| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the various influences within the
metropolis-hinterland construct that were evident in the development of the area around
Thunder Bay and along the north shore of Lake Superior during the period from
Confederation up to about 1890. Economic, political and other metropolitan relationships
in the communities along the north shore of Lake Superior were developed and controlled
by various external urban centres from their early beginnings right up to the turn of the
twentieth century. In this thesis I will review some of the metropolis-hinterland influences
that were evident in the area.
Metropolitan influences can be found throughout much of the development of the
North American continent, particularly the portion that would later be called Canada. All
of the early voyages of discovery, like the first fishing ventures on the Grand Banks and
other places, amply demonstrate the efforts of various European capitals, or metropolises,
to exert their control over the newfound hinterlands. The fur trading companies and other
commercial ventures, usually acting under Royal Charters, would later exert the same
metropolitan control over the broad expanses of the interior of the continent that were
accessible by the extensive waterways. In both of these cases, the resident population of the
hinterland would have no say in any developments that took place in the region. This aspect
of metropolitanism is one that can be found at all stages of the political and economic
development of the country and it figures prominently in the development of the areas along
the north shore of Lake Superior and the area around Thunder Bay.
It is my thesis that the resident population of the area around Thunder Bay and along the north shore of Lake Superior, whether aboriginal peoples or settlers in the area, had no
say in the developments that took place in the region because all of the key decisions were
made by people in far away places who controlled the various metropolitan interests that
were active in the region.
In the first chapter of this thesis I will review the staples and other theories, as well
as the metropolis-hinterland construct as originally stated by J.M.S. Careless, Gras and
others. I will also review some of the early economic and political activities that
demonstrate the metropolis-hinterland relationships that arose as a result of activities in the
study area. As examples of these relationships, I will look at the fur trade, the early
transportation activities of the fur trade companies, and the Indian treaties of 1850. In the
second chapter I will review Confederation and the purchase of Rupert’s Land. I will also
discuss the development of some of the first metropolitan influences in the area, namely the
economic relationships that were established as a result of mining activities, government
surveys and construction of the Dawson Road.
In last chapter of the thesis I will review certain economic and political initiatives
during the period from Confederation up to about 1890. I will also review some of the
economic activities that occurred like the development of mines, settlement, the fisheries,
and the timber and grain industries. I will review the development of transportation through
huge, government-sponsored projects like the Dawson Road and the Canadian Pacific
Railway, and the disputes over jurisdiction in the area purchased that arose between the
federal government and the governments of the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. | |
