Two Swedes learn about the history of CANADA!

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00][music] >> Hello, it's me Ricky together with Carol. Welcome back for another reaction. Yes. Uh in the light of we actually getting a lot of Canadians coming to our channel, we feel that we know Not enough. Not enough about Canada. So we thought, well, let's start with a video that is called the entire history of Canada. Yeah, exactly. So we thought that let's learn about something of the great country to the north of United States. Mhm. And the video is actually called the entire history of Canada and it's on a channel called This is History.

[00:00:52]If you want to check it out by yourself, the link for This is History channel and the video we about to watch, both links will be available in the description and we suggest you go there and you know, give some support. Mhm. Yeah.

[00:01:07]If you enjoyed this, don't be afraid of hitting the like and if you're new to the channel, don't forget to hit subscribe.

[00:01:14]Let's learn about Canada. Yeah. I think so.

[00:01:16]>> I'm curious.

[00:01:17]>> I'm very curious.

[00:01:19]But I do believe that they were um Yeah, yeah. I think I know a little, not a lot, but a little.

[00:01:27]>> a little.

[00:01:28]Canada, the second largest nation on the planet.

[00:01:33]Comprising some 3.8 million square miles and spanning six time zones, Canada's territory I really liked all the Look at that. Oh, look at that.

[00:01:43]>> that. All the All the the islands.

[00:01:46]>> Islands. That's That's what it That's incredible. The land over looks like Sweden over there, too.

[00:01:51]Yeah.

[00:01:52]>> [laughter] >> But it encompasses numerous climates, from the towering peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the flat expanses of the prairies, the temperate rainforest of the Pacific [music] Northwest and the frozen tundra of the Arctic Circle.

[00:02:06]Wow. However, this diversity is not limited to its geography.

[00:02:11]It is also reflected in its people.

[00:02:14]Over the course of [music] centuries and millennia, Canada has been shaped by individuals from all over the world, bringing with them a wide range of cultures, languages, and religions.

[00:02:25]Although these differences sometimes led to conflict, they more often fostered mutual understanding and cooperation as diverse communities came together to build new identities in an entirely new nation.

[00:02:39]So, how did this country [music] develop?

[00:02:42]From the arrival of First Nations peoples thousands of years ago to becoming one of the most multicultural and diverse places on Earth today. Mhm.

[00:02:51]This is the history of Canada. Ooh. Ooh, nice start. I'm I'm excited. The story of human habitation in Canada, like that of the entirety of the Americas, begins with the movement of people across the Beringia land bridge that once connected Eastern Siberia to Western North America around 16,000 years ago.

[00:03:11]Over the following millennia, this land bridge gradually disappeared as global sea levels rose with the melting of the glaciers that had once covered much of the Earth's surface during the last ice age around 11,000 years ago, thereby permanently cutting off North America from Asia.

[00:03:28]The retreat of the ice sheets allowed these early humans to move southward and begin to populate the land that would one day become Canada.

[00:03:36]Over the subsequent generations, indigenous peoples began to form complex societies and speak a variety of First Nations languages, which varied from region to region.

[00:03:47]Much of the eastern portion of the country became home to the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples, who ranged all the way from Hudson Bay in the north to the Atlantic seaboard of the modern United States in the south.

[00:04:00]On the central Great Plains emerged the closely related Cree-speaking peoples, who tended to migrate from place to place as nomads, following the vast herds of bison that roamed across the prairies.

[00:04:13]The western portion of the country was home to the Na-Dené and Salishan-speaking peoples, whose livelihood was sustained by the abundant salmon stocks of the region, as well as the great cedar trees, which they used for building homes, canoes, and totem poles. Wow.

[00:04:29]>> Meanwhile, in the frozen far north of the country emerged the distinct Inuit people, across the Arctic Archipelago all the way from Alaska to Greenland. I thought I actually recognized >> [clears throat] >> Because I do believe that the Inuit is like our Eskimos or Laplanders.

