Canada: Colonial Period

France established a permanent presence in what is now Canada beginning in 1608, when Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec along the Saint Lawrence River. The colony, known as New France, grew slowly and depended heavily on the fur trade, though settlers also developed an agricultural society in areas such as Acadia. French claims eventually extended through the Great Lakes and into the interior of the continent, but the colony's European population remained small compared with the neighboring British settlements to the south.

Rivalry between France and Britain culminated in the Seven Years' War, and France's defeat led to the 1763 Treaty of Paris, under which it ceded nearly all of New France to Britain. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 established the Province of Quebec, and the later Quebec Act of 1774 allowed French-Canadian residents to retain their Catholic faith and civil law traditions, easing tensions under the new British administration.

British North America expanded considerably in the following decades, aided by an influx of Loyalist refugees after the American Revolution and later waves of British and Irish immigrants. Colonies such as Upper Canada, Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick developed their own governing institutions, setting the stage for the eventual union of these territories into the Dominion of Canada in 1867.