In pre-
colonial times, the
Neutral First Nation used much of the land. They were gradually driven out by the
Five (later Six) Nations (Iroquois) who were allied with the
British against the
Huron and their French allies. The hamlet of
Westover was built in an area that was originally a Seneca Iroquois tribal village,
Tinawatawa, which was first visited by the French in September 1699. After the
American Revolutionary War, about 10,000
United Empire Loyalists left the United States to settle in
Upper Canada, now southern Ontario. In 1792, the Crown purchased the land on which Hamilton now stands from the
Mississaugas in Treaty 3, also known as the Between the Lakes Purchase. The Crown granted the Loyalists lands from this purchase to encourage settlement in the region. During the
War of 1812, British regulars and
local militia defeated invading American troops at the
Battle of Stoney Creek, fought in what is now a park in
eastern Hamilton. The town of Hamilton was conceived by
George Hamilton (a son of a
Queenston entrepreneur and founder,
Robert Hamilton), when he purchased farm holdings of
James Durand, the local member of the
Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, shortly after the War of 1812. A permanent jail was not constructed until 1832, when a cut-stone design was completed on Prince's Square, one of the two squares created in 1816. Official city status was achieved on June 9, 1846, by an act of
Parliament of the Province of Canada. By 1845, the population was 6,475. In 1846, there were useful roads to many communities as well as stagecoaches and steamboats to Toronto, Queenston, and Niagara. Eleven cargo schooners were owned in Hamilton. Eleven churches were in operation. A reading room provided access to newspapers from other cities and from England and the U.S. In addition to stores of all types, four banks, tradesmen of various types, and sixty-five taverns, industry in the community included three breweries, ten importers of dry goods and groceries, five importers of hardware, two tanneries, three coachmakers, and a marble and a stone works. As the city grew, several prominent buildings were constructed in the late 19th century, including the
Grand Lodge of Canada in 1855, West Flamboro Methodist Church in 1879 (later purchased by Dufferin Masonic Lodge in 1893), a public library in 1890, and the Right House department store in 1893. The first commercial telephone service in Canada, the first telephone exchange in the
British Empire, and the second telephone exchange in all of North America were each established in the city between 1877 and 1878. The city had several interurban electric street railways and two inclines, all powered by the Cataract Power Co. Though suffering through the
Hamilton Street Railway strike of 1906, with industrial businesses expanding, Hamilton's population doubled between 1900 and 1914. Two steel manufacturing companies,
Stelco and
Dofasco, were formed in 1910 and 1912, respectively.
Procter & Gamble and the
Beech-Nut Packing Company opened manufacturing plants in 1914 and 1922, respectively, their first outside the US. In June and July 1916, the
Hamilton machinists' strike, caused by a failure of employers to improve working conditions or pay during a booming World War I economy, disrupted production at many of the largest manufacturers and was the largest dispute in the city's history. Population and economic growth continued until the 1960s. In 1929 the city's first high-rise building, the Pigott Building, was constructed; in 1930
McMaster University moved from Toronto to Hamilton, in 1934 the second
Canadian Tire store in Canada opened here; in 1940 the airport was completed; and in 1948, the
Studebaker assembly line was constructed. Infrastructure and retail development continued, with the
Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway opening in 1958, and the first
Tim Hortons store in 1964. The last
streetcar line was abandoned in 1951, but HSR's service included
trolley bus routes from 1950 to 1992. Since the 1970s, many of the large industries have moved or shut down operations in a restructuring that also affected the United States. Approximately 300 firefighters battled the blaze, and many sustained severe chemical burns and inhaled
volatile organic compounds when at least 400 tonnes of
PVC plastic were consumed in the fire. On January 1, 2001, the new city of Hamilton was formed from the amalgamation of Hamilton and its five neighbouring municipalities:
Ancaster,
Dundas,
Flamborough,
Glanbrook, and
Stoney Creek. The city was impacted by
a widespread blackout in 2003 and a tornado in 2005. In 2007, the
Red Hill Valley Parkway opened after extensive delays. The
Stelco mills were idled in 2010 and permanently closed in 2013. This closure capped a significant shift in the city's economy: the percentage of the population employed in manufacturing declined from 22 to 12 percent between 2003 and 2013. ==Geography==