Chapter 10 Section 3 British Columbia: Economic and
Dec 21, 2015
Chapter 10 Section 3 British Columbia:
Economic and Cultural Changes
Each of the first groups to come to
British Columbia had a complex society
and its own language and customs.
The first European explorers
to arrive in the late 1700s
wanted to trade.
The lives of the indigenous peoples in British Columbia were
not changed as much by trade with Europeans, as by the discovery of gold!
Victoria’s population
doubled overnight when
over 400 miners arrived.
Boomtowns sprung up in the Cariboo region since the
government built a highway to the
region.
Canadian laws banned
indigenous peoples’ customs,
religion and languages, by
the late 1880s.
Canadians began to work on a railroad which would link
Montreal and Vancouver in 1881.
Because of the
enormous size of the
project, immigrants
from all over the
world came to Canada
to find work on
the railroad.
Many people who live in British Columbia today feel that their
future lies with other countries, not with the rest of Canada.
British Columbia’s
location ties it to the
economy and culture of the Pacific Rim.
Reviewing Key Terms
totem pole
boomtown
A tall, carved wooden pole that contains the symbols
of a particular
Native American
group, clan or family is a totem pole.
A boomtown is a settlement that springs up
quickly to serve the needs of miners.