Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian province located in the centre of the country, bordered by Saskatchewan and Ontario. The province was founded on the traditional territories of the Assiniboine, Dakota, Cree, Dene, Anishinaabeg, and Oji-Cree peoples.1
Early European exploration began as early as 1612 by Thomas Button in Hudson Bay lowlands, north of Manitoba. With the fur trade expansion in the latter half of the 1600s by French Canadians, there was a push for the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company around this area -- what was called Rupert's Land. Between 1682 and 1812, European settlement in Manitoba consisted of various forts set up by the HBC and the Northwest Company.2
In the first half of the nineteenth century, the British government sponsored expeditions in order to assess the potential of “Rupert's Land” for further agricultural settlements, which had begun in 1812. In the late 1860s, conflict arose when the Canadian and British government looked to westward expansion which consisted of the unauthorized selling of Indigenous (primarily Métis) land to the Dominion government. This was the beginning of what is known as the “Red River Resistance,” 1869-70 led by Louis Riel.3
Due to the resistance, the Manitoba Act of 1870, which created the new province of Manitoba, guaranteed Métis title to their lands along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The Canadian government broke this promise. Manitoba saw the arrival of 40,000 immigrants between 1876 and 1881, slowing down by 1890, which overwhelmed the Indigenous population. Today, Manitoba is the fifth most populous province in Canada.4
  • 1. T.R. Weir, Manitoba, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 8 August 2012.
  • 2. Ibid.
  • 3. Ibid.
  • 4. Ibid.
Mentions of this place in the documents
People in this document

Riel, Louis

Organizations in this document

Hudson's Bay Company

Places in this document

Hudson Bay

Ontario

Red River

Rupert's Land