VIII.

History

A.

Indigenous Peoples

Nomadic indigenous peoples of the Subarctic culture area had been living in Labrador and Newfoundland for thousands of years when Europeans first began their explorations. The inhabitants of Labrador included a small number of Inuit along the northeastern coast, and two closely related Algonquian groups, the Naskapi and the Montagnais, who were dispersed throughout the rest of the land.

European explorers in the 16th century found only the Beothuk people on Newfoundland. Little is known about the Beothuk culture. Their relations with the fishers who frequented the island were peaceful, and they later lived peaceably with the Mi’kmaq who migrated from Nova Scotia. However, in the late 18th century the Mi’kmaq, incited by the French, began a destructive war against the Beothuk. Some Beothuk survived on Newfoundland while others fled to Labrador. However, the Beothuk continued to suffer from European encroachment and European diseases, and in 1829 the last known surviving Beothuk died of tuberculosis in St. John’s.

B.

Viking Settlement

In ad 986 a Viking sailor from Europe, Bjarni Herjólfsson, coasted along the shores of Labrador and Newfoundland. Perhaps because of his voyage, the Vikings founded a settlement near present-day L’Anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland’s northeastern coast. In 1963 a team of Norwegian archaeologists reported finding the remains of this colony. There were foundations of nine buildings, all typical of known Viking structures. The largest building was the great hall, measuring 18 m by 14 m (60 ft by 45 ft) and containing the traditional central hearth. Ruins of a metal workers’ shop and an anvil were littered with hundreds of bits of slag and iron. The ore had been extracted from nearby iron bog deposits by an unknown process.

The L’Anse aux Meadows site corresponds to the descriptions of Vinland by Viking explorer Leif Eriksson. Eriksson sailed to North America at the end of the 10th century and is believed to have called Newfoundland Vinland because of the grapes growing there. Although it is still uncertain whether this village actually was the famous Vinland, it was definitely Viking, and scientific tests have fixed the time of its existence as around ad 1000.

C.

Rediscovery

For nearly 500 years after the Vikings deserted their settlement, there were no recorded European voyages to Newfoundland. Then, toward the end of the 15th century, European nations began their quest for the Northwest Passage, a water route to Asia through or around North America, and expeditions repeatedly touched on Newfoundland. As early as 1474 João Vaz Corte Real, a Portuguese nobleman, was given the title of “discoverer of the land of the codfish” for his explorations in the Atlantic. This may mean that he visited the Grand Banks and possibly even saw Newfoundland. However, Portugal was slow to follow up this voyage, and the island was neglected until 1497. In that year, John Cabot, an Italian explorer, sailed from England on the first of two voyages to Newfoundland. On his return, he reported that the codfish on the Grand Banks were so thick that he could scoop them up in baskets from the sides of the ship.

The report was all the encouragement that fishers in England’s western ports needed, for there was a valuable European market for fish. Within a short time, Spain, Portugal, and France also had ships on the Grand Banks. While the fishers began their operations, explorers continued to reach the rocky Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. Among them were: Gaspar Corte-Real in 1500 and 1501; João Fernandes, who held a patent as a llabrador, or small squire, in 1501; Sebastian Cabot in 1509; João Alvares Fagundes in 1520; John Rut in 1527; Jacques Cartier in 1534; and John Davis in 1586.

D.

English Control

Although Spain claimed most of the Americas, including Newfoundland, it concentrated on its possessions farther south and did not interfere with non-Spanish ships coming to the Grand Banks. In spite of the Spanish claim, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, an English sailor and soldier, sailed into St. John’s harbor in 1583 and formally claimed the island for England. However, he could not make the claim stick because a majority of the fishing vessels around the island belonged to Spain. Two years later, Sir Bernard Drake firmly established English control by destroying the Spanish fishing fleet at Newfoundland. Thereafter, only English and French ships were at Newfoundland, with the French fishing vessels concentrated on the south coast of the island and on the mainland.

E.

