The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. The native Indian people had arrived tens of thousands of years ago. With the arrival of European settlers, however, the world of the native population began to change and some tribes did not survive the contact and died out completely.
Pre-history ended with the arrival of the explorers in the 1490s. The French and British expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America to Britain in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces.
What ensued was a process of increasing autonomy from the British Empire, which became official with the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and was completed in the Canada Act of 1982, severing legal dependence on the British parliament. Canada then constituted of ten provinces and three territories and was governed as a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state.
With the end of the American Revolution, British attention in North America moved north consolidating various Canadian territories and uniting them. It was an age of great explorers such as Mackenzie, Thompson Fraser and the legend James Cook. This growth and consolidation was challenged by the newly formed United States during the war of 1812 with the newly formed fragile Canada holding together against the various American invasions.
One of the most traumatic events for Canada and the world was the First World War. The golden era before the war was a time of scientific discovery, social reform and artistic innovation. When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, Canada along with Europe lost an entire generation and some of its finest youth. But out of this upheaval and disruption came one of Canada's finest moments and perhaps the first that defined it as a nation – The Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The end of the war brought a period or readjustment, an outbreak of influenza, a new view of values and the nationalistic euphoria of victory.
October 1929 came as a shock to the Wall Street and to the economy of North America. The relationship between the United States and Canada was never recognized as close as it came out when both countries sunk into the Great Depression. Along with this economic apocalypse came a climatic drought which destroyed farmlands, dried up the land and blew away the top soil on many parts of the prairies.
Although Canada had gained control of its own foreign policy in 1931 from Great Britain, it was unreservedly committed to backing the Empire. As tensions in Europe rose in 1938 and 1939 Canada also prepared for war. Canada was to become the great training base for Empire countries and its' navy grew to be the third largest in the world by the end of the World War II.
The war changed Canada in many ways. It ended the depression, pulled Canada onto the word stage and set the stage for the longest and strongest economic boom in the nation’s history. Confidence and optimism were the watch words by 1945.
The total area of Canada is 9,984,670 sq km and this makes it the second largest country in the world. Of this total the land area is 9,093,507 sq km while the remaining 891,163 sq km is covered by water.
Most of northern Canada has an arctic or subarctic climate with long harsh winters, short sunny summers and little precipitation and mean temperatures below freezing point for about seven months in a year. While the southern part of the country has a relatively milder climate often experiencing high levels of humidity during the summer months and the temperatures rise above 30 degrees centigrade.
Canada has immense fresh water resources and almost 9% of its territory is water. An interesting fact about Canada’s hydrology is that nearly 60% of the country’s rivers flow and drain towards the north; away from the nearly 90% of its population which lives in the south. The major rivers of the country are the Athabasca, Columbia, Fraser, Mackenzie, Nelson, Ottawa, St. Lawrence, Saskatchewan and Yukon. Of these the Columbia and the Yukon cross the international border into the USA, while Mackenzie is the largest river of Canada.
The total estimated population of Canada for the year 2013 was about 34 million.
The main religion in Canada is Christianity, comprising of Roman Catholics, Protestants and other Christian sects however, the country also has Muslims and people of other unspecified faiths.
Canadian food is highly dependent on the locally available ingredients, and hence, there is a wide variety of cuisine available as one travels across the country. Healthy and ethnic food rubs shoulders with the baked goodies and other comfort foods in the country.
Canadian music reflects the country’s unique diversity–its strong English and French heritage, its pre-colonial aboriginal traditions as well as the influence of its immigrant populations. Although, Canadian music has been heavily influenced by American music and culture; the close proximity between the two neighbors and the subsequent migration makes this inevitable, the country has nevertheless consistently produced musicians of international renown.
Canadian art is a conglomeration of influences from different cultures across the world as well as its own pre-colonial aboriginal art. Before the advent of the first European settlers in Canada, indigenous art was primarily a confluence of the aboriginal culture and music with art itself. In the mid 19th century French Colonial art, largely in the renaissance period featuring religious depictions was patronized mainly by the Catholic Church. Some known painters of this period are Pierre Le Ber, Cornelius Krieghoff and Paul Kane.
The origin of Canadian sculpture is known to be from ship-art, more specifically in the making and carving of ship mastheads. The first known sculpture in Canada was in New France in 1671 when sculptors were commissioned to do decorative work on a merchant vessel, the Canadien. For decades, naval sculpture remained the dominant form in which carpenters doubled up as sculptors and work was entirely in wood, although religious sculpture did follow suit. Other mediums for sculpture made their entrance only in the latter half of the 19th century.
After the arrival of the Europeans, architecture in Canada was initially influenced by the Baroque and New England styles and later by the Victorian and Gothic Revival styles. The Château style was used in several public structures, such as the Supreme Court building. The desire for a unique Canadian style led to a revival of the Neo-Gothic style during the inter-war period.
