transport: History of Toronto

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Toronto, Canada's largest city, was founded as the Town of York and capital of Upper Canada in 1793 after the Mississaugas sold the land to the British in the Toronto Purchase. For over 12,000 years, Indigenous People have lived in the Toronto area. The ancestors of the Huron-Wendat were the first known groups to establish agricultural villages in the area about 1,600 years ago. In the 17th century, the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail along the Humber River became a strategic site for controlling the fur trade farther north. The Seneca people established a village of about 2,000 people known as Teiaiagon along the trail. The French set up trading posts in the area, including Fort Rouillé in 17…

Evidence: 64 • authority: 88

“Toronto Has No History!” Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, and Historical Memory in Canada’s Largest City. In 1884, during a week-long commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Toronto’s incorporation in 1834, tens of thousands celebrated Toronto’s history and its relation to British colonialism and imperialism. The author’s analysis of the historical tableaux in the first day’s parade and speeches by Daniel Wilson, president of University College, and Chief Samson Green of the Tyendinaga Mohawks reveals divergent approaches to commemoration as “politics by other means”: on one hand, the erasure of the area’s Indigenous past and the celebration of its European future, on the other, an i…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Markham () is a city in York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately 30 km (19 mi) northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and 16th largest in Canada. The city gained its name from the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe (in office 1791–1796), who named the area after his friend, William Markham, the Archbishop of York from 1776 to 1807. Indigenous people lived in the area of present-day Markham for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the area. The first European settlement in Markham occurred when William Ber…

Evidence: 33 • authority: 72

The Province of Upper Canada (French: province du Haut-Canada) was one of the two Provinces of The Canadas established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain to govern the central portion of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Quebec since 1763. Upper Canada included all of modern-day Southern Ontario and all those areas of Northern Ontario in the Pays d'en Haut which had formed part of New France, essentially the watersheds of the Ottawa River or Lakes Huron and Superior, excluding any lands within the watershed of Hudson Bay. The "upper" prefix in the name reflects its geographic position along the Great Lakes, mostly above the headwaters of the Saint Law…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 72

Black Canadians (French: Canadiens Noirs) are citizens of Canada who have ancestry from any of the black racial groups of Africa. The Canadian-born (41.0%) were the largest Black population group in Canada in 2021, followed by the African-born (32.6%) and the Caribbean-born (21.0%). A large share of Black Caribbean immigrants (42.5%) migrated to Canada from 1960 to 1990, while over half (54.8%) of Black immigrants from Africa came to Canada from 2011 to 2021. A historically significant population includes the descendants of African Americans, including fugitive slaves, Black Loyalists and refugees from the War of 1812. Their descendants primarily settled in Nova Scotia and Southern Ontario,…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 78

Kanada (Canada). capital: Ottawa. area: 9984670 km2. landlocked: no. land borders: 1. region: Americas. subregion: North America

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The amalgamation of Toronto was the creation of the city limits of Toronto, Ontario, Canada after amalgamating, annexing, and merging with surrounding municipalities since the 18th century. The most recent occurrence of amalgamation was in 1998, which dissolved the federation of Metropolitan Toronto and its constituent municipalities, and created the current "megacity" of Toronto.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Etobicoke ( , eh-TOH-bik-oh) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River, on the west by Etobicoke Creek, the cities of Brampton, and Mississauga, the Toronto Pearson International Airport (a small portion of the airport extends into Etobicoke), and on the north by the city of Vaughan at Steeles Avenue West. The area of Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s. Primarily an agricultural district, it was incorporated in 1850 as Etobicoke Township. The municipality grew into city status in the 20th century after World War II. Sever…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

This is a list of the oldest buildings and structures in Toronto, that were constructed before 1870. This corresponds to the first 75 years since the founding of York. The history of Toronto dates back to Indigenous settlements in the region approximately 12,000 years ago. However, the oldest standing structures in Toronto were built by European settlers. Remains of a Seneca settlement exist at the federally protected Bead Hill archaeological site, in eastern Toronto. The first structure built by Europeans in Toronto was Magasin Royal, a French trading post established in 1720. In the 1750s, the French built several structures in the area (including Fort Rouillé), although the French would…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Legislative Council of Upper Canada was the upper house of the Parliament of Upper Canada, the legislature of the colonial government of Upper Canada in British North America. Modelled after the British House of Lords, it was created by the Constitutional Act 1791 and was in operation between 1792 and 1841. The Legislative Council was noted for its routine disregard for the will of the elected lower house, the House of Assembly of Upper Canada. Due to the heavily overlapping membership between the Legislative Council and the Executive Council, and to the Family Compact's dominance in these two councils, the Legislative Council was, as observed by Earl of Durham in his consequential repo…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located on a harbour at the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. The city is the fourth-most populous city in North America, behind Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles, with a census population of 2,794,356 as of 2021. The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is constituted of Toronto proper and four surrounding regions, Peel, York, Durham, and Halton, and has a population of 6,712,341, while the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), with a somewhat different definition, has a population of 7,106,379. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports, and culture, a…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

York was a town and the second capital of the colony of Upper Canada. It is the predecessor to the old city of Toronto (1834–1998). It was established in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe as a "temporary" location for the capital of Upper Canada, while he made plans to build a capital near today's London, Ontario. Simcoe renamed the location York after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, George III's second son. Simcoe gave up his plan to build a capital at London, and York became the permanent capital of Upper Canada on February 1, 1796. That year Simcoe returned to Britain and was temporarily replaced by Peter Russell. The original townsite was a compact ten blocks nea…