Canadian history The first Canadians were the native Indians who came from Asia over 10,000 years ago. They were fishers, hunters and farmers. They developed different cultures in different areas. In Central America these people developed one of the most famous independent centres of world civilization, with science, writing and advanced construction techniques. Scientists now believe there were different waves of settlement from Asia which spread out over the American continent. That is why there are different language groups in different areas. There may have been other visitors to North America over the centuries but we do not know for sure.
The first known European visitors were the Vikings roughly 1,000 years ago. Because of wars and pressure on the land, some Vikings had left Europe and settled in Iceland. For the same reasons they moved on to Greenland. The world was warmer at that time, otherwise Greenland would not have been called Greenland. From there the Vikings went further west and stopped on the east coast of Canada. They found nature there to be very pleasant, green and rich. They fought with the local natives, some of their people were killed and therefore they left and returned to Iceland.
Western Europeans were fishing off the east coast of Canada in the 16th century. Eventually French and English people started settling as farmers and fur traders all along the Atlantic Coast of North America. Wars between European powers like France, England, Spain and Holland affected developments in North America. In 1763 England defeated France at the battle of Quebec and this meant that Canada became English instead of French. At that time most Europeans in Canada were French speakers. This now started to change.
In 1776 the American War of Independence took place. A new nation was created. The United States. Many people living in the new United States wanted to remain a part of the British Empire. Many tens of thousands of people moved north to Canada. These were the United Empire Loyalists. This was the first large scale movement of English speaking people into Canada. These people were really Americans and they determined how Canadians would speak English. These people wanted to remain loyal to the King of England. During the 19th century there was major immigration from Great Britain to Canada. Much of this immigration was from Scotland and Northern Ireland. As a result Canada was very closely attached to the British Empire.