Settlement

When the London and Bristol Company began to establish resident fisheries to control the fishing industry, it also began promoting settlement. In 1610 John Guy, a Bristol merchant, brought 39 settlers to Conception Bay. By 1621 there were colonies at Cambriol, Renews, and Ferryland, the last founded by George Calvert (an English nobleman who explored North America and was instrumental in acquiring the colonial charter of Maryland). However, none of these villages prospered. The lack of success was due to the harsh climate, the poor soil, ill-chosen settlers, ineffective leadership, and the seasonal nature of the fisheries. Moreover, the fishers were hostile to the settlers, who were not only competing with them, but had also settled in the areas that were ideal for fishing stations. This animosity between fishers and colonists dominated much of Newfoundland’s history thereafter.

F.

Western Charter

The Newfoundland colonists were unable to control the more numerous transient fishers. These fishers were sponsored by the English western-port merchants, an influential group in England. In 1634 King Charles I of England issued the Western Charter, which gave the captain of the first ship that came to a harbor for a fishing season the title of Admiral of the Harbour and authority over all ships and residents at that harbor for that season. The reasoning behind this royal order was that the fishing ships, with the twice-annual crossings they required, had become a valuable training ground for sailors. This training would be lost if resident fisheries were allowed to develop. Also, England relied heavily on the income from fish sold throughout Europe. Thus, Newfoundland’s position as a base for the English fishing industry was established.

In 1637, the rule of the fishing admirals notwithstanding, Charles I granted all of the island to Sir David Kirke and his associates. However, Kirke’s colony, based at Ferryland, also failed to prosper. The hardy settlers remained, but thereafter without any aid from England.

G.

Struggle for Control

While the settlers fought the western-country fishers and the elements for a foothold on Newfoundland, the surrounding sea became filled with hostile ships. The hazards of fishing became so great that Oliver Cromwell, who ruled England as lord protector from 1653 to 1658, ordered a naval escort to protect the fisheries. The commodore of the convoy was given jurisdiction over the entire island for the fishing season.

Meanwhile, France had come to realize Newfoundland’s strategic importance as a gateway to Canada. However, the French had similarly restricted settlement in favor of fishing. Then, in 1662, they settled and stationed troops in Placentia, a settlement on the island of Newfoundland. It was designated as the seat of the French royal governor and the base for France’s Newfoundland activities.

From that time on, the English settlers were subjected not only to the threat of French aggression, but also to Dutch raids when England went to war against The Netherlands over colonies, and the war was carried to North America. In 1665 and 1673 the Dutch plundered St. John’s. After the second attack the English fortified the harbor, but they did little else to aid Newfoundland. The influence of the western-port merchants was so strong that the Western Charter was revised to more strongly favor the fishers over the settlers. By the end of the 17th century, property ownership had been restricted and settlement within 10 km (6 mi) of the sea prohibited. The English fishers, emboldened by the revisions, attacked towns and robbed the settlers at will.

H.

French and British Conflicts

Before Newfoundland had time to recover from the devastation wrought by the French and the English fishers, it became the scene of a prolonged struggle for control of North America. The French land and sea forces based at Placentia repeatedly raided outlying settlements and fishing vessels. In 1696, during King William’s War, in which the English and French fought over North American colonies, French troops overran the Avalon Peninsula and burned St. John’s. The English later refortified the port, but in 1708 during Queen Anne’s War between France and Great Britain (a union of three countries headed by England), it again fell to the French. From this date until the Peace of Utrecht, which ended Queen Anne’s War in 1713, the French virtually controlled Newfoundland. However, the British were victorious elsewhere, and in the treaty, France surrendered Nova Scotia, Hudson Bay, and Newfoundland, although it retained fishing rights on the coast between Cape Bonavista and Riche Point on the island of Newfoundland, the so-called French Shore.

I.

Government

When the war ended, there were about 2,000 demoralized and exploited people clinging to Newfoundland’s rocky shores. There were no schools, no churches, and no law and order other than the arbitrary rule of the fishing admirals. The island had become a market for New England goods and a midway point for British sailors anxious to enter the lucrative New England trade. Both of these activities were contrary to official British policy. Thus, when Lord Vere Beauclerk, commodore of the fleet, suggested controls for Newfoundland in 1728, his recommendation found broad support as a means of suppressing the illegal trade and the exodus of able seamen. In 1729 Captain Henry Osborne became the first naval governor. He was in residence only for the fishing season, but he instituted the first semblances of government in Newfoundland. He left behind justices of the peace and constables to maintain peace during the winter months, although these men had only limited authority over the fishing admirals.

