Lecture 3 HIST 382
Summary & Outline
This lecture is intended, first, to provide some
familiarity with the geography of Canada for American students who
don't know much about it. Further, it takes up major themes in the
exploration of Canada
in order to see how the landscape took shape in Euro-Canadian consciousness.
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Introduction
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There are two general ways of organizing geographic
knowledge of Canada—according
to physical geography, and according to relationships between metropolis and
hinterland. Overlaid on these two
schemes are political units.
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The Heartland
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If you are a believer in metropolis-hinterland theory,
then you have to begin with the industrial heartland of Canada,
what some people refer to as “Middle Canada.” Historically, this was an agricultural as
well as industrial heartland. The
regional metropolis reaches out to affect developments throughout Canada.
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Atlantic Canada
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Atlantic Canada, often referred to as “the Maritimes,”
meets the definition of a hinterland because of its salient extractive
industries, using the resources of sea and forest. Like many such resource hinterlands,
Atlantic Canada has suffered economic and demographic decline. Culturally it exhibits a strong veneer of
Anglo-Celtic culture atop a historic base of Francophone heritage.
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The Prairies
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Another hinterland is the Prairies of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta—the
Prairie Provinces.
The region was developed through construction of transcontinental
railroads, first the Canadian Pacific and then the Canadian National. It became an agricultural hinterland
producing grain and beef not only for Middle Canada but also for
export. It settlers were a mix of
three streams: English-speaking Canadians, especially from Ontario; Americans
coming up from the south; and immigrants, including some large and
identifiable groups such as Ukrainians.
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BC
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A difficult place to characterize, British Columbia, because of its
diversity and contrasts. BC is a land
of high cordillera and of clement coast.
Mention of the province immediately brings to mind the bustling and
cosmopolitan city of Vancouver,
but inland are high basins that are enclaves of horticulture, viticulture,
and retirement homes.
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The North
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“True North, Strong and Free,” is a favorite Canadian
motto, inviting us to consider the symbolic importance of the North to
nationhood. Both the Arctic and the Subarctic portions of the North remain important
resource frontiers for Canada
today. These regions also are the
homelands of the Dene and the Inuit.
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The Shield
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The Canadian Shield, or
Laurentian Shield, has an importance to Canadian identity and development
that looms much greater than its sparse population. Distinguished in the popular mind by its
Pre-Cambrian geology and its endless coniferous forests, the Shield plays
the key historical role as barrier to Canadian expansion, the great thing
to be overcome in stitching together a nation.
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The Warm Line
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The “warm line” to which Stan Rogers refers in his
famous song is the line of exploration across the expansive land that is Canada. Here we treat first the Canadian
fascination with a story of failure—the deadly search for the Northwest Passage.
After that we examine the contributions of three truly intrepid
explorers who sketched in the map of the North and West—Fraser, Thompson,
and Mackenzie.
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HIST 382
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