The central focus of the Global Gathering Place is the history of immigration to Canada that coincides with the incredible movement of people who came to Canada as a result of the industrial revolution. Therefore our stories will mostly begin after 1840. Of course, we will discuss earlier migration, such as the arrival of people of African heritage over 400 years ago, when it fits with the stories we are telling. The movement of peoples from one country to another is one of the most central themes of world history. Canada, like most countries is a nation of immigrants. The First Nations peoples, whose ancestors arrived in Canada by crossing the Bering Strait from Asia thousands of years ago could be said to be the first immigrants here. Later there were adventurers from Norway and Ireland who visited Canada’s eastern shores in search of timber, food and other resources. It was not until the French came as traders and settled in what today is Quebec in the 1500s and then the British started colonies in the 1600s that the modern age of migration began which included people from many different European countries. One important wave of immigration in Canadian history resulted from the American Revolution. British loyalists, including people of European and African descent fled the newly independent United Sates in 1783 for British North America, what we know today as Canada. It is estimated that nearly 40,000 people came to settle in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Island of St. John (later Prince Edward Island).
These earlier movements were the pioneers in the story of immigration to British North America (later Canada). The great changes that transformed the world and brought on massive migrations of people began with the industrial revolution. It was not a revolution in the sense of a dramatic political change such as the American or French revolutions of the 1700s over ideas about citizenship and politics. The industrial revolution was more dramatic in the way it changed people’s everyday lives. It changed the way people worked. Many were forced to leave farms to work in factories with the help of new machines that increased the amount of work that could be done. The industrial revolution’s immediate impact was greatest in Europe, but European countries used the natural resources of their colonies and African slave labour to increase Europe’s wealth. These riches helped to pay for the building railways, factories and cities. European powers such as England, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland used military might to force weaker countries to open up their markets and lands to European companies.
Beginning around 1840 the Americas began to see immigrants coming from both the east and west. This movement was complex but, in general, it resulted from a number of factors. These causes were the high increase in population from 1750 forward, the enclosure of common farm lands into private property, agricultural crises in Europe, industrialization, improved sea and rail transportation, competition between shipping lines and agencies and the demand for agricultural and factoryworkers in the North American economy. It is estimated that between 1840 and 1940 nearly 55 million Europeans crossed the Atlantic for the Americas. For example, between 1825 and 1845 nearly 450,000 Irish arrived in British North America in search of land to farm. In 1847, nearly 100,000 arrived on Canada’s shores fleeing poverty and disease as a result of the Irish Potato Famine.
In the 184Os, under the Qing dynasty, China experienced peasant revolts, civil war and military threat from European powers that wanted access to Chinese wealth. The Europeans forced the creation of coastal trading cities such as Hong Kong and Macao that they used as commercial entry points into China to access its resources in people and products. This instability led to the first movement of peoples from China to North America to work in fisheries and canneries or to mine for gold in British Columbia. Also, Asian contract labour was brought in to make up for the end of Britain’s support for the African slave trade in the 1830s.