J.

New Dangers

In 1759, during the French and Indian War, the British seized French trading posts in Labrador while the two countries fought over control of North America. Three years later, France, desperate after repeated losses, captured St. John’s and held it for three months in an effort to retain Newfoundland as a North American base. When it gave up its territorial gains on the island, France also transferred control of Labrador to Newfoundland’s British governor. The peace treaty, however, reaffirmed French fishing rights on the northwestern shore of Newfoundland, and gave France possession of the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

In 1764, a year after peace was made, Sir Hugh Palliser became naval governor. He was firmly committed to the re-creation of the training ground for sailors while destroying all settlement. To this end he aided Captain James Cook, the famed British explorer, in the first marine survey of Newfoundland and Labrador. Palliser angered the French by allowing British encroachments on the island’s northwestern shore, and he irritated New England fishers by banning them from the Grand Banks. The resentments he provoked were avenged by the French and Americans in the settlement of the American Revolution. By the Treaty of Paris, ending that war in 1783, Britain gave New England fishers unrestricted rights along Newfoundland’s coasts, and France benefited in that the French Shore was redefined to include the entire western coast of the island.

K.

Recovery and Expansion

In 1791 a civil court system was instituted in Newfoundland, and in the following year the island’s first chief justice, John Reeves, was appointed. The power of the fishing admirals waned, as settlement slowly increased and European wars disrupted ocean shipping. In 1809 Labrador was reunited with Newfoundland, after having been separated from it since 1774 when Québec claimed it. This mainland acquisition provided Newfoundland with additional fishing territory and land teeming with wildlife. The Hudson’s Bay Company led in the exploitation of the fur trade, and fishers soon found seal hunting profitable. The expansion of the fisheries and the development of the seal-fur trade led to mass migrations from Europe, particularly from Ireland.

L.

Colonial Status

Britain still regarded Newfoundland as a fishing base, not a colony. The governor, although he became a permanent resident in 1817, was still a naval officer. During the early 19th century, Dr. William Carson and Patrick Morris led a movement for representative government, which would give the people of Newfoundland governmental control instead of Britain. Britain’s Parliament responded in 1824 by setting aside the Western Charter and authorizing a civilian governor and an appointed legislative council. Then in 1832, Parliament permitted a popularly elected assembly to sit with the council. Almost from the start there was friction between the two legislative bodies over financial control.

M.

Responsible Government

The legislative tensions, the lack of popular involvement, and the fact that self-controlled government had been granted to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island all contributed to the demand for responsible government in Newfoundland. The demand was not universal, however, and an election was held to determine Newfoundland’s future. In 1854 the opposition to responsible government, composed of Protestant-Conservatives and led by Hugh Hoyles, was defeated by John Kent and Philip Francis Little’s Catholic-Liberal coalition.

In 1855 Governor Charles H. Darling proclaimed the establishment of responsible government, and Little became Newfoundland’s first premier. Kent later succeeded him, but was dismissed in 1861, and Hoyles was called to form a new government. In the elections of that year, Hoyles received a majority of the vote, but bitter religious riots erupted. Later the political leaders agreed to draw election districts so that each religious group could gain representation in the assembly. They also agreed to make their political appointments reflect the different religious groups. The pact, although never written, soon became a tradition in Newfoundland politics.

N.

Confederation Rejected

During the early 1860s, Newfoundland’s government considered union with the rest of Canada. Sir Ambrose Shea, a Liberal, and Sir F. B. T. Carter, a Conservative, were observers at the Québec Conference of 1864, where the provinces discussed the details of the union. However, at the same time, Charles Fox Bennett was forming a strong anticonfederation movement. In the 1869 election, union was overwhelmingly defeated, and Bennett formed a government. He had convinced the Newfoundlanders that ties with the mainland were not realistic because of the French Shore. Bennett was defeated by a Carter-Shea coalition in 1874, but negotiations for union with Canada were not resumed until 1895.

O.

Labrador

The only settlements in Labrador when it was reunited with Newfoundland in 1809 were missions. The first was established at Nain in 1771 by the Moravians, and others were founded by the Anglicans after 1848. Labrador was, in fact, neglected for many years. Then, in 1888, interest developed in its natural resources, and its possession was disputed by Québec and Newfoundland. England’s efforts to settle the dispute failed, and Newfoundland kept control of Labrador.

