the creation of the Bank of Montreal in 1817. This allowed people to invest and obtain credit to develop the timber industry. -
Transportation during the timber industry
The timber industry developed and improved transportation in Canada. Canals, railroads and steamships were all built to transport lumber. There were more canals built than railroads. The Lachine Canal in Montreal on the St Lawrence river, the Rideau Canal between Ottawa and Kingston and the Chambly Canal on the Richelieu River at St Jean. -
New jobs in the lumber industry
New jobs arose from the wood industry: lumber jacks cut down the trees, loggers drove the logs down the river towards the mills and saw millers cut the logs to create planks. -
Reciprocity treaty
After Great Britain ended its protectionist treatment with Canada to practice free trade with the rest of the world, Canada needed to find a new trading partner. They chose their neighbour the United States. In 1854, the two nations signed the Reciprocity Treaty to establish free trade between the two countries. This was to last for 10 years. -
National Policy
In 1874, Canada's first Prime minister Sir John A Macdonald created the National Policy. These were steps to develop the economy of Canada. The three main points of the policy were to increase custom duties to ensure that Canadians were buying Canadian products, build railways to increase trade and unify the country and to encourage immigration because more people equals more money -
Beginning of industrialization
The 19th century was a transition period in the industrialization of Canada. Before this transition, workers were paid with food and performed very difficult tasks and created products by themselves. At the end of the 19th century, workers were given salaries and performed very simple and boring tasks in factories. -
First Phase of Industrialization in Quebec
The first phase of the industrial revolution was mainly focused on raw materials. Many factories were opened in Montreal. Thousands of people left the country side and moved into poorly built neighbourhoods. The life was very poor for workers in cities: long hours, low pay, poor living conditions and epidemics were common. -
Black Thursday
After WW1, production was very high and in the 20's lots of people got very rich. Many buisnessmen invested the money in the New York Stock Exchnage with borrowed money. As the prices of stocks fell, investors paniced and sold all there shares, which led to them losing money. Banks wanted there money back from investors but they had lost it in the Stock Exchange so banks went bankrupt and thousands of people lost their money. -
The Great Depression
After the Wall Street crash, most sectors of the economy were hit hard and was followed by massive layoffs. Families bought little as possible to save their remaining dollars. All capitalist countries were hit hard and millions around the world were affected. This depression lasted for a decade and ended at the beginning of WW2 -
Government solutions during the Great Depression
To help Canadian citizens, the federal governments created public works and work camps to employ the jobless. The government gave direct aid through food stamps and encouraged farming so families could feed themselves. -
The Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution began in Quebec in 1960 after the defeat of the Union Nationale by Jean Lesage and his Liberal Party. The revolution was a process of social, economic and political reform in the province and where we saw a massive increase in government intervention. The government modernized Quebec's educational systemand allow it to catch up to the other provinces, weakened the influence of the Catholic Church and became a major force in electricity, education and health. -
Oil Crisis
The Oil Crisis in the 70's and 80's led to a recession and the deprivitization of many companies that were once owned by the government. -
The Free Trade agreement of 1988
On January 2, 1988 the Free Trade Agreement of 1988 was put in place. This agreement enabled free trade between Canada and the United States and this agreement is still in effect today. -
NAFTA
In 1993, Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico. This allowed the free circulation of goods between the three nations. The effects of NAFTA were unequal because many canadian manufacturing jobs were moved to Mexico and the growth of Canadian exports.
