This course surveys Canada’s past before 1867.
It looks at original Indigenous inhabitants through French settlers and English conquerors to colonial immigrants, labourers, businessmen, politicians, and women, a panoply of fascinating historical agents.
In addition, significant events, such as group contact/relations, expansion/settlement processes, economic undertakings, military battles as well as rebellions, social developments, and political
evolutions, are examined.
Attention is paid to time’s impact on continuity and change throughout the period, but greater emphasis is placed on understanding these agents and events through the major analytical categories of race/ethnicity, gender, and class.
Doing so helps foster students’ interest in the importance of understanding this country’s past and allows them to acquire greater historical consciousness to critically understand Canadians’ current context.