March 31: Newfoundland Becomes a Province of Canada (1949)
Prayer Idea
Pray for the people and government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
History Note
The island of Newfoundland is home to a Viking settlement dating to about the year 1000 AD. Indigenous people in the area included the Thule and the Beothuk. Modern indigenous groups are known as the Inuit, the Innu, the Mi'kmaq, and the Southern Inuit of NunatuKavut.
Explorer John Cabot, sailing for England, reached the island in 1497. French, Basque, Portuguese, and English fishers and whalers worked in the waters around it.
John Guy established a community at Cupids, Newfoundland, in 1610. This was the first English settlement in what is now Canada. (English settlers had founded Jamestown in what is now the United States in 1607.)
In the 1800s, Newfoundland became an official colony of the United Kingdom. It included the island of Newfoundland and a part of the Canadian mainland called Labrador. When the Canadian confederation was established in 1867, the people of Newfoundland voted against joining.
During the early 1900s, the British government encouraged reforms of Newfoundland’s government. A slight majority of islanders voted to join Canada in 1948, and Newfoundland became a Canadian province in 1949. In 2001, the name of the province changed to Newfoundland and Labrador.
(In a quirk of geography and history, the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, which lie just off the coast of Newfoundland, are part of France.)
Homes in St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador. Photo by Aqnus Febriyant / Shutterstock.com.
Learn More
This video shows drone footage of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Learn more at Homeschool History.
