Modern Toronto 17th - 19th Century - The History of Toronto

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Modern Toronto 17th – 19th Century

- The History of Toronto

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Old and New

Toronto has only more than 300 years of development as a city. From primitive men to crude fishing village, then to the arrival of French in 17th Century, finally to the biggest city in Canada. Toronto’s developing speed is amazing.

Today ResearchVit will introduce you the modern Toronto from 17th – 19th century.

Old and New(17th - 18th Century)

In the early 17th century, the first Europeans came to Toronto area, which was the territory of Hurons. In promoting the faith of the Europeans, the French priests began to undermine not only the beliefs but also the social structures of the tribespeople and generated serious divisions within communities. The worst part is they brought new disease to the indigenous inhabitants.

Between 1634 and 1640, half of the aboriginal population of southern Ontario died from terrifying new diseases that the newcomers brought across the Atlantic Ocean. The Iroquois in New York suffered on a similar scale. The Iroquois confederacy began to destroy or absorb their aboriginal enemies in southern Ontario, including the Hurons.

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Old and New

Old and New(17th - 18th Century)

1660s-80s, the word

‘Toronto’ began to

appear on French maps.

It derived from an

Iroquois term meaning

‘where there are trees in

water’.

During the early 18th

century, Toronto sat

within territory claimed

by France, until the

Seven Years’ War from

1756 to

1763. Britain is the biggest winner in that war, the whole Canada was

ceded to Britain in Treaty of Paris. The British gentlemen begun to buy

lands from aborigines. In 1787, the government paid the Mississaugas

£1,700 in cash and goods to acquire Toronto area.

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York and Toronto

York and Toronto(1st half of 19th Century)

The British were allied to the tribes during the American Revolution, which

offended the United States and aggravated other Anglo-American tensions. In

1793, soldiers began the construction of Fort York to defend the entrance to

Toronto Bay.

In 1796, York was confirmed to be the capital of Upper Canada, with a garrison of 200, and a civilian population of 400. it grew slowly, and by the War of 1812, it only had about 1,460 people, but there have been brick parliament buildings, a church and a market (St Lawrence).

← The Town of York in 1804

In 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain, and sent troops to Upper Canada. After 3 years, Americans failed to achieve their goals. During the war, British forces burned the White House when they captured Washington in 1814. The town of York suffered three attacks, the townspeople spent 3 years enduring shortages and inflation, and participating in the overall defence of the colony. 

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York and Toronto

York and Toronto(1st half of 19th Century)

 Town of York changed a lot between the end of the war in 1815 and 1851, it moved from its status as an outpost on a threatened frontier to an important administrative and commercial centre in a growing and maturing colony. Its population rose from 720 at the end of the war to 30,775 in 1851. There are American immigrants from 1812 war and British immigrants for a better living (UK is suffering the dislocations caused by Napoleonic wars and industrializing).

By 1832, York had displaced Kingston as Upper Canada's leading town. The town's expanding networks helped by a transportation revolution, marked by the steamships on Lake Ontario (1816), the opening of the Erie and Welland canals (1825 and 1833).

As the capital of Upper Canada, the

town attracted both government

agencies and many provincial elite,

whose influence and connections

benefited the community.  In 1834, the

‘Town of York’ became the ‘City of

Toronto’.

3rd Parliament Buildings 1834 →

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Industrializing

Industrializing(2nd half of 19th Century)

Toronto was very much a British colonial city in the 2nd half of the 19th Century. In 1851, 97% of the population claimed origins in the UK (1/3 were Canadian-born). 73% of its people are Protestants. By 1871, native-born people formed the majority of inhabitants, but UK origins and Protestant belief continued to dominate the city‘s demographics to the end of the Victorian era for over a half century. By 1901, about 8% of Toronto’s 208,000 people were of non-British origin, including individuals from Asia (219 souls), France (3,015), Germany (6,886), Italy (1,054), Netherlands (737), Russia (142), and 3,090 people of Jewish heritage.

In 1851, a railway to the

outside world began to be

constructed. In 1853, the first

train of the Ontario pulled out

of the city, ran north to

Barrie. The city became the

main railway hub in Canada

West in 1867.

1867 Railway in Toronto →

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Industrializing

Industrializing(2nd half of 19th Century)

The innovations of the Victorians continued to

shape Toronto. In 1861, horse-drawn streetcars

entered service.

← Horse-Drawn Streetcars in 1890

Telephones and electric lights in homes, and on

the street arrived in the 1880s. Asphalted streets

appeared in 1887 and slowly replaced the dirt

roads of earlier days. Between 1892 and 1894,

with over 100 kilometres of track in place,

streetcars were electrified. People started to use

the modern flush toilet at the end of the 19th

century.

In 1867 Toronto became a city within a country

instead of a colony when New Brunswick, Nova

Scotia, and the United Province of Canada formed

the ‘Dominion of Canada’. The new nation grew

quickly with the acquisition of the great northern

and western interior by 1870, followed by the

entry of British

Columbia and Prince Edward Island into Confederation in 1871 and 1873. Toronto

became the capital and the largest urban centre in the most populous province of

the new nation.

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Research Reference:

1. “Natives and Newcomers”, City of Toronto; 2. “A Provincial Centre”, City of Toronto; 3. “History of Toronto”, Lonely Planet; 4. “History of Toronto”, Wikipedia.

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