{"id":52,"date":"2020-09-25T20:41:05","date_gmt":"2020-09-26T00:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/chapter\/2-1-introduction\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T16:35:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:35:52","slug":"2-1-introduction","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/chapter\/2-1-introduction\/","title":{"raw":"2.1 Introduction","rendered":"2.1 Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"When does the history of Canada begin? \u00a0If we think of Canada\u00a0as a political entity, then we will offer up one kind of answer (although, in all likelihood, we won't agree at the outset on the answer). If we think of Canada as a space roughly defined by our current borders and as a stage on which humans perform, then the answer is necessarily going to take us as deeply into the past as we can go.\r\n\r\nHaving taken on the question of\u00a0<em>how do we know what it is we think we know? <\/em>in <a class=\"internal\" href=\"\/preconfederation2e\/chapter\/1-1-introduction\/\">Chapter 1<\/a>, this chapter tackles the challenge of pushing back the frontier of history. Generations of students learned that the moment of [pb_glossary id=\"567\"]contact[\/pb_glossary] between Europeans and Indigenous peoples in the \"Americas\" marks the end of pre-history in this hemisphere and the beginning of the historical period. But that perspective has changed.\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--learning-objectives\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Learning Objectives<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Explain the various interpretations, scientific and religious, of the origins of Indigenous peoples in the New World.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Describe the political, cultural, and social differences between the major eras of\u00a0the pre-contact peoples of Canada.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Describe the political, cultural, and social differences between the groups of the major regions of Canada.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Identify the great empires and confederacies of the pre-contact Americas.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Locate\u00a0the many different peoples of what is now Canada and its borderlands.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Describe the different language groups, the different economic orders of the northlands, and their interconnectedness.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Argue critically against notions of \"pan-Indianism\" and speak to the advantages enjoyed by Indigenous societies in the absence of European contact.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<p>When does the history of Canada begin? \u00a0If we think of Canada\u00a0as a political entity, then we will offer up one kind of answer (although, in all likelihood, we won&#8217;t agree at the outset on the answer). If we think of Canada as a space roughly defined by our current borders and as a stage on which humans perform, then the answer is necessarily going to take us as deeply into the past as we can go.<\/p>\n<p>Having taken on the question of\u00a0<em>how do we know what it is we think we know? <\/em>in <a class=\"internal\" href=\"\/preconfederation2e\/chapter\/1-1-introduction\/\">Chapter 1<\/a>, this chapter tackles the challenge of pushing back the frontier of history. Generations of students learned that the moment of <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_52_567\">contact<\/a> between Europeans and Indigenous peoples in the &#8220;Americas&#8221; marks the end of pre-history in this hemisphere and the beginning of the historical period. But that perspective has changed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--learning-objectives\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Learning Objectives<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<ul>\n<li>Explain the various interpretations, scientific and religious, of the origins of Indigenous peoples in the New World.<\/li>\n<li>Describe the political, cultural, and social differences between the major eras of\u00a0the pre-contact peoples of Canada.<\/li>\n<li>Describe the political, cultural, and social differences between the groups of the major regions of Canada.<\/li>\n<li>Identify the great empires and confederacies of the pre-contact Americas.<\/li>\n<li>Locate\u00a0the many different peoples of what is now Canada and its borderlands.<\/li>\n<li>Describe the different language groups, the different economic orders of the northlands, and their interconnectedness.<\/li>\n<li>Argue critically against notions of &#8220;pan-Indianism&#8221; and speak to the advantages enjoyed by Indigenous societies in the absence of European contact.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_52_567\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_52_567\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>The first documented encounter between Indigenous peoples and Europeans. This is a movable date because first encounters occur in different regions at different times. The contact era for some Arctic peoples, for example, only began in the 20th century.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc-sa"},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[56],"class_list":["post-52","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless","license-cc-by-nc-sa"],"part":51,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/52\/revisions\/572"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/51"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/52\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation2e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}