Ontario

===Pays d'en Haut (1610–1763)===
{{Main|Exploration of North America|New France|Pays d'en Haut}}
In the 15th century, the [[Fall of Constantinople|Byzantine Empire fell]], prompting Western Europeans to search for new [[sea lane|sea routes]] to the [[Far East]]. Around 1522–1523, [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]] persuaded [[King Francis I of France]] to commission an expedition to find a western route to [[Cathay]] (China) via a [[Northwest Passage]]. Though this expedition was unsuccessