The history of Toronto dates back to Indigenous settlements in the region approximately 12,000 years ago.
Remains of a Seneca settlement exist at the federally protected Bead Hill archaeological site, in eastern Toronto.
The first European structure built in Toronto was Magasin Royal, a French trading post established in 1720.
In 1793, the government of Upper Canada arranged for the purchase of Toronto from the Mississaugas in order to settle newly landed British American colonists Loyalists, who were exiled from the United States of America after the Revolutionary War.
The oldest intact structure of European settlement may be a piece of St Paul's Cathedral's courtyard railing dating from 1714, designed by Christopher Wren, that is now part of John Howard's tomb in High Park.