Two notable events marked the 1890s in Labrador. In 1892, Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, a missionary, arrived. His subsequent reports and books about the extreme hardships of Labrador life were responsible for the establishment of hospitals, schools, and churches. In 1895, Dr. A. P. Low, of the Geological Survey of Canada, announced the discovery of iron ore deposits in the Grand Falls (now Churchill Falls) region of the Hamilton River (now the Churchill River).

P.

Crisis and Recovery

In the last quarter of the 19th century, Newfoundland’s future appeared promising. An insular railroad was under construction, copper was being mined at Tilt Cove, iron mining began on Bell Island, and fish brought high prices on the world market. Then, in the early 1890s, a series of disasters almost bankrupted Newfoundland. In 1892 a fire destroyed most of St. John’s. Two years later, bank failures and a poor fishing season led to widespread destitution. The government then reconsidered union with Canada. Robert Bond headed a delegation to Ottawa in 1895, but the Canadian government, while offering generous terms, did not fulfill the delegation’s demands, and the negotiations ended. However, in 1896 a good fishing catch and favorable world trade abruptly reversed the downward trend. Economic recovery was highlighted by the completion of the railway from Port aux Basques to St. John’s in 1898.

Q.

Early 20th Century

After 1890, Newfoundland tried to recover the French Shore and to limit American fishing. In 1904 France gave up all its Newfoundland rights. However, the United States strongly resisted any fishing restrictions. The dispute was finally settled in 1910 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which worked to settle international disputes. It upheld Newfoundland’s right to regulate American fishing. As a result of the agreements, fishing expanded. Agriculture was subsequently introduced to what was formerly the French Shore, and the economy began to become more diversified. Iron mining expanded, a newsprint plant opened in 1909 at Grand Falls (now Grand Falls-Windsor), and lumber exports assumed real economic importance.

During this period the dissension so characteristic of Newfoundland politics became more intense when the People’s Party of Sir Edward Morris and the Fishermen’s Union Party of Sir William Ford Coaker contended with the Liberals and the Conservatives for control. However, World War I (1914-1918) brought temporary peace with the formation of a coalition government.

The war had more profound effects on Newfoundland than the political lull. Newfoundland made substantial contributions in soldiers and decided to assume financial responsibility for its troops.

R.

Postwar Decade

Newfoundland exports found good markets during and after the war, and the government undertook a public works program based on this new wealth. Between 1920 and 1923, the price of fish plummeted, and the government, burdened by military obligations and public works programs, went heavily into debt. However, by 1929, Newfoundland was recovering. A large pulp mill had been opened at Corner Brook, and mineral production increased when a zinc-lead-copper mine opened at Buchans.

The long-standing dispute with Québec over Labrador officially ended in 1927, when the British Privy Council reaffirmed Newfoundland’s control. The council also defined the borders, setting Labrador’s land area to include about 285,000 sq km (about 110,000 sq mi) claimed by Québec. Québec refused to accept the decision.

S.

Depression and Commission

By the 1930s the market for Newfoundland products had disappeared as a result of the Great Depression, which deeply hurt Canada economically. The government tried to overcome the financial deficits and stimulate production, but it finally requested British aid. A royal commission recommended that responsible government be replaced by a commission form of government.

The commission, made up of three Newfoundlanders and three Britons, acting in cooperation with a governor, was in office from 1934 to 1949. It aided the fishing industry while instituting economic reforms; reorganized the civil service while reducing political patronage; and improved health, education, and other social services. The economy responded, but despite the commission’s accomplishments, Newfoundland’s real recovery resulted from economic growth spurred by World War II.

The economy revived as markets for its products were reestablished and fortifications were constructed. The strategic position of Newfoundland and Labrador in the North Atlantic made them prime locations for Canadian and United States air and naval bases. Early in the war Canadian troops were stationed in Newfoundland, and in 1941 the United States built bases near St. John’s and at Stephenville and Argentia. Canadian bases were located at Gander and Goose Bay.

T.