Modern Canadian Literature can be predominantly divided into two categories–English and French literature, although in recent years immigrant literature from Canada has also made its mark internationally. The first writers in English were primarily travelers, explorers, British officers and their wives. The earliest documents were therefore, simply narratives of journeys and exploration. However, since Canada officially became a country in 1867 it has been argued that the literature predating this was colonial.
Canadian cinema has been largely regional and niche in nature. Notable filmmakers from English Canada include David Cronenberg, Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan, Allan King, and Michael Snow. Notable filmmakers from French Canada include Claude Jutra, Gilles Carle, Denys Arcand, Jean Beaudin, Robert Lepage, Denis Villeneuve and Michel Brault.
The sports popular in Canada include ice hockey, lacrosse, Canadian football, basketball, soccer, curling, baseball, golf, swimming, volleyball, skiing, cycling and tennis. Ice hockey is the most popular spectator sport in Canada and is also its official winter game; while Lacrosse has Native American origins and is the official summer game of the country.
One of the most famous and dearly beloved of the Canadians in the last 100 years is Terry Fox, who had his leg amputated due to cancer, and since then he is honored as a secular saint of modern Canada. He organized a one man marathon across the country to raise funds for cancer research.
Natural resources found in Canada include iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, rare earth elements, molybdenum, potash, diamonds, silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, petroleum, natural gas and hydro-power.
Total exports for Canada were estimated at USD 462.9 billion in the year 2012. The country mostly exports motor vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, aircraft, telecommunications equipment; chemicals, plastics, fertilizers; wood pulp, timber, crude petroleum, natural gas, electricity and aluminum. Its main export partners are USA, China, and United Kingdom.
Much of Canada’s tourism is centered around its four largest metropolitan areas, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa, well known for their culture, diversity, as well as the many national parks and historic sites. Canada boasts of a number of world heritage sites listed by UNESCO, these include the 
With about 1,042,300 km of roads Canada has the fifth largest road network in the world. The only inter-provincial systems are the Trans-Canada Highway and National Highway System. Canada’s national highway system is made up of over 38,000 kilometers of important national and regional highways.
Canada has one of the largest railway network in the world with 49,422 km of railway tracks. The Canadian National Railway Company headquartered in Montreal is the largest railway in Canada, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, and is currently Canada's only transcontinental railway company, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia.
With a total of over 1,450 airports Canada is ranked number four in the world. The busiest airports in Canada are Toronto Pearson International Airport, Ontario; Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia; Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Quebec; Calgary International Airport, Alberta; Edmonton International Airport, Alberta; Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, Ontario; Halifax Robert L. Stanfield International Airport, Nova Scotia; Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport, Manitoba; Victoria International Airport, British Columbia and Kelowna International Airport, British Columbia.
One of the most important waterways of Canada is the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River water system which connects the country’s heartland to the Atlantic Ocean and serves 15 major international ports.
As of the current data for the year 2013 Canada has 21 operational satellites in space. Out of these, two are civil satellites, one is a civil/ commercial satellite, 14 are commercial satellites, three are government satellites and one is a military satellite.
The international country code for Canada is 1. There were 18.2 million telephone main lines in use and 27.3 million mobile cellular connections in the country as per the year 2011 data.
The internet country code for Canada is ‘.ca’, and as per the year 2012 data there were 28.46 million internet users in the country.
In Canada, about 71,000 species have been named and classified by scientists while it is believed that about 69,000 are yet to be recorded for the first time. Despite its northerly position, the country is rich and diverse in plant and animal life due to its large size.
Canada has designated 42 areas as national parks and national park reserves to preserve the country’s natural beauty, historic heritage and biodiversity. Some of the most visited national parks and reserves in the country are Cape Breton in Nova Scotia; Banff National Park in Alberta; Fundy National Park in New Brunswick; Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland and Labrador; Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site in British Columbia; Bruce Peninsula National Park and Fathom Five National Marine Park in Ontario; Forillon National Park in Quebec; Yoho National Park in British Columbia; Auyuittuq National Park in Nunavut, and Nahanni National Park Reserve in the northwest territories.
Administratively the country is divided into 10 provinces and three territories.
The main branches of the Canadian military are the Canadian Army, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Expenditure on military for the year 2011 was 1.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
The life expectancy at birth in Canada is 81.1 years. Expenditure on health care for the year 2012 was 11.60% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Any person above the age of 15 who can read and write is considered literate. The literacy rate in Canada is 99% (2003 estimate). Expenditure on education for the year 2011 was 4.48% of the GDP.
Gross National Income per capita in purchasing power parity terms was USD 42,530 for the year 2012, according to the World Bank.
