Indigenous people like the
Beothuk (known as the in
Greenlandic Norse), and
Innu were the first inhabitants of Newfoundland and Labrador. During the late 15th century, European explorers like
João Fernandes Lavrador,
Gaspar Corte-Real,
John Cabot,
Jacques Cartier and others began visiting the area. From around the beginning of the 16th century, fishing vessels with
English,
Portuguese,
French and
Spanish crews started visiting on a seasonal basis. At some point during the early 16th Century, some of these fishing crews founded an informal settlement at
Placentia. The Beothuk gradually became extinct as a people, as they experienced a population decline as a result of
infectious diseases introduced by European colonists and the loss of their ancestral territory due to colonial settlement. Other settlements were
Bristol's Hope,
Renews,
New Cambriol,
South Falkland and
Avalon, which was organized as a province in 1623. The first governor given jurisdiction over all of Newfoundland was Sir
David Kirke in 1638. During this period, France had also established settlements in the region, particularly to the west in what is now
Quebec. It had strong trading ties to many of the indigenous peoples along the Atlantic Coast, including the
Mi'kmaq and other
Algonquian-speaking peoples. The rivalry between England and France in Europe was played out in conflicts in North America, where they struggled for predominance. This was particularly true in Newfoundland, where the English colonial settlements on the eastern coasts were in close proximity to the French claims in Southern Newfoundland, which the French dubbed
Plaisance. The Newfoundland colony was nearly obliterated during the
Avalon Peninsula Campaign of
King William's War, the North American theatre of the
Nine Years' War (1688–1697). In 1696, the French and allied Mi'kmaq armed forces wiped out all but a handful of English settlements on the island of Newfoundland. Over the next year, the English repopulated and rebuilt the colony. Under the terms of the
Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 France ceded all Newfoundland to Great Britain. Given the Newfoundland colony's isolation from the more southern British colonies in America (and proximity to the still-loyal
colony of Nova Scotia), it did not become involved in the colonial rebellion of the 1770s. After the
American Revolutionary War ended in 1783 with the independence of the United States, Newfoundland Colony became part of
British North America. The Crown resettled some
Loyalists in Newfoundland, but most were given land in
Nova Scotia and present-day
Ontario. In 1809, the British Imperial government detached
Labrador from
Lower Canada for transfer to the Newfoundland Colony. It became an official
Crown colony in 1825, and
Thomas John Cochrane, an officer of the
Royal Navy, was appointed as its first governor. He directed the construction of
Government House, which is located between the sites of Fort William and Fort Townshend. The colony was granted a constitution in 1832, and Cochrane became its first civil governor. The colony was granted self-governing status in 1854.
Philip Francis Little was the first
premier of Newfoundland between 1855 and 1858. The country rejected
confederation with Canada in the period between 1864 and 1869. In 1907, Newfoundland became the
Dominion of Newfoundland, a
dominion of the British Empire. Due to economic hardship in 1934, the Newfoundland legislature accepted rule by a Commission Government comprising six members (three from Britain and three from Newfoundland) appointed by the
British government. In
two national referendums, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians voted to become part of Canada in 1948. On April 1, 1949, it became the
Province of Newfoundland. ==See also==