Timeline

Indigenous languages were the first to be spoken in what is now Canada. They were also the main languages used for centuries, even after the arrival of Europeans. To date, over 70 Indigenous languages have been identified in Canada. In some parts of the country, such as Nunavut and Nunavik, where Inuktut is the language of the majority, they are still the main languages.

The first Europeans to set foot on what is now Canadian territory were the Vikings. Almost 500 years after the Vikings’ transitory presence in the village now known as L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Genoese navigator Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot in English or Jean Cabot in French) and his crew explored the coasts of Newfoundland on behalf of the English Crown.

It was at this time that Basque, Breton, Portuguese, English and Norman fishermen and sailors began establishing temporary posts in Newfoundland and Labrador to fish for whales and cod.

On July 24, 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived in Gaspé and claimed the territory for France. Cartier and his crew also established relations with members of the First Nations, including Iroquois chief Donnacona. Cartier would return to Canada in 1535–1536, where he would reach the towns of Stadacona and Hochelaga, now Québec City and Montréal.

Long considered to be the man who “discovered” Canada, Jacques Cartier was the first to name the Canadian territory “Canada,” inspired by the Iroquois word kanata, which means “village.”

In search of the Northwest Passage and led by navigator Martin Frobisher, English explorers reached the northern regions that are now part of Nunavut—Frobisher Bay and Baffin Island—where they encountered the Inuit.

More than 30 years later, in 1610–1611, English navigator Henry Hudson would explore the areas farther south, now known as Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay.

In 1604, French colonists arrived on Saint Croix Island, located between present-day New Brunswick and Maine (USA). After a difficult winter, the settlement was moved to Port Royal, in what is now Nova Scotia. This marked the beginning of the colony of Acadia, and of French-language settlement in what is now Canada. Over the years, the Acadian settlers would forge ties with the Mi’kmaq, an Indigenous people in the region.

Québec City soon became the administrative and political centre of the French colonial territories in America known as New France. Champlain’s alliance with the region’s Indigenous peoples, including the Huron-Wendat, ensured the survival of both the city and the colony. In the years following the founding of Québec City, French settlers would move into the St. Lawrence basin.

As a member of Samuel de Champlain’s crew, Étienne Brûlé was sent on a mission to what is now Ontario in order to learn more about the various Indigenous languages and cultures. Nicknamed the first “Franco-Ontarian,” Brûlé travelled to the Great Lakes and lived with the Hurons, where he became an interpreter.

In 1583, British explorer Humphrey Gilbert officially claimed Newfoundland for England. It wasn’t until 1610, however, that the first colony was established by John Guy at Cupids on the Avalon Peninsula. This was the first permanent English-language settlement in what is now Canada.

The Hudson’s Bay Company established forts and trading posts in the northern region. An English population settled in Rupert’s Land, a territory comprising a large area that today covers the Canadian Prairies, northern and western Ontario, northern Quebec, small sections of the northern United States and Canada’s North. Between 1690 and 1692, Henry Kelsey, an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, would be the first Englishman to reach what is now Saskatchewan, seeking to establish relations with the Indigenous peoples.

After establishing a colony at Plaisance (now Placentia) in 1660, French forces tried to take exclusive control of Newfoundland. In the winter of 1696–1697, a French fleet led by Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville destroyed several English settlements, and most of the colonists died or were deported. The English-speaking population would recover over the following decades, and Irish settlers would arrive in the 18th and 19th centuries.