The Red River was an important trade route for indigenous peoples, who for centuries used The Forks as a meeting place and campsite. The Cree, Assiniboine, and Ojibwa nations all used the site, as did French and British fur traders. Beginning in 1738, rival fur-trading groups built a series of forts and trading posts in the vicinity. The last of these was Upper Fort Garry, built in 1835 by the Hudson's Bay Company. Farming began in 1812, when Scottish settlers founded the Red River Colony. The Métis, a people of mixed indigenous and European descent who regarded the area as their homeland, also took up farms along the Red River. In 1869, as the area was about to become a territory of the Dominion of Canada, the Métis seized Upper Fort Garry because Canadian expansion was a threat to their own territorial claims and to their unique way of life. This began the Red River Rebellion, which ended with Canada's 1870 agreement to make Manitoba a self-governing province. Winnipeg was made the provincial capital.
The young city came into its own after 1885, when the Canadian Pacific Railway was extended to the Pacific Coast, but it did not really boom until the great wave of pioneer immigrants reached the prairies after 1900. By 1911 Winnipeg was Canada's third largest city, and its merchants dominated trade throughout the region. At the same time, many immigrant families lived in poverty, with poor health and housing conditions, and discrimination was widespread. As a result, social and political reform movements flourished, as did labor unrest. Agitation among workers culminated in the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, the most famous general strike in Canadian history. At least 30 strikers were injured and two killed when Royal North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) charged and fired into a crowd of nonviolent protesters. Federal troops occupied the city streets, forcing an end to the strike without any serious consideration of the workers' grievances.
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
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