Canada: an (almost) empty country; a geographical paradox

Canada, according to its surface, with 9,980,000 km2 is the second largest country in the world.

In the most urbanized part to the southeast, in ​just 10,000 km2, it has 16 million inhabitants, giving rise to densities comparable to that of the densest developed industrial countries with 1,600 inhabitants per km2. Toronto and Montreal, which are the two most populous cities in the country, are found in this area

Canada also has one of the most cosmopolitan ethnic populations in the world. More than 20% of the population is born outside the Canadian territory. Most of them have arrived from a hundred countries in the last half century, so it can be said that Canada has one of the most multifaceted people on our planet.

At the same time, it is confirmed that slightly more than 70% of its territory, that is, 7 million km2, an area considerably larger than the size of all of Europe except for Russia, which is 6 million km, is home to only half a million inhabitants (Europe without Russia has more than 600 million).

The density of northern Canada is undoubtedly one of the lowest densities on the planet, barely 0.07 inhabitants per km2.

However, just as the population of urban southern Canada is made up largely of people who arrived in relatively recent times, northern Canada is made up of peoples who have been established in those places for many centuries, such sometimes millennia.

As we said in this vast Northern territory where the peoples has lived for long time there is a very sparse population, while in the south, which is largely populated by people settled in the last two or three centuries, and even much more recently, there may be so many people in much smaller territories.

And it is not by chance. It is the result of the processes of invasion and colonization of the Canadian countries by two European powers, firstly the colonization by France and secondly and finally by England, which materialized in the occupation of the entire Canadian territory.

That British colonization, which was finally the one that geographically and historically delimited the land borders, was only defined after the independence of the English colonies that would form the United States.

This delimitation, I repeat historical and geographical, took place preferably in the southern regions adjacent to the US border, forming a corridor some 200 to 300 km wide that extended and still extends from east to west, practically from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in a length of more than 5,000 kilometers. Which is from Halifax on the Atlantic coast to Victoria on the Pacific is 6,000 kilometers by the most direct land route.

It is important to remember that this strip includes many lands with agricultural and livestock potential and that for this reason it was selected for colonization by the French authorities first, the British later and the Canadians in the last 150 years.

Of course, these areas were long inhabited by many indigenous nations who were often violently displaced to make room for new settlers. Obviously, there was strong resistance from these native populations, but they were surpassed militarily and demographically by the invasion and colonization that followed. Some of these displaced peoples still remain today in the south in small reserves located in the less productive territories and others preferred to move to more northern areas far from the reach of the new masters. The peoples who inhabited the northern territories, what is usually called the Far North, were not displaced mainly because the settlers were not interested in occupying these lands due to their very low agricultural potential. In some areas of the north there were exceptions, mainly in some mining zones, or dams for the production of hydroelectric energy. In these area some non-native populations settled, but in a very minority way.

Many autochthonous nations survived their subjugation or generalized displacement, of which we will briefly speak below. For the purposes of mentioning them in this presentation, we will refer only to the main ethnic groups still surviving, in particular to the most numerous ones,

a) The Algonquians.

It is an indigenous nation of eastern Canada, particularly southern Quebec and eastern Ontario. There are approximately 17,000 people who speak their own language. They call themselves Omamiwinini. Before European colonization they were dedicated to fishing and hunting, although some supplemented their diet with corn, beans and pumpkin.

b) The Ojibway

The Ojibway, which would mean people of the wrinkled moccasins, are related to the Algonquians, and are also known as the Chipewa. They were primarily fishermen and hunters, although in their summer residences they planted corn, beans, pumpkin and wild rice.

There are currently about 350,000 Ojibway, of whom 160,000 are in Canada and the rest in the United States. They speak Anishinaabemowin which is a branch of the Algonquian language family.

c) The Cree

The Cree are native peoples of Canada who inhabited and still inhabit vast regions of the country, mainly north and east of Lake Superior in Ontario and Manitoba, although there are also Cree communities in Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and to a lesser extent degree in Quebec. Its population is about 350,000 people. They were fishermen, hunters, gatherers and in the summer seasons they grew corn, beans and pumpkin.

d) The Dene people

The Dene are a native group of Canada inhabiting the country's boreal and arctic regions, particularly the Northwest Territories and southern Nunavut. They speak a northern Athabascan language and generally survived as fishermen, caribou hunters, and foragers. Its current population is about 27,500 individuals.

e) The Haudenosaunee or Iroquois

The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee are a people from southeastern Canada who inhabited large areas east of the Great Lakes and who based their economy on agriculture of the three crops, corn, beans and pumpkin, in addition to fishing, hunting and gathering. . Currently they live in small reserves generally located in their traditional territories. There are currently about 30,000 in Canada and about 28,000 in the state of New York in the US.

f) The Inuit

The term Inuit generally refers to the indigenous population of northern Canada, particularly the Nunavut Territory and the northern sectors of the Northwest Territories, Ontario, Québec and Labrador.

It also encompasses populations in Alaska, Greenland, and eastern Russia.

All of them have in common a relatedlinguistic trunk, the inujtitut-

They are fishermen and hunters of cetaceans and caribou. The Inuit population in Canada is 65,000, in Greenland 52,000, in Alaska 17,000, and in Eastern Russia 2,000 for a total of approximately 140,000.

g) Metis

The metis are a mestizo identity of indigenous and European descent, predominantly French, associated with the economy of the fur trade in the 17th to 19th centuries. From this miscegenation emerged a human group that lives mainly in Manitota, Saskatchewan and Alberta, but also in Ontario, British.Columbia and Northwest territories and that even developed their own language and customs. They have a defined identity and have been politically active in the early 20th century during the rebellion of Louis Riel who sought to create an independent or autonomous metis political entity. In Canada they are considered a differentiated culture and constitute one of the 3 indigenous groups referred to in the Constitution.

In a future video we will try to describe in more detail the characteristics, location and current situation of these native ethnic groups of Canada.