Why Did Bc Join Confederation

756 Words4 Pages
Why did British Columbia join Canada? British Columbia is now one of the best places to live on Earth. It has an enormous variety of terrain including mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, and hundreds of island. Vancouver, the largest city in British Columbia, combines old and new architectural marvels, parks and gardens, and sheltered beaches. Vancouver is truly a multicultural city. Also, British Columbia has very fertile natural resources like forestry, fishery, and mining. The most important event happened in British Columbia’s history is joining the Confederation. Before the Confederation British Columbia can barely survive by itself, and there are no government solving these issues. There are three major reasons why British Columbia joined Canada: the massive debt from the Gold Rush, the need of government, and the promise of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The massive debt caused by the Cariboo Gold Rush played a huge role of making British Columbia join Canada. Since 1848, gold was found along the western shore and rivers. Soon in 1857, gold was discovered near the banks of the Thompson River. Many people decided to abandon their jobs and leave their family to come and seek gold and hoping to “get rich fast”. Unfortunately, finding gold wasn’t as easy as it seems. First, gold seekers had to stake claims, then sink mine shafts down to the bedrock. Most land was taken up already when new arrivals got there. So they had to work for claim holders instead of mining themselves. In 1858, more and more miners started to move into the Fraser River area for more gold. By the end of the summer, more than 10,000 miners were at Fraser River working. Governor Douglas found out that the mining business was profitable, so he decided to build a road that connects to the goldfields. However, his decision was not clever. Constructing the Cariboo Road took more than four
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