Confederation

By the end of the war there were surplus funds in the province’s public treasury. With the crisis that had led to British intervention resolved, the British government decided to present the people of Newfoundland with choices for their form of government. In 1946 and 1947 the possible choices were debated by an elected convention. The convention primarily considered either a continuation of the commission or a return to responsible government. However, one of the convention delegates, Joseph Smallwood, argued for union with Canada. He influenced the British government to include the choice of union on the ballot that went before the Newfoundland people.

The voters subsequently eliminated the commission but failed to give either union or responsible government a majority. In a second referendum, union with Canada was chosen by 52 percent of the voters. On March 31, 1949, Newfoundland became Canada’s tenth province. Smallwood, the leader of the Liberal Party in Newfoundland and Labrador, became the first premier.

U.

Political Developments

One of the conditions for union was that Canada would review Newfoundland’s financial status after eight years. On the basis of that study the federal government has, since 1958, provided annual grants to the province.

Newfoundland’s government was completely dominated by Smallwood’s Liberal Party for more than two decades after 1949. Smallwood, who served as premier until 1972, focused on economic development. Provincial grants helped modernize the fishing industry, and government loans aided the development of new industries. One successful project was the hydroelectric plant at Churchill Falls. However, support for Smallwood’s government began to erode in the late 1960s. Concerns about a decline in fish stocks became widespread, and most of the government-supported industries established in the 1950s were in financial trouble.

In 1972 the Progressive Conservative Party succeeded in winning a majority in the provincial legislature. Progressive Conservatives governed Newfoundland and Labrador for the next 17 years, giving way to the Liberals in 1989. The Progressive Conservatives returned to power in 2003.

V.

Economic Developments

In 1983 Newfoundland and Labrador’s deep-sea fishing companies were on the brink of bankruptcy. In response, the federal and provincial governments reorganized them into a single company, Fishery Products International Ltd. The federal government became the majority stockholder in the new company and the province acquired 25 percent of the company’s stock. In 1986 the provincial government began selling shares in Fishery Products International to private investors. Continued overfishing by Canadian and foreign fishers led to the imposition of fishing quotas by the federal government and to a deep slump in the province’s fishing industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1992 the federal government placed a complete moratorium on cod fishing in an effort to save the cod stocks after decades of overfishing. The ban initially put many people out of work, but new fisheries were soon developed, especially for crab and shellfish, leading to a partial recovery of the fishing sector. In 1997 the Canadian government partially lifted the cod fishing ban, while carefully monitoring fish stocks to determine whether more extensive fishing would be allowed. Today, limited commercial fishing for cod continues, subject to quotas enforced by the federal government.

Beginning in the 1980s, hopes for a sustained economic revival in the province were pinned to a newly discovered natural resource—oil and natural gas fields located off the coast of Newfoundland. However, in 1983 and 1984 the supreme courts of Canada and of Newfoundland and Labrador declared that the federal government owned the offshore resources. In 1985 the federal government agreed to give the province some control over offshore oil and gas management and to allow it to tax production. Then, in 1990, representatives of the federal and provincial governments and a consortium of four oil companies signed an agreement to develop the large Hibernia offshore oil field. Construction of production facilities finally began later that year. The facilities started producing oil in 1997, and a new facility opened at the Terra Nova oil field in 2001. A third oil field, called White Rose, was scheduled to begin production by 2006.

In 1993 the discovery of a rich nickel deposit at Voisey’s Bay in northeastern Labrador aroused further hopes for the province’s long-term economic resurgence. Discovery of the deposit, one of the largest base metal deposits found in North America since World War II, sparked a staking rush; by 1996 more than 170 Canadian companies had staked their claims near the Voisey’s Bay deposit. After many delays, the provincial government announced in 2002 that an agreement had been reached with a privately owned mining company, Inco Ltd., to mine the deposit and to build facilities to refine the nickel locally. Other new mining facilities under development include the Pine Cove gold mine near Baie Verte and the Duck Pond copper-zinc mine near Buchans.

Despite the modest resurgence of economic vitality in the late 1990s, Newfoundland and Labrador still records the highest unemployment rate and lowest per-capita income in Canada. At the same time, the province has experienced an ongoing population decline. The province’s birth rate, historically the highest in Canada, is now the lowest, and many people—especially the young—continue to leave in search of better jobs. Population losses were especially pronounced in rural areas. Achieving and sustaining prosperity in the context of this population shift is expected to remain a major challenge for the province in the years ahead.