[00:04:48]>> exactly. Yeah. And I don't have I have no idea why they decide to live up there.

[00:04:52]But that's It's up to them. Just saying.

[00:04:54][laughter] Unlike the rest of the Americas, however, which dates the discovery of the continent by Europeans to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Canada is unique in that it predates this event by almost 500 years.

[00:05:12]Sometime during the early 11th century, the Vikings, who had already explored and settled in Iceland and parts of Greenland, began to venture further westward toward the coast of North America.

[00:05:24]Leif Erikson is now considered to have been the first European to set foot on the continent, parts of which he named Helluland and Markland, most likely corresponding to what is now Baffin Island and the coast of Labrador.

[00:05:38]Erikson continued to explore the coastline further south and went on to establish the first known European settlement in the whole of the Americas, possibly at the site of what is now L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. Oh.

[00:05:51]The Vikings named this area Vinland and the settlement itself served as a base of operations for further exploratory voyages up and down the coast, where at some point the first contact between Europeans and Native Americans, whom the Vikings called Skraelings, was made.

[00:06:08]The immense distance between Norse colonies in North America and their Scandinavian homelands meant that communication was often a long, slow, drawn-out process.

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[00:07:08]The Norse presence in North America would ultimately be a short-lived one, for their settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows appears to have been deliberately abandoned by the 12th century.

[00:07:18]This was followed by the gradual withdrawal from their other settlements in Greenland over the succeeding generations.

[00:07:24]Awareness of the North American continent's existence subsequently faded from European knowledge with the departure of the Vikings, and it would only become known again some 500 years later.

[00:07:36]In 1497, just 5 years The reason why is because the Vikings turned into from being nomads to being a civilization and farmers.

[00:07:49]They learned to cultivate the lands and Sweden by this time was very, very cultivated. So they didn't have the urge to leave anymore. The Vikings were very um unrested souls. They couldn't stay.

[00:08:04]They had to leave. They had to go and they were everywhere.

[00:08:10]After the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Caribbean and Central America, another Italian explorer named Giovanni Caboto, better known as John Cabot, who was in the employ of the English Crown, became the first European since the Norse to once again lay eyes on the coast of North America.

[00:08:30]Subsequent voyages to the region were made by English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese explorers during the early 16th century. Wow. Despite these powers laying competing claims to the territory in one form or another, none of these claims were backed by permanent settlements or colonies.

[00:08:49]It was only in 1534 that the French explorer Jacques Cartier made a foray into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and claimed the territory on behalf of France, naming it after the local Native American word for settlement, Canada.

[00:09:04]Wow.

[00:09:04]>> subsequent voyages to the region saw him venture further down the St. Lawrence River and construct the first French settlements.

[00:09:12]Although all of these ended in failure, his efforts nevertheless put Canada on the map as a prospective and potentially lucrative colony.

[00:09:21]By the turn of the 17th century, only a handful of determined European fishermen and fur traders continued to frequent Canada's shores.

[00:09:30]However, in 1603, the Frenchman Samuel de Champlain began undertaking a series of expeditions to explore and map the territory in greater detail.

[00:09:41]He identified sites for permanent French settlements, establishing Port Royal in Nova Scotia in 1605, as well as founding the city of Quebec in 1608, which would later become the capital of the entire territory of New France.

[00:09:55]Champlain also explored deep into the interior of Canada, becoming the first known European to lay eyes on the Great Lakes and to establish relations with the First Nations peoples of the region.

[00:10:07]As a result of his efforts, a slow but steady trickle of immigrants began to arrive in New France's colonial settlements, which by the mid-17th century amounted to a population of little over 3,000 people.

[00:10:20]However, the French were not the only Europeans to have established settlements by this time.

[00:10:25]The English, led by Humphrey Gilbert, had claimed sovereignty over St. John's in Newfoundland back in 1583.

