Social Studies 4

European explorers like Cabot, Frobisher, Hudson, Cartier, and Champlain — and later Cook and Vancouver on the west coast — met First Peoples who had lived on this land for thousands of years.

Fur trading companies — especially the Hudson's Bay Company and its rival the North West Company — competed fiercely for furs, sometimes called the Beaver Wars, and eventually merged.

Both sides traded useful goods (like muskets given to First Peoples, and horses that spread onto the Prairies), sometimes intermarried, and sometimes formed alliances — but sometimes fought, like the wars between Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth and the Cook expedition.

Explorers like Simon Fraser, Alexander Mackenzie, and David Thompson mapped rivers and mountain routes across what became BC while working for fur companies, and Russian and Spanish traders were also active on the coast.

Geography shaped where explorers went and what they were looking for — like a faster route to Asia, or specific resources.

New diseases brought by Europeans, which First Peoples had no immunity to, caused devastating population loss in many First Peoples communities.

The fur trade brought the first steady flow of money and settlers, and its forts became the seeds of the colony.

The Oregon boundary dispute was an argument between Britain and the United States over where the border would lie — it settled where BC's southern boundary is today.

European and American settlement and migration steadily increased the non-First Peoples population, while raids and conflict caused population decreases in some places.

The gold rush caused a population boom as thousands of prospectors arrived — and later a bust when the gold ran out, leaving some towns nearly empty.

New diseases and hard conditions caused huge population loss in many First Peoples communities (disease and demographics).

The Indian Act was a law that let the government control many parts of First Peoples' lives, including where they could live and how communities were governed.

As settlers and governments claimed land, First Peoples lost much of their traditional territory and were pushed onto much smaller areas.

The potlatch ban made an important First Peoples ceremony illegal, and the reserve system moved communities onto small pieces of land, away from much of their traditional territory.

Colonization also affected First Peoples languages and cultures, as newcomer ways were pushed and traditional practices were disrupted.

Local archives and museums hold records, photos, and objects that reveal who lived in a community first and how it has changed over time.

Every community sits on the traditional territory of a local First Peoples community, whose history stretches back long before the town or city was founded.

Comparing old photos, maps, or records to today reveals what has changed and what has stayed the same.

Physiographic features are the major physical landforms of a country — Canada's include mountain ranges (like the Rockies and Coast Mountains), the flat interior plains, long coastlines on three oceans, and vast forest regions.

Natural resources are materials found in nature that people use — Canada has forests for lumber, rich fishing waters, minerals, and energy sources like oil, gas, and hydro power.

These features are found in different regions across the country, and each shapes the landscape and climate around it.

Where a natural resource is found often shapes where towns and cities grew and what work people do there — a fishing village, a mining town, a forestry community.