A large stretch of
territory in then-
Western Canada, given to the
Hudson's Bay Company for commercial development by
England's King Charles II in 1670; it covered parts of what is now
Alberta,
Saskatchewan,
Manitoba,
Nunavut, and western
Ontario. It became a "
fur rush" venue; many
forts were built as trading centers. There would also develop a competing
company,
Québec's North West Company.
Almost two centuries after its founding, the government of the new Dominion of Canada, via Queen Victoria, purchased Rupert's Land, wanting to expand the nation's borders toward the Pacific Northwest (rather than risk the chance of the United States, new owners of a Russian land called Alaska, swallowing up the region); the Manitoba Act of 1870 carved two new entities out of Rupert's Land: the Northwest Territories and Manitoba - but not without some flak: the Red River Rebellion.