page_title: History of Manitoba
section_title: Explorers
hierarchical_section_title: History of Manitoba / Explorers
caption_attribution_description: The execution of Thomas Scott.
context_page_description: Manitoba is one of Canada's ten provinces, and the easternmost of the Prairie Provinces. A traditional territory of several First Nations, European fur traders first arrived in what is now Manitoba during the late 17th century, with the French under La Vérendrye setting up several trading post forts in the area. In 1670, Britain declared sovereignty over the watershed of Hudson's Bay, making it part of Rupert's Land under the authority of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1763, New France was dissolved, and Rupert's Land expanded to include where the French forts had been. In 1811, Lord Selkirk established the first colony in Rupert's Land of Assiniboia, or the Red River Colony, around the Red River in Rupert's Land. In 1818, Britain and the United States agreed to establish the 49th parallel as the official border and assign that portion of Rupert's Land south of the parallel to the United States. After Britain transferred Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to the new country of Canada in 1870, the Government of Canada established the Province of Manitoba on a portion of the transferred territory that included the Red River Colony.
context_section_description: Henry Hudson, in 1611, was one of the first Europeans to sail into what is now known as Hudson Bay. The first European to reach what is now northern Manitoba was Sir Thomas Button in 1612, who named the Nelson River. Button was a member of the "Company of the Merchants Discoverers of the North-West Passage" and he hoped to find a trade route to China. Henry Kelsey was the first European to travel from Hudson Bay to the prairies, reporting the bison and grizzly bears that he saw. Kelsey went as far as present day Saskatchewan. The Hudson's Bay Company traded with native fur traders that canoed far and wide along the many rivers of present-day Manitoba. Rupert's Land was the first name given to the area by Europeans, encompassing the Hudson Bay watershed.  Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye, visited the Red River Valley in the 1730s as part of opening the area for French exploration and exploitation. As French explorers entered the area, a Montreal-based company, the North West Company, began trading with the Métis.
  When the British ship Nonsuch sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668–1669, she was the first fur trading vessel to reach the area; that voyage led to the formation of the Hudson's Bay Company, to which the British government gave absolute control of the entire Hudson Bay watershed. This watershed was named Rupert's Land, after Prince Rupert, who helped to subsidize the Hudson's Bay Company. York Factory was founded in 1684 after the original fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Nelson (built in 1682), was destroyed by rival French traders. Fur trading forts were built by both the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company along the many rivers and lakes, and there was often fierce competition with each other in more southern areas.
  There are a few possible sources for the name "Manitoba". The more likely is that it comes from Cree or Ojibwe and means "strait of the Manitou (spirit)". It may also be from the Assiniboine for "Lake of the Prairie".
caption: The execution of Thomas Scott
exif: {}