[00:10:33]This was followed almost a century later in 1670 by the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company, which operated a series of fur trading posts and forts across an immense swathe of northern Canada, known as Rupert's Land.

[00:10:48]This was designed to compete with the French fur traders further to the south.

[00:10:53]So much so that by the beginning of the 18th century, what is now Canada and the United States had effectively been divided into two European spheres of influence, one French encompassing the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and extending down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, and the other British, which controlled the area around Hudson Bay, as well as practically the entire eastern seaboard of the North American continent, stretching all the way from Georgia to Newfoundland.

[00:11:22]As a result of the competing colonial interests between the two powers, conflict over territory and resources was almost inevitable. [music] From the late 17th to the mid-18th century, several wars between the French and British broke out, which saw the boundaries and possessions of their respective North American empires shift back and forth.

[00:11:42]It was only with the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754 that the most significant and lasting territorial change in Canada's history would take place.

[00:11:52]This regional conflict was part of the wider Seven Years' War, which was fought around the world and pitted a host of European powers, including France and Britain, along with their overseas colonies, against one another.

[00:12:06]In North America, this played out as a struggle between the colony of New France and the British 13 colonies, along with their Canadian provinces.

[00:12:15]Despite getting the upper hand early in the war, the French gradually began to lose ground. First in Nova Scotia, where the French-speaking population, known as Acadians, was expelled by the British, and then in 1759 came the decisive blow when the heart of New France itself, Quebec, fell to British forces following the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

[00:12:39]Other French towns and cities in Canada fell to the British the following year, and by the war's end in 1763, France, having been roundly defeated, formally renounced all claims to territory in mainland North America.

[00:12:54]Canada then passed into British rule, which began with attempts to repair relations with the various Native American peoples of the region, many of whom had been forced to take sides in the previous conflict.

[00:13:07]The British also reinstated most of the property, religious, political, and social customs of the French-speaking population in the Quebec region, allowing them to retain their language and legal traditions, many of which remain in place to this day.

[00:13:22]However, despite the British government's best efforts to consolidate their territorial gains across North America, trouble was already brewing.

[00:13:30]Not in their Canadian colonies, but in the American ones.

[00:13:34]Grievances over taxation and political representation eventually escalated to the point where the American 13 colonies rebelled and began a revolutionary war to rid themselves of British rule.

[00:13:47]Although some in Canada sympathized with the American revolutionaries, most remained loyal to Britain and supported the war effort.

[00:13:55]This attracted an invasion, albeit an unsuccessful one, of Quebec by the American Continental Army in 1775.

[00:14:04]For the remainder of the war, Canada served as a secure base of operations for British troops to conduct their campaigns to the south.

[00:14:13]The war was finally brought to an end in 1783 with the newly independent United States of America emerging victorious and establishing its borders with what then became the remainder of British North America.

[00:14:26]These borders were largely built upon the pre-existing outline of the former 13 colonies and were bounded by the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the 45th and 49th parallels.

[00:14:39]In that same year, the British also began evacuating their troops from New York City, along with many [snorts] American loyalists who did not wish to remain in the United States.

[00:14:49]Many were transported to Canada, where they formed new communities in Nova Scotia and helped to establish the entirely new colony of New Brunswick.

[00:14:58]Some were also settled in Quebec, which in 1791 was divided into the largely French-speaking Lower Canada and the English-speaking Upper Canada, with its capital at York, modern-day Toronto, founded in 1796.

[00:15:14]Meanwhile, far to the west on the Pacific coast, efforts were underway to bring this region, what would later become part of Canada, under British rule.

[00:15:24]Although the Spanish were the first European power to explore the region in the 1770s, [laughter] they failed to back up their claims with any lasting settlement.

[00:15:33]It ultimately fell to the British to assert a lasting influence in the Pacific Northwest, beginning with Captain James Cook, who visited Vancouver Island in 1778 as part of his voyage across the Pacific.

