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1866 - The capital of the united colonies is officially moved from New Westminster to Victoria. 1867 - The Dominion of Canada is established, and British Columbia becomes one of its founding provinces. 1868 - Victoria becomes the capital of the province of British Columbia.
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Victoria, city, capital of British Columbia, Canada, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island between the Juan de Fuca and Haro straits, approximately 60 miles (100 km) south-southwest of the province’s largest city, Vancouver. Victoria is the largest urban area on the island. It has the mildest winter climate of any city in Canada, and its ...
The history of settlement by Coast Salish (Salishan) First Nations (Native American) people in the Victoria region dates back well over 10,000 years. The site of the future city was known to the Coast Salish as Camosun or Camosack. In 1778 explorer Capt. James Cook reached the island. English navigator George Vancouver was with Cook on that voyage and returned in 1792 to circumnavigate and survey the island, which was later named for him. As fur trading became established in the region, the Hudson’s Bay Company came to dominate the island and in 1843 established Fort Camosun—later called Fort Albert and then Fort Victoria, for the British queen—at the city’s present site.
In 1849 Vancouver Island became a British crown colony with Fort Victoria as its capital. More settlers arrived, and a small village arose near the fort. By the early 1850s the village site had been formally surveyed, and in 1852 the settlement was named Victoria. Agriculture, forestry, and coal interests were by then replacing those of fur, but there were never more than several hundred residents until the discovery of gold in 1858 along the banks of the Fraser River and later in the interior Cariboo region, both in mainland British Columbia. The region, including Victoria, was transformed instantly by an influx of some 25,000–30,000 gold seekers (many of them American and Chinese), most of whom used Victoria as the port of entry to the mainland and as the supply centre for their mining ventures. (In 1858 British Columbia also was made a crown colony.)
Gold fever was thus responsible for Victoria’s rapid growth from a few hundred to several thousand inhabitants. It was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1865 the Royal Navy designated an existing naval base at Esquimalt (now a suburb of Victoria), on the west side of the harbour, as its Pacific headquarters, further spurring population growth in the region. During this period Victoria became the most important city in Canada’s western region. It was made the capital of the combined colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia in 1866, and by 1871 the city of Victoria’s population was 3,630. The city’s protected harbour facilitated import and export services for the whole colony, and agriculture, forestry, and fishing provided additional employment. Victoria became the colony’s financial centre and a focus of industry, with a flour mill, soap works, gasworks, tanneries, shipyards, and brickyards, as well as baking, brewing, and distilling plants.
The arrival in 1886 of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at Burrard Inlet, near Vancouver, made that city an international port connected to the rest of North America by rail. As a result, Victoria’s commercial activities and population soon took a backseat to booming Vancouver, although Victoria and its surrounding region experienced steady growth.
- Brett Mcgillivray
In 1866 when the island was politically united with the mainland, Victoria was designated the capital of the new united colony instead of New Westminster – an unpopular move on the Mainland – and became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871.
Oct 18, 2011 · Victoria's political function as the capital of the region was consistent through various stages: first as the capital of the colony of Vancouver Island; then of the amalgamated colony of British Columbia (1866); and finally of the province of British Columbia (1871).
In 1857, when Queen Victoria chose Ottawa to be the new capital of the United Province of Canada, many people in more established cities such as Montreal, Toronto, Kingston, or Quebec were very surprised by her decision.
- 2 min
May 31, 2019 · On March 24th 1875, Queen Victoria was officially requested to select where the capital should be. To the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty May it please Your Majesty,
31 December 1857. Almost everybody knows that Queen Victoria selected Ottawa as Canada’s capital. But few are aware that the city’s selection was anything but a gentile affair. In fact, the Queen was only asked to help after years of sterile political wrangling between contending factions in Parliament. There were more than 200 votes on the issue.
