Territorial Evolution, 1870

Canada

In 1670, a monopoly on fur trade had been given by the British Crown to a company known as the Hudson's Bay Company, headed by Prince Rupert. Along with the trade monopoly came the right to govern all the land with rivers draining into Hudson Bay. This land became known as Rupert's Land. With exploration, and thanks to the fur trade, the region came to be divided into two parts: Rupert's Land, which included all the lands draining into Hudson's Bay, and the Northwest Territory, which included the lands draining into the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

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Photograph of the Railway in Lac Mercier, Quebec

After Confederation, people became more interested in these lands. They were considered to be a new frontier for settlement. When the Americans bought Alaska in 1867, Canadians worried that all the West might be lost to the United States. Serious negotiations between Canada and the Hudson's Bay Company to buy its vast lands began in December 1867. The Rupert's Land Act of 1868 authorized the British Crown to take over the lands of the Hudson's Bay Company, and then transfer them to the Dominion of Canada. According to the Act, Canada bought Rupert's Land for 300 000 pounds, while the Hudson's Bay Company kept its trading posts and 45 000 acres around them, and the right to claim one-twentieth of all the fertile land. Canada did not become the owner of Rupert's Land until 1870, and the lands were not transferred until 1871. The British Crown transferred ownership of the Northwest Territories to Canada at the same time as Rupert's Land.

Many people settled in Canada's West. Because of this, the fifth Canadian province, Manitoba, was created in 1870.

Northwest Territories

Although negotiations between the Dominion of Canada and The Hudson Bay Company were settled in 1868, the transfer of title to this land did not occur until 1870. The Government Act under which this purchase was transacted is known as the Rupert's Land Act. (Prince Rupert headed the Hudson Bay Company, and the land that this company owned was known as Rupert's Land and included all lands draining into Hudson's Bay. The lands of the Northwest Territory, however, drained into the Arctic and Pacific Oceans).

Manitoba

Lord Selkirk had established settlements in the Red River Valley in 1811, and he had named the area Assiniboia. This settlement was given back to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1834, and the boundaries of Assiniboia were set by that Company as a circle about 100 miles wide with Fort Garry at the centre.

During the talks over the sale of the Northwest Territories, no one asked the people who lived there what they thought of the coming sale. The Catholic Métis of the Red River settlement feared that the arrival of many English-speaking Protestant settlers would mean the end of their culture, their way of life and their religion. When the government began to survey the land into quarter-sections, the Métis prepared to defend their rights. Their leader was a Métis named Louis Riel.

In the fall of 1869, the Métis seized Fort Garry, a Hudson's Bay Company fort, and formed their own government. Although the Canadian government finally understood the Metis people's fear for the loss of their rights, it had to deal with a very serious event first. Riel's rebel Métis government had imprisoned and executed Thomas Scott, who had opposed the Riel government. A company of soldiers, both British regulars and Canadian militia, under the command of Colonel Wolseley, was sent to make sure Canadian law was obeyed. The federal government agreed to negotiate with Métis delegates to discuss the entry of the Red River settlement into Canada. The results of the negotiations were the Manitoba Act and the end of the Red River rebellion. As the Canadian soldiers approached, Riel escaped to the United States.

The District of Assiniboia became the province of Manitoba on July 15, 1870. The name "Manitoba" possibly comes from two Indian words -- Minne and Toba -- which mean "water prairie". The new province had the same kind of government as the other provinces, except that it guaranteed both French and English would be considered equal and be the province's official languages, it provided separate schools, and it set aside land for the Métis.

When the province of Manitoba was created, it had nearly double the area of the district of Assiniboia. Its boundaries, in 1870, were the 49th to 50°30' parallels of north latitude, and the 96th to 99th meridians of west longitude. The boundary between Manitoba and the United States followed the 49th parallel, which had been set as the international boundary in 1818.

The animation Territorial Evolution 1867 to 1999 shows sequentially the history of the political boundary changes in Canada from Confederation to the creation of Nunavut.

• Territorial Evolution, 1867 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1871 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1873 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1874 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1876 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1880 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1881 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1882 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1886 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1889 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1895 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1897 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1898 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1901 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1905 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1912 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1920 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1927 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1949 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1999 Map | Read about this map
• Territorial Evolution, 1867 to 1999 Map | Read about this map

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