Each district was independently governed and had a district chief and a council.
The council members were band chiefs, elders and other worthy community leaders. By the time European contact with Newfoundland began in the early 16th century, the Beothuk were the only indigenous group living permanently on the island. Instead, their trading interactions were sporadic, and they largely attempted to avoid contact in order to preserve their culture. In the 18th century, as the Beothuk were driven further inland by these encroachments, violence between Beothuk and settlers escalated, with each retaliating against the other in their competition for resources.
By the early 19th century, violence, starvation, and exposure to tuberculosis had decimated the Beothuk population, and they were extinct by The oldest confirmed accounts of European contact date from a thousand years ago as described in the Viking Norse Icelandic Sagas. Around the year , the sagas refer to Leif Ericson landing in three places to the west, [41] the first two being Helluland possibly Baffin Island and Markland possibly Labrador.
There are several other unconfirmed accounts of European discovery and exploration, one tale by men from the Channel Islands being blown off course in the late 15th century into a strange land full of fish, [48] and another from Portuguese maps that depict the Terra do Bacalhau , or land of codfish, west of the Azores. The earliest, though, is the Voyage of Saint Brendan , the fantastical account of an Irish monk who made a sea voyage in the early 6th century. While the story became a part of myth and legend, some historians believe it is based on fact.
In John Cabot obtained a charter from English King Henry VII to "sail to all parts, countries and seas of the East, the West and of the North, under our banner and ensign and to set up our banner on any new-found-land" and on 24 June , landed in Cape Bonavista. Historians disagree on whether Cabot landed in Nova Scotia in or in Newfoundland, or possibly Maine, if he landed at all, but the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom recognise Bonavista as being Cabot's "official" landing place.
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Based on the Treaty of Tordesillas , the Portuguese Crown claimed it had territorial rights in the area John Cabot visited in and Sometime before Basque fishermen, who had been fishing cod shoals off Newfoundland's coasts since the beginning of the sixteenth century, founded Plaisance today Placentia , a seasonal haven which French fishermen later used. This will is the oldest known civil document written in Canada.
Twenty years later, in , Newfoundland became England's first possession in North America and one of the earliest permanent English colonies in the New World [59] [ need quotation to verify ] when Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed it for Elizabeth I. European fishing boats had visited Newfoundland continuously since Cabot's second voyage in and seasonal fishing camps had existed for a century prior. Fishing boats originated from Basque, England, France, and Portugal. However, this changed during the initial stages of Anglo-Spanish War , when Bernard Drake led a devastating raid on the Spanish and Portuguese fisheries in This provided an opportunity to secure the island and led to the appointment of Proprietary Governors to establish colonial settlements on the island from to John Guy became governor of the first settlement at Cuper's Cove.
The first governor given jurisdiction over all of Newfoundland was Sir David Kirke in Explorers quickly realized the waters around Newfoundland had the best fishing in the North Atlantic. They dried and salted cod on the coast and sold it to Spain and Portugal.
Heavy investment by Sir George Calvert , 1st Baron Baltimore, in the s in wharves, warehouses, and fishing stations failed to pay off. French raids hurt the business, and the weather was terrible, so he redirected his attention to his other colony in Maryland.
In France appointed a governor in Plaisance Placentia , the former Basque fishing settlement, thus starting a formal French colonization period in Newfoundland [64] as well as a period of periodic war and unrest between England and France in the region. The Mi'kmaq, as allies of the French, were amenable to limited French settlement in their midst and fought alongside them against the English. The entire population of the English colony was either killed, captured for ransom, or sentenced to expulsion to England, with the exception of those who withstood the attack at Carbonear Island and those in the then remote Bonavista.
The French colonization period lasted until the Treaty of Utrecht of , which ended the War of the Spanish Succession : France ceded to the British its claims to Newfoundland including its claims to the shores of Hudson Bay and to the French possessions in Acadia. In the Treaty of Utrecht , France had acknowledged British ownership of the island. However, in the Seven Years' War — , control of Newfoundland once again became a major source of conflict between Britain, France and Spain who all pressed for a share in the valuable fishery there.
Britain's victories around the globe led William Pitt to insist nobody other than Britain should have access to Newfoundland. The Battle of Signal Hill took place in Newfoundland in when a French force landed and tried to occupy the island, only to be repulsed by the British. The following year, , Cook began his first circumnavigation of the world.
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In a Franco-Spanish expedition again succeeded in raiding the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, destroying many of the settlements. By the Treaty of Utrecht , French fishermen gained the right to land and cure fish on the "French Shore" on the western coast. They had a permanent base on nearby St. Pierre and Miquelon islands; the French gave up their French Shore rights in In the British signed the Treaty of Paris with the United States that gave American fishermen similar rights along the coast.
