Newfoundland

Fisheries have dominated the Newfoundland economy for centuries. Basque and Portuguese fishermen reached the Grand Banks little later then Columbus' voyages and possibly even earlier. Humphrey Gilbert established England's first American colony there in 1583, though the community took decades longer to establish. (St. John's, English Canada's oldest city, became a permanent town in the 1630s.) France still maintains a presence on the nearby islands St. Pierre and Miquelon to guard that nation's fishing interests.

The colony began to prosper after 1783, spreading beyond the Avalon Peninsula to around the island, even to Labrador on the mainland, and starting to develop mining and forestry. It became a Crown colony in 1825, followed by a House of Assembly in 1835, self-governing status in 1854 and Dominion status in 1907. (The indigenous Beothuk population went extinct, victims of disease, starvation and outright genocide.) The colony resisted the temptation to join the Canadian Confederation, first in 1867 then again after the financial crisis of 1894.

The early 20th century brought great difficulties. Participation in World War I resulted in serious loss of life (along with a double sealing disaster in 1914) and a growing debt burden. The Great Depression drove the Dominion government into bankruptcy in 1933, to be replaced by a Royal Commission. World War II brought some economic recovery, and in 1949 Newfoundlanders narrowly voted to join Confederation. (Joey Smallwood, a key supporter of Confederation, would serve as Premier for over 20 years.)

Newfoundland remains Canada's poorest province. The development of hydroelectricity at Labrador's Churchill Falls might have been highly remunerative, but Newfoundland was forced to sell the power to Quebec at a very low rate. Due to short-sighted overfishing, the cod fishery was closed in 1992. (It would be reopened in 2024.) Economic diversification has become a necessity. In 2001 the province's official name was lengthened to Newfoundland and Labrador.

For background reading, you can try the Newfoundland Historical Society's A Short History of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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