History | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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  • Article

    Serpent Mounds

    Serpent Mounds, situated on a bluff overlooking Rice Lake near Peterborough, Ont, is the only known effigy mound in Canada.

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    https://development.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Serpent Mounds

  • Article

    Seven Years' War

    The Seven Years' War (1756–63) was the first global war, fought in Europe, India, America, and at sea. In North America, imperial rivals Britain and France struggled for supremacy. In the United States, the conflict is known as the French and Indian War. Early in the war, the French (aided by Canadian militia and Indigenous allies) defeated several British attacks and captured a number of British forts. In 1758, the tide turned when the British captured Louisbourg, followed by Quebec City in 1759 and Montreal in 1760. With the Treaty of Paris of 1763, France formally ceded Canada to the British. The Seven Years’ War therefore laid the bicultural foundations of modern Canada. This is the full-length entry about the Seven Years’ War. For a plain-language summary, please see Seven Years’ War (Plain-Language Summary).

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/JamesWolfe/Benjamin_West_DeathofGeneralWolfe.jpg Seven Years' War

  • Article

    Shattered

    Eric Walters’s young adult novel Shattered (2006) tells the story of Ian Blackburn. He is shaken out of his privileged life when he meets Jack, a homeless veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. A member of the failed United Nations peacekeeping mission to Rwanda, Jack introduces Ian to some of humanity’s darkest moments. Shattered received the 2007 Ontario Library Association’s White Pine Award for best Canadian children’s book and the 2007 National Chapter of Canada International Order of the Daughters of Empire Violet Downey Book Award.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/home-page-images/Peacekeepers-in-Rwanda.jpg Shattered

  • Article

    Shell Middens

    Archaeologists and natural historians have long been fascinated by shell middens because of their great potential to enhance information about human adaptations and cultures. Early studies focused on the Mesolithic køkkenmøddinger ("kitchen middens") of northern Europe, but similar studies were conducted in Canada by the late 19th century. The English term midden is derived from a Scandinavian root referring to a trash heap composed of domestic refuse and located near a dwelling.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/b0317788-22f0-4674-95ad-d8206ed9fece.jpg Shell Middens

  • Article

    Ships of the War of 1812

    The war on the water was an essential, if not the most important, aspect of the WAR OF 1812. Great Britain was obviously at a disadvantage geographically when trying to defend its colony Canada in a conflict with the United States.

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    https://development.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Ships of the War of 1812

  • Article

    Siege of Fort Erie, War of 1812

    The siege of Fort Erie was a British blockade of their own fort located at the entrance to the Niagara River opposite Buffalo, New York, which the Americans had captured on 3 July 1814.

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    https://development.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Siege of Fort Erie, War of 1812

  • Article

    Sinking of HMCS Esquimalt

    ​On the evening of 15 April 1945, the Canadian minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt set out from Halifax on an anti-submarine patrol around the harbour approaches.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/462169b7-3005-4458-85d7-605eb8f68e2d.jpg Sinking of HMCS Esquimalt

  • Article

    Sinking of HMHS Llandovery Castle

    On the evening of 27 June 1918, while sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Liverpool, England, the Canadian hospital ship Llandovery Castle was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat (U-86). Of the 258 crew and passengers, only 24 survived. Almost all the Canadian Army Medical Corps personnel were killed: six male officers, 64 enlisted men and 14 nursing sisters. Only one lifeboat escaped; the rest were either sucked under as the ship sank or attacked by the U-boat. The submarine’s officers were later charged with committing a war crime. 

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/ASW/VictoryBondsPosterLlandoveryCastle1918.jpg Sinking of HMHS Llandovery Castle

  • Article

    Sinking of the SS Caribou

    The SS Caribou was a passenger and train ferry that operated in the Cabot Strait between Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and North Sydney, Nova Scotia. On 14 October 1942, the German submarine U-69 sank the vessel, causing the worst loss of life in Canadian waters during the Second World War.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/Caribou/ss-caribou-1920-1940.jpg Sinking of the SS Caribou

  • Article

    Slavery Abolition Act, 1833

    An Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies; for promoting the Industry of the manumitted slaves; and for compensating the Persons hitherto entitled to the Service of such Slaves (also known as the Slavery Abolition Act) received Royal Assent on 28 August 1833 and took effect 1 August 1834. The Act abolished enslavement in most British colonies, freeing over 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/9ea57f84-ae9c-45f6-97a9-ee077202abee.jpg Slavery Abolition Act, 1833

  • Article

    Enslavement of Indigenous People in Canada

    To a tremendous extent, the enslavement of Indigenous peoples defines slavery in Canada. Fully two-thirds of the slaves in the colony of New France were Indigenous. After 1750, the number of Indigenous slaves brought into French Canada began to decline. When slavery was abolished in British colonies in 1834, Black slaves far outnumbered Indigenous slaves. (See also Black Enslavement in Canada.) The enslavement of Indigenous peoples is part of a dark legacy of colonization that has had implications on generations of Indigenous peoples in Canada and throughout North America.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/1ddef9e7-e3c5-4510-9e9c-e1994ac29434.jpg Enslavement of Indigenous People in Canada

  • Article

    Smallpox in Canada

    Smallpox is an infectious disease caused by the variola virus. The disease arrived in what is now Canada with French settlers in the early 17th century. Indigenous people had no immunity to smallpox, resulting in devastating infection and death rates. In 1768, arm-to-arm inoculation became more widely practised in North America. By 1800, advances in vaccination helped control the spread of smallpox. Public health efforts also reduced rates of infection. In the 20th century, Canadian scientists helped the World Health Organization eradicate smallpox. Eradication was achieved in 1979, but virus stocks still exist for research and safety reasons. Click here for definitions of key terms used in this article.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/Smallpox/Smallpox_victim.jpg Smallpox in Canada

  • Article

    Social History

    Social history is a way of looking at how a society organizes itself and how this changes over time. The elements that make up Canada’s social history include climate and geography, as well as the transition to industrialization and urbanization.

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  • Article

    Sod Houses

    Sod houses, or “soddies,” were a common style of dwelling built in the Prairies during the second half of the 19th century. Soddies were small structures cheaply built out of blocks of sod and rudimentary house fittings. Sod refers to grass and the soil beneath it that is held together by the grass’s roots. Although the term “sod house” is primarily associated with Canadian and American structures built during westward expansion, the structures found their architectural roots in Indigenous and Norse practices. Sod houses have come to symbolize the hardship of homestead life, despite shacks and log cabins being the primary form of housing.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/5c19f8b0-969e-4d19-b834-6ec2c4de6805.jpg Sod Houses

  • Article

    Sombra Township Treaty (No.7)

    The Sombra Township Treaty of 1796 (also known as Treaty 7 in the Upper Canada treaties numbering system) was an early land agreement between First Nations and British authorities in Upper Canada (later Ontario). It was one of a series of Upper Canada Land Surrenders. The Sombra Township Treaty encompassed a tract of land 12 miles square (about 31 kilometres square) on the St. Clair River in the southwestern part of the colony. The British originally purchased it to offer it for settlement to their Indigenous allies who had fought with them during the American Revolution but who still lived in the new nation of the United States."

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/SombraTreaty.jpg Sombra Township Treaty (No.7)