[00:15:46]He established relations with the First Nations tribes of the region and purchased several sea otter pelts from them, which he later sold in China for immense profit, >> [clears throat] >> thus initiating what became known as the China trade across the Pacific Ocean.

[00:16:01]Although there was a brief moment of crisis in 1789 between Britain and Spain over their competing claims in the region, the British ultimately secured a favorable and peaceful resolution.

[00:16:13]As a result, during the 1790s, further efforts were made to open up the Pacific Northwest to British fur traders.

[00:16:21]Not only were more maritime expeditions sent to explore the region, such as that of George Vancouver, who arrived in 1792, but overland missions were also undertaken.

[00:16:32]Figures such as Sir Alexander Mackenzie pioneered previously uncharted routes through the Rocky Mountains to reach the Pacific Ocean, which then allowed for the establishment of the fur settlements in what would become the territories of Vancouver Island and British Columbia.

[00:16:49]However, the competing commercial interests of British and American fur traders would lead to the region becoming heavily disputed between the two powers for the decades that followed.

[00:17:00]With the turn of the 19th century, however, peace between Britain and the United States had begun to show signs of strain.

[00:17:07]Not only were there territorial disputes as America began its expansion westward, but its trade with Napoleonic France, whom Britain was at war with, caused considerable resentment within the British government in London.

[00:17:20]As a result, trade restrictions were placed on American ships, and the Royal Navy took to press-ganging American sailors on the grounds that they were British deserters.

[00:17:31]By the year 1812, the Americans had had enough and decided to launch an invasion across their northern border into British Canada.

[00:17:40]The War of 1812 lasted for the better part of 3 years and was characterized by a series of back-and-forth invasions by both American and British Canadian forces into each other's territory.

[00:17:51]Ultimately, without significant result.

[00:17:54]When the war ended, the border between Canada and the United States remained more or less unchanged, with neither side having made any meaningful gains.

[00:18:03]To repair relations between the two nations, it was agreed to demilitarize the border between the US and Canada, an arrangement that remains in effect to this day, with the boundary between the two countries being the longest undefended border in the world.

[00:18:19]Despite the normalization of relations between the North American neighbors, some in Canada, particularly loyalists and colonial elites, continued to harbor deep anti-American sentiments.

[00:18:30]This had dramatic consequences some 20 years later when growing frustration over undemocratic colonial rule inspired some Canadians, partly influenced by American Republican ideals, to turn to armed revolt.

[00:18:44]The rebellions of 1837 to 1838 saw widespread disturbances across both Upper and Lower Canada, prompting a strong response from government forces who brutally suppressed the uprisings.

[00:18:55][music] In the aftermath, a report commissioned by Lord Durham blamed the rebellions on the lack of democratic governance in the region and strongly recommended enacting a form of responsible government in Canada, allowing the people greater say in how they were ruled.

[00:19:11]Shortly afterwards, in 1840, both Upper and Lower Canada were merged into a single colony, the United Province of Canada, which set the country on the path towards becoming a self-governing nation.

[00:19:25]By the mid-19th century, Canada had begun to expand into the geographical shape we recognize today.

[00:19:32]The disputed territory between Britain and the United States in the Pacific Northwest had been resolved with the Oregon Treaty in 1846.

[00:19:41]However, Canada as a whole was not yet a unified political entity, remaining instead a patchwork of separate colonies.

[00:19:49]During the 1860s, discussions began about uniting these colonies into a single confederation.

[00:19:56]And on the 1st of July, 1867, the Dominion of Canada was formed as a fully self-governing polity within the British Empire with Ottawa as its capital.

[00:20:06]Over the course of the 1870s, the remaining colonies and territories of British North America joined the Dominion.

[00:20:13]Yet, although the country was now politically united, some within its borders did not wish to be part of the newly formed nation.

[00:20:22]Amongst the flat expanse of the Canadian Prairies lived the Métis, a mixed-race people of joint First Nations and European descent who fiercely opposed any incursion by Canadian settlers from the east onto the land they had occupied for generations.

