Canadian History 621A

Unit 1: Introduction

Framing the course: the persistent questions rooted in Canada's history, and the individuals, events, and symbols that shaped Canada's development.

• Continuing and persistent questions

• Significance of individuals, events, and symbols

Unit 2: Globalization

Canada in a wider world: the peopling of the Americas, Contact and colonization, Canada's evolving relationships with France, Britain, and the USA, and the World Wars and later 20th century in shaping Canada's identity.

• Theories of the peopling of the Americas
• Indigenous accounts and emerging theories

• The effects of Contact
• The effects of colonization

• Evolving relationships shaping Canada

• WWI and Canada's identity

• WWII and Canada's identity

• Canada's evolving late-20th-century roles

Unit 3: Development

Canada's economic development: Aboriginal economic systems, the staple trade, the National Policy and industrialization, the free trade debate, and current and future economic trends.

• How Aboriginal economies worked
• Aboriginal trade and exchange

• The Staple Trade and colonial development

• The National Policy and industrial growth

• Free trade and Canada's development

• Trends and policies shaping Canada's future

Unit 4: Governance

How Canada is governed: First Nations governance, the merging of European philosophies in BNA, the road to Confederation, federalism, the party system, and the Constitution.

• First Nations governing structures and worldviews
• Treaties and post-Contact governance

• Merging governing philosophies in BNA

• Political and economic roads to Confederation

• Federalism from Confederation to Patriation

• The shift to a multi-party system

• The purpose of the Constitution

Unit 5: Sovereignty

The struggle for sovereignty: how it affects peoples globally, how it creates conflict and compromise, First Nations sovereignty, Quebec nationalism, and external factors on Canadian sovereignty.

• Global struggles for sovereignty

• Conflict and compromise over sovereignty

• Treaties, land claims, and re-establishing sovereignty
• Self-government and self-determination

• The emergence of Quebec nationalism

• External pressures on Canadian sovereignty

Unit 6: Justice

Justice in Canada: contributions to the legal system, land and culture and displacement, immigration policy, inequities of power, and the struggle for rights and freedoms.

• First Nations contributions to the legal system
• French and British contributions to the legal system

• The relationship between land and culture
• The effects of displacement

• Origins and effects of immigration policy

• Inequities of power and responses to them

• The evolution of rights and freedoms

Unit 7: Independent Study (Inquiry)

The course's research spine: conducting specific research using the historical method and communicating the findings effectively.

• Researching with the historical method
• Communicating research findings