Canadian History Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts in Canadian history related to citizenship study guide.

Aboriginal peoples

Native peoples of Canada, mistakenly called Indians by early European explorers.

Huron-Wendat

Aboriginal peoples of the Great Lakes region who were farmers and hunters.

Cree and Dene

Aboriginal peoples of the Northwest who were hunter-gatherers.

Sioux

Nomadic Aboriginal peoples who followed the bison (buffalo) herd.

Inuit

Aboriginal peoples who lived off Arctic wildlife.

Vikings

From Iceland, they colonized Greenland and reached Labrador and Newfoundland around 1,000 years ago.

L’Anse aux Meadows

Remains of a Viking settlement in Newfoundland and a World Heritage site.

John Cabot

Explorer who drew the first map of Canada’s East Coast in 1497.

Jacques Cartier

Explorer who made three voyages across the Atlantic (1534-1542), claiming land for France and naming Canada.

Kanata

Iroquoian word for 'village,' which Cartier used to name Canada.

Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain

Established the first European settlement north of Florida in 1604, first on St. Croix Island, then at Port-Royal.

Quebec City (1608)

Site where Champlain built a fortress.

Fur Trade

Economy where the French and Aboriginal people collaborated, driven by European demand for beaver pelts.

Jean Talon, Bishop Laval, and Count Frontenac

Leaders who built a French Empire in North America from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

Hudson’s Bay Company

Granted exclusive trading rights over the watershed draining into Hudson Bay in 1670 by King Charles II of England.

Voyageurs and coureurs des bois

Skilled and courageous men who traveled by canoe and formed alliances with First Nations in the fur trade.

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

Battle in 1759 where the British defeated the French in Québec City, marking the end of France’s empire in America.

Province of Quebec

Name given to the colony after Great Britain took control.

Quebec Act of 1774

Act of British Parliament that accommodated British institutions to the province, allowed religious freedom for Catholics, and restored French civil law.

Loyalists

People loyal to the Crown who fled the American Revolution to settle in Nova Scotia and Quebec.

Joseph Brant

Led thousands of Loyalist Mohawk Indians into Canada.

Constitutional Act of 1791

Divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec), granting legislative assemblies.

Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe

Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant Governor and founder of the City of York (now Toronto).

Mary Ann Shadd Cary

First woman publisher in Canada, founded The Provincial Freeman newspaper dedicated to anti-slavery and black immigration.

Underground Railroad

Christian anti-slavery network that helped thousands of slaves escape to Canada from the United States.

Hudson’s Bay Company

A company, with French, British and Aboriginal employees, that came to dominate the trade in the northwest from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and Fort Edmonton to Fort Langley (near Vancouver) and Fort Victoria.

Laura Secord

Pioneer who made a dangerous journey to warn of an American attack, contributing to victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams in the War of 1812.

War of 1812

Conflict where the United States attempted to conquer Canada, but was ultimately unsuccessful due to the efforts of Canadian volunteers, First Nations, and British soldiers.

Sir Isaac Brock and Chief Tecumseh

Leaders who Defeated an American invasion in 1812–14.

Rebellions of 1837–38

Armed conflicts in Upper and Lower Canada driven by reformers seeking democratic progress.

Lord Durham

English reformer who recommended merging Upper and Lower Canada and granting responsible government.

Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché and Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Reformers who later became Fathers of Confederation.

Sir John A. Macdonald

Former member of the voluntary government militia in Upper Canada, and later a Father of Confederation.

Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine

Champion of French language rights, became the first head of a responsible government in the Canadas in 1849.

Sir Leonard Tilley

Suggested the term Dominion of Canada.

British North America Act

Passed by the British Parliament in 1867, officially creating the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.

Sir John Alexander Macdonald

Canada’s first Prime Minister.

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Key architect of Confederation for Quebec.

Louis Riel

Led Métis uprisings in 1869 and 1885 to protect Métis rights.

North West Mounted Police (NWMP)

Established to pacify the West and assist in negotiations with the Indians.

Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona)

Drove the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1885.

CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway)

Helped Canada's economy grow and become more industrialized during the economic boom of the 1890s and early 1900s.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

First French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation, encouraged immigration to the West.

Canadian Expeditionary Force

The force that Ottawa formed when Germany attacked Belgium and France in 1914.

Vimy Ridge

Captured in April 1917, securing the Canadians’ reputation for valour as the “shock troops of the British Empire.”

Sir Arthur Currie

Canada’s greatest soldier, led the Canadian Corps in the last hundred days of WWI.

Dr. Emily Stowe

Founder of women's suffrage movement in Canada.

Agnes Macphail

First woman MP.

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae

Canadian medical officer who composed the poem “In Flanders Fields” in 1915.

Bank of Canada

A central bank to manage the money supply and bring stability to the financial system, was created in 1934.

D-Day

June 6, 1944, 15,000 Canadian troops stormed and captured Juno Beach from the German Army as part of the Allied invasion of Normandy.

Royal Canadian Air Force

Took part in the Battle of Britain and provided aircrew over Europe.

Royal Canadian Navy

Played a key role in the Battle of the Atlantic and was the third-largest navy in the world at the end of WWII.