7 ATLASES
History of Canada in maps
Canada as it appears in 7 interactive history atlases, from 790 to 2015: Northern North America, Canada, British North America. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.
Free printable Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution study guide, sent by email ↓
What was Canada before it was Canada? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Northern North America · Norse and Aztecs
| Indigenous peoples of the North — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Canada (British North America) · Industrial Revolution
Canada supplied industrial Britain with wheat, timber and fish as a British dominion. The Canadian Pacific, a transcontinental railway completed in 1885, was built to hold a continent together. Tariffs from 1879 sheltered growing factories in Ontario and Quebec, while hundreds of thousands of migrants had settled on prairie farms by 1914.
| Colony or dependency — the opening position |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
British North America (mod. Canada) · Age of Revolutions
Canada sheltered Loyalists after 1783 and repelled an American invasion in 1812. The rebellions of 1837–38 brought a different response: the Durham Report offered autonomy in exchange for loyalty. Here Britain learned a lesson without a war, following a road it had not taken in 1776 and that ran alongside the United States thereafter.
| Britain & its empire — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
British North America (Canada) · American Civil War
By 1861, British North America had become the destination of some 30,000–40,000 Black refugees from slavery who traveled on the Underground Railroad. Here they were beyond the reach of the Fugitive Slave Act. Yet the territory also served the Confederacy: agents in Montreal and Toronto plotted raids, including the October 1864 St. Albans bank raid into Vermont. Such activity strained London–Washington relations, already damaged by the Trent affair. After the war, fear of what the huge Union army might do helped spur Confederation in 1867. The Dominion of Canada was in part a consequence of the conflict to its south.
| Neighbors & the outside world — the opening position |
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Canada · WWI
Canada entered the war automatically with Britain, but earned separateness through the fighting. Its soldiers faced gas at Ypres (Ch. 6); at Vimy Ridge at Easter 1917 all four Canadian divisions fought together, creating a national founding moment. In the Hundred Days they served among the BEF’s best shock troops (Ch. 12). Canada lost 61,000 dead from eight million people and signed separately at Versailles.
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position |
Canada · Cold War
| NATO & core Western allies — the opening position |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Canada · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition — the opening position | |
| Right won in law | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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