Gallery 1 Battleground

Wars on Our Soil, Earliest Times to 1885

For most Canadians today, war is something that happens somewhere else. But Canada for many centuries was a battleground. The wars of First Peoples, European empires, and North American rivals helped to determine Canada's political boundaries, settlement patterns, and forms of government. Britain defeated France for control of Canada, to be attacked in turn by American invaders and challenged by internal rebellion. Step into Gallery 1 and you begin to understand the role of war in early Canada, from the fortified villages of the First Nations to the ramparts of Quebec, from Queenston Heights to the rifle pits of Batoche.