Canada’s human past begins with the long tenure of the indigenous societies, followed by the 500-year collision between those peoples and the newly arrived Europeans. European colonization gave way after 1867 to the era of the Canadian nation-state. In the 20th century Canada became one of the world’s small group of wealthy, highly industrialized, technologically advanced, and heavily urbanized democracies. Yet regional tensions, ethnic rivalries, global pressures, and the powerful neighboring presence of the United States continued to challenge Canada’s political unity and cultural identity.

The first humans to make their homes in North America migrated from Asia. It is generally thought that this migration took place over a now-submerged land bridge from Siberia to Alaska sometime between about 20,000 and 35,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age; the argument has been made, that some people arrived earlier, possibly up to 60,000 years ago. There is general agreement that Native American peoples are related to Asiatic peoples, and that the closest resemblances are between North American Arctic peoples and their counterparts in Siberia. The indigenous peoples say they have been in Canada as long as the landscape itself demonstrate of their presence dates from the time when the land reappeared from under the great ice sheets that covered most of the nation during the Pleistocene Ice Age at its peak about 18,000 years ago.