These rights were reaffirmed by treaties in , and and confirmed by arbitration in In the British government established Newfoundland's responsible government.
Little formed the first Newfoundland administration Newfoundland rejected confederation with Canada in the general election. Newfoundland remained a colony until acquiring Dominion status in On July 1, , nearly the entire regiment was wiped out at Beaumont-Hamel on the first day on the Somme.
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Despite people's pride in the accomplishments of the regiment, the Dominion's war debt due to the regiment and the cost of maintaining a trans-island railway led to increased and ultimately unsustainable government debt in the post-war era. Since the early s, Newfoundland and Quebec or Lower Canada had been in a border dispute over the Labrador region. In , however, the British government ruled that the area known as modern-day Labrador was to be considered part of the Dominion of Newfoundland. Due to Newfoundland's high debt load arising from World War I and construction of the Newfoundland Railway , and decreasing revenue due to the collapse of fish prices, the dominion legislature voted itself out of existence in [68] in exchange for loan guarantees by the Crown and a promise it would be re-established.
For 15 years, no elections took place, and no legislature was convened.
When prosperity returned with World War II , agitation began to end the Commission and reinstate responsible government. The Convention, chaired by Judge Cyril J. Fox , consisted of 45 elected members from across the dominion and was formally tasked with advising on the future of Newfoundland. Several motions were made by Joey Smallwood a convention member who later served as the first provincial premier of Newfoundland [73] to examine joining Canada by sending a delegation to Ottawa.
As most historians agree, the British government keenly wanted Confederation on the ballot and ensured its inclusion. Three main factions actively campaigned during the lead-up to the referenda. They campaigned through a newspaper known as The Confederate. Their newspaper was The Independent. The first referendum took place on June 3, ; The official outcome of that referendum was Newfoundland officially joined Canada at midnight on March 31, As documents in British and Canadian archives became available in the s, it became evident that both Canada and the United Kingdom had wanted Newfoundland to join Canada.
Some have charged it was a conspiracy to manoeuvre Newfoundland into Confederation in exchange for forgiveness of Britain's war debt and for other considerations. Following the referendum, there was a rumour that the referendum had been narrowly won by the "responsible government" side, but that the result had been fixed by the British governor.
John's were burned by order of Herman William Quinton , one of only two commissioners who supported confederation. Newfoundland and Labrador has a population of ,, [1] more than half of whom live on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland, site of the capital and historical early settlement. In the census the population of the province decreased by 1.
The largest single religious denomination by number of adherents according to the National Household Survey was the Roman Catholic Church, at The major Protestant denominations made up Non-Christians constituted only 6. According to the Canadian census , the largest ethnic group in Newfoundland and Labrador is English More than , Newfoundlanders have applied for membership in the Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nation Band , equivalent to one-fifth of the total population.
Newfoundland English is a term referring to any of several accents and dialects of the English language found in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of these differ substantially from the English commonly spoken elsewhere in neighbouring Canada and the North Atlantic. Many Newfoundland dialects are similar to the dialects of the West Country in England, particularly the city of Bristol and counties of Cornwall , Devon , Dorset , Hampshire and Somerset , while other Newfoundland dialects resemble those of Ireland's southeastern counties, particularly Waterford , Wexford , Kilkenny and Cork.
Still others blend elements of both, and there is also a discernible influence of Scottish English. While the Scots came in smaller numbers than the English and Irish, they had a large influence on Newfoundland society. The Irish language is now extinct in Newfoundland. Scots Gaelic was also once spoken in the southwest of Newfoundland, following the settlement there, from the middle of the 19th century, of small numbers of Gaelic-speaking Scots from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Some years later, the language has not entirely disappeared, although it has no fluent speakers. A vestigial community of French speakers exists on Newfoundland's Port au Port Peninsula ; a remnant of the " French Shore " along the island's west coast. Several aboriginal languages are spoken in the Province, representing the Algonquian Mi'kmaq and Innu and Eskimo-Aleut Inuktitut linguistic families.
For many years, Newfoundland and Labrador had experienced a depressed economy. Following the collapse of the cod fishery during the early s, the province suffered record unemployment rates and the population decreased by roughly 60, The province has gained record surpluses, which has rid it of its status as a "have not" province. Economic growth, gross domestic product GDP , exports and employment resumed in , after suffering the impacts of the lates recession. Service industries accounted for the largest share of GDP, especially financial services, health care and public administration.
Other significant industries are mining, oil production and manufacturing. The total labour force in was , people.