Eastern Ontario - History

History

French explorers and fur traders were the first Europeans to pass through this region. Samuel de Champlain, explorer, traversed the Ottawa River in 1615 on his way westward to the Great Lakes. The largest city in the region is the city of Ottawa, capital of Canada, which accounts for roughly 60% of Eastern Ontario's population. Kingston, itself once capital of the Province of Canada, is the other major city in the region outide of the National Capital Region.

Much of the remainder of the region relies on agriculture and tourism. Heavier reliance on recreation and tourism exists in the more rugged Renfrew county in the northwest of Eastern Ontario.

Of all Ontario's regions, parts of Eastern Ontario are the most heavily influenced by the United Empire Loyalists, American settlers who moved to Upper Canada out of loyalty to the British Crown during and after the American Revolutionary War. The Loyalist influence has a presence in the counties of Lennox and Addington, Leeds and Grenville, Frontenac, Lanark, Hastings, and Prince Edward.

In Ottawa, Prescott and Russell, Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, and (although declining) Renfrew, Eastern Ontario is home to the largest Franco-Ontarian community within Ontario.

Extensive immigration by Scottish Highlanders from the Highland land clearances also took place around the time of the United Empire Loyalist migration. Large numbers of Irish Catholics, mainly from Cork and surrounding counties also settled in the area in the decades following the war of 1812, the majority of them in or near present-day Ottawa. Many arrived through government backed immigration schemes to settle unoccupied lands and fill labour shortages. Along with the Franco-Ontarians in particular, they made up the majority of canal builders on the large Rideau Canal project and were heavily employed in the area's extensive lumber industry.

Through the last century, newer immigrant groups have added to the cultural mix, mostly in Ottawa itself. There are still a large number of Francophones in Eastern Ontario, especially in Prescott and Russell United Counties.