History of Manitoba
The history of Manitoba covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day.
When European fur traders first travelled to the area present-day Manitoba, they developed trade networks with several First Nations.
Traders from the Hudson's Bay Company expanded their operations to areas formerly occupied by French fur trading forts.
In 1870, the Deed of Surrender was enacted, transferring Rupert's Land from the United Kingdom to Government of Canada, forming the North-West Territories.
Canada started a process of Numbered Treaties with the First Nations to settle aboriginal title in the North-West and clear land for settlers.
[2] Eventually there were aboriginal settlements of Ojibwa, Cree, Dene, Sioux, Mandan, and Assiniboine peoples, along with other tribes that entered the area to trade.
The Whiteshell Provincial Park region along the Winnipeg River has many old petroforms and may have been a trading centre, or even a place of learning and sharing of knowledge for over 2000 years.
Button was a member of the "Company of the Merchants Discoverers of the North-West Passage" and he hoped to find a trade route to China.
[4] Henry Kelsey was the first European to travel from Hudson Bay to the prairies, reporting the buffalo and grizzly bears that he saw.
The Hudson's Bay Company traded with native fur traders that canoed far and wide along the many rivers of present-day Manitoba.
Most rivers and water in Manitoba eventually flow north, not south or east as is commonly assumed, and empty into Hudson Bay.
The Hudson's Bay Archives is located within Winnipeg, Manitoba, and preserves the rich history of the fur trading.
The agreement for the establishment of the Province had included guarantees that the Métis would receive grants of land and that their existing unofficial landholdings would be recognized.
[17] The Manitoba Schools Question showed the deep divergence of cultural values in the territory and became an issue of national importance.
The Catholic Franco-Manitobains had been guaranteed a state-supported separate school system in the original constitution of Manitoba, such that their children would be taught in French.
[18] The French Catholic minority asked the federal government for support; however, the Orange Order and other anti-Catholic forces mobilized nationwide to oppose them.
Winnipeg eventually fell behind in growth when other major cities in Canada began to boom ahead, such as Calgary today.
In the 1917 election in the midst of the conscription crisis, the Liberals were split in half and the new Union party carried all but one seat.
After the First World War ended, severe discontent among farmers (over wheat prices) and union members (over wage rates) resulted in an upsurge of radicalism, coupled with a polarization over the rise of Bolshevism in Russia.
However harbour construction at Port Nelson ran into engineering and costs problems and was abandoned during the First World War.
Several Manitoba-based regiments were deployed overseas, including Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
The damage caused by the flood led then-Premier Duff Roblin to advocate for the construction of the Red River Floodway; it was completed in 1968 after six years of excavation.
[30] In 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney attempted to pass the Meech Lake Accord, a series of constitutional amendments to persuade Quebec to endorse the Canada Act 1982.
[32] Manitoba voters are divided along numerous cleavages, such as rural and urban, north and south, British (WASP) and ethnic, and businessmen/ professionals/ farmers/ workers.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) has a base among the ethnically diverse and low-income communities of Northern Manitoba and north Winnipeg.
Wesley argues that the key to success lies in designing moderate platforms that avoid extremes, emphasize progress, and pursue a middle-of-the-road path.
