History of Toronto

The Toronto Passage, as it was known, was described in 1615 by explorer Étienne Brûlé and was used as an overland shortcut between Lakes Ontario and Huron.

The word Toronto is thought to be derived from the Huron term for place of meeting.

Well known to French fur traders, the location became the site of a French garrison, Fort Rouillé, in the mid-18th century.

The fort was burned in 1759 during the British conquest of Canada.

The British government bought the land by Toronto Bay from the indigenous Mississauga people in 1787 and founded the town of York there in 1793 as the capital of the new province of Upper Canada (now Ontario).

The first settlers were British officials and merchants.

Through the activities of these early settlers, the town emerged as a transportation hub and commercial center.

In 1813, during the War of 1812, it was occupied briefly by U.S. troops.

The settlement benefited from the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and from the arrival of railroads in the mid-19th century.

In 1834 York was incorporated as a city and renamed Toronto.

Toronto’s first mayor, Scotsman William Lyon Mackenzie, rallied the group of settlers against the group of aristocrats, known as the Family Compact, which ruled the province in the early 19th century.

When he failed to break its power by parliamentary methods, he tried to seize Toronto by force in the Rebellions of 1837.

He attracted only a few hundred rebels to his side, and Canada’s only armed revolt led by English-speaking Canadians soon failed.

As the chief city in Ontario, Toronto grew to about 80,000 by 1880. Growth was the result of an expanding commercial agriculture and the harvesting of hardwood and softwood lumber used in the construction of cities and towns.

Between 1883 and 1889 and again between 1905 and 1912, when its population reached nearly 500,000, Toronto annexed parts of York Township and other incorporated places.

By then it had nearly caught up to Montréal in population and economic importance for Canada.

Rapid growth over the three decades or so after 1880 was the result of growth in manufacturing, much of it of high value, largely for the Canadian market.

Farm implements were important. Around 1900, American branch plants, like those of the General Electric Company, contributed to the city’s growth.

Rapid growth was also a consequence of mining in northern Ontario, much of it to supply American industry.

Hydroelectricity from Niagara Falls began to supplant coal imported from Pennsylvania.

Employment opportunities attracted young people from the countryside and many immigrants, most of whom, in that period, came from England and Scotland.

After 1913 metropolitan population growth slowed, but when World War II (1939-1945) began, Toronto became a major supplier of military goods.

The creation of Metro was a consequence of rapid growth after 1940: By 1953 the population of the Metro area had reached 1.2 million.

In the booming decade of the 1950s, under Chairman Frederick Gardiner, Metro directed development and planning in an orderly fashion.

At the beginning Metro was composed of 13 municipalities, including the City of Toronto and neighboring towns, villages, and townships.

In 1967 the 13 were combined into 6 municipalities.

In 1965 the Autopact agreement between the United States and Canada opened the way for Canadian auto plants to produce automobiles for sale in the United States as well as in Canada.

A further major reason for growth was continued mining in northern Ontario and elsewhere to supply the military buildup of the Cold War, a period of hostility between the world’s Communist and non-Communist powers.

Toronto partly financed the rapidly expanding oil and gas industry in Alberta and its neighboring provinces.

From 1940 to 1975 Toronto had one of the most rapidly growing regional economies on the continent.

By 1971 Toronto’s regional population had reached 2.2 million people, and downtown Toronto had surpassed Montréal as the financial center of Canada.

In fact, the large Montréal banks moved many of their key operations to Toronto during this time.

By the late 20th century Toronto had more head offices of manufacturing, mining, and service companies than any other city in Canada. Its stock exchange far overshadowed others in Canada, and its market in mining stocks was the biggest on the continent.

Today Toronto is a cosmopolitan city with a diverse population and an international flavor.

In the early 21st century more than 5 million people lived in the greater metropolitan area.

The city remains a major financial and cultural center for Canada and attracts visitors from all over the world.