[00:20:38]As a result, a series of violent confrontations occurred between them and government forces.

[00:20:44]First in the Red River Rebellion of 1869 and later in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, led by Louis Riel.

[00:20:53]The Canadian government eventually prevailed and used its victory as impetus to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway, the construction of which had begun in the mid-1870s.

[00:21:04]This allowed the government to consolidate control over the vast territory it was now responsible for governing.

[00:21:09]The last spike was driven in on the 7th of November, 1885, and the first transcontinental railway journey across the country was completed in the summer of the following year.

[00:21:21]The remaining decades of the 19th century saw further Canadian expansion as the government negotiated treaties with the resident First Nations peoples in a bid to open up more territory for settlement.

[00:21:33]Many reserves were created for the exclusive use of indigenous peoples, although some were forcibly removed from their land.

[00:21:41]The government also launched assimilationist programs such as the residential school system aimed at extinguishing native languages and cultures among indigenous children and integrating them into Canadian society.

[00:21:54]The late 1890s also saw the discovery of gold in the Klondike region of the Yukon Territory in the far north of the country, attracting some 100,000 prospectors.

[00:22:05]Although few would strike it rich, the influx of activity and development in the region nevertheless helped formalize the last boundary dispute between Canada and the US state of Alaska.

[00:22:17]With the dawn of the 20th century, Canada had become a well-developed and prosperous nation, attracting a growing number of migrants in search of a better life.

[00:22:27]Although it had established self-governance over domestic affairs, it remained a part of the British Empire and was consequently drawn into the First World War, which broke out in 1914.

[00:22:38]Canada contributed immensely to the war effort not only by providing a lifeline of continuous supplies to Britain across the Atlantic, but also by mobilizing hundreds of thousands of troops who served predominantly on the Western Front, fighting in major engagements such as the Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Passchendaele.

[00:22:58]Support for Britain during the war helped to cement a strong pro-Anglophone Canadian identity.

[00:23:04]By contrast, however, it alienated many French Canadians who protested vehemently against military conscription between 1917 and 1918.

[00:23:15]The interwar years brought mixed fortunes for Canada.

[00:23:19]While the country developed socially with the establishment of ice hockey as the national sport through the formation of the National Hockey League and made political progress, most notably by granting women the right to vote, it also suffered economically due to the effects of the Great Depression during the 1930s.

[00:23:36]Despite this setback, Canada gained greater political autonomy with the passing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, which, along with similar measures for other dominions of the British Empire, set Canada on the path towards full independence in later decades.

[00:23:54]Progress towards this goal was temporarily halted, however, following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

[00:24:02]Canada once again answered the call to arms from Britain, replicating its earlier efforts by supplying men and material for the war effort.

[00:24:11]This time, however, Canada also faced direct attacks in its territorial waters, where German U-boats sank a considerable number of Canadian and Allied ships.

[00:24:22]Despite the heightened threat, Canada was designated as a potential bastion for the British government and the wider empire in the event that Britain itself was overrun by a full-scale German invasion.

[00:24:34]Between 1939 and 1940, Operation Fish was carried out, relocating a portion of Britain's gold reserves and financial assets, amounting to some $56 billion in today's money, to Canada for safekeeping, marking the largest transfer of wealth in history.

[00:24:53]Similarly, the Coats Mission was drafted by the British military, outlining plans to evacuate the royal family to Canada should the British Isles fall to the Axis powers.

[00:25:03]The postwar years saw progress and prosperity return to Canada.

[00:25:08]Not only did it begin implementing a welfare state with the introduction of universal health care and old-age pensions, but it also welcomed the last remnant of British colonial North America into the confederation with Newfoundland joining Canada as its 10th province in 1949.

[00:25:26]The arrival of the 1950s saw Canada become more geopolitically intertwined with the United States as the Cold War intensified.

[00:25:34]Canada became a founding member of NATO and co-founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, with the United States to provide joint aerospace defense and ensure the air sovereignty of the continent.

[00:25:49]The remaining years of the 20th century witnessed Canada's transformation into the nation we recognize today.

[00:25:56]Although there were periods of political disruption, particularly with the rise of the Quebec independence movement during the 1960s and the referenda held on the issue, the country ultimately remained united.

[00:26:08]As a symbol of this unity, the maple leaf flag was adopted as the national emblem in 1965.

[00:26:14]More significantly, the Constitution Act of 1982 was enacted, formally severing the final legal ties to Britain and granting Canada full legislative independence.

[00:26:26]However, the country retained its connection to the British monarchy with the reigning monarch remaining as Canada's ceremonial head of state.

[00:26:33]Today, Canada stands as a diverse and democratic nation that has been shaped by centuries of conflict, compromise, and gradual self-determination.

[00:26:44]Since the days of the arrival of the First Nations peoples, Canada has been forged by waves of migration from people all over the world, coming together to create a strong national identity that is rooted in resilience, respect, and understanding of peoples' differences.

[00:27:03]I'm going to be completely honest with you. I wasn't really expecting that he went all the way back. No, not that far.

[00:27:11]The [laughter] creation. But I'm glad he did because even though I know a lot about uh Americas, uh how America came to be America, I know I know a lot about that.

[00:27:25]I didn't have a [clears throat] clue that Canada was intertwined in this in a way I I didn't expect. And I'm so happy that I watched this one. Such a great >> Very interesting. Cuz now I know way more than I than I knew before and I feel I feel really happy that I know that Canada was a part of that cuz there's a video game uh where you can play the Americans and uh and you can kick out the uh >> [clears throat] >> the British from from uh from Canada from America.

[00:28:01]So, that's why I know a lot about it because it actually goes deep in history, that game. Total War is a game.

[00:28:09]But they never mention Canada >> [laughter] >> which is, of course, normal because it was about the becoming of United States.

[00:28:19]So, I'm Yeah, I'm blown away and I am super I want to play that game now.

[00:28:24]>> [laughter] >> I'm I'm just going to relax a bit cuz that was one of the best videos I've seen in a very long time.

[00:28:30]>> Yeah, very nice uh telling storytelling of what I I I think he jumped between uh the most crucial parts in a really good way. There was like a flow all the way around through it. And I love the ending like what they are today, how they became this nation. Yeah.

[00:28:52]>> It's a Yeah, that was amazing.

[00:28:54]>> That was amazing. I completely agree with you. I think it was I I got for things like, "Oh my god, he's going to go all the way back to the beginning." That's what Was this the Was this the plan or But I'm glad he did.

[00:29:07]>> Yeah, we started out really from this So, that was Now we can continue the journey through Canada. Yeah, I'm curious.

[00:29:15]I want to know so much more, but we wanted to start here.

[00:29:20]>> [laughter] >> I think we should wrap it up because it was a very informative video.

[00:29:25]Um we are both super happy that we watched this. We know now how Canada became Canada. And I think that is some out of respect before we go through uh the food of Canada, the military, and all those, and I think it was just out of respect that we watched the video of how Yeah, I >> it's a good way to start, I think.

[00:29:51]>> [laughter] >> Uh all right, let's wrap this up. If you did enjoy this, don't forget to hit the like and subscribe. If you're new to channel, that is something that we would greatly appreciate. Uh and big thank you to everyone who supports us on Patreon and of course channel membership on YouTube.

[00:30:07]It means heck of a lot if just put it bluntly like that. And same goes to the go to the pay powers, super thankers. The hypers.

[00:30:18]>> The hypers and the amazing community that is around us. The kindness in the community, the comment section is something that we can all agree on.

[00:30:30]It's it's wonderful.

[00:30:32]So keep being nice to us and to each other. Yeah. That's that's about it.

[00:30:37]Well, I'm Ricky. And I'm Carol. You.

[00:30:39]Stay safe.

[00:30:43]>> [music]