History of
Toronto
The Toronto area was home to a number of First Nations
groups (Neutral, Seneca, Mohawk and Cayuga nations) who lived on the shore of Lake
Ontario. The first European presence was the French trading
fort Fort Rouille, which was established in 1750,south of the village site of
Teiaiagon. In 1793, Toronto, then known as York, was named capital
of the new colony of Upper Canada, and then was incorporated and renamed Toronto in
1834 everting to the name Toronto to distinguish it from New York
City,as well as about a dozen other localities named 'York' in the province.
A large section of the downtown was destroyed in the Great Toronto Fire of
1904. The fire destroyed 104 buildings on about twenty acres of land, but
killed no one.
The city steadily grew during the 19-th century, becoming one of the main
destinations of immigrants to Canada.
In the second half of the 20th century, Toronto surpassed Montreal as the economic
capital of Canada and as its largest city.
Toronto grew rapidly in the late 19th century, the population
increasing from 30,000 in 1851 to 56,000 in 1871, 86,400 in 1881 and 181,000 in 1891. As the city grew, it became
naturally bounded by the Humber River to the west, and the Don River to the east.
In 1954, the provincial government created the
Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, a regional government that incorporated numerous local
municipalities.
During the 1970s, Toronto had a
major construction boom with many of the city's skyscrapers being built at the
time.
This was causing havoc with the city's old television and radio
towers which were simply not tall enough to serve the city,
so engineers and politicians decided that something had to be build taller than any
other building in the city or anything that would probably ever be built. They decided to build a massive
television and radio tower (the CN Tower).
In 1998, the six municipalities comprising Metropolitan Toronto
– East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York,
and the former City of Toronto – and its regional government were amalgamated into a
single City of Toronto.
According to a United Nations report, Toronto has the second-highest
proportion of immigrants in the world, after Miami, Florida. Almost half of Toronto's residents were born outside Canada. The resulting cultural diversity is
reflected in the numerous ethnic neighbourhoods of the city.
A
continuous influx of newcomers from Atlantic Canada and large numbers of immigrants from around the world have
contributed to the steady growth of Toronto and its surroundings since the Second World War. Today, Toronto is the primary destination for
new immigrants to Canada, the vast majority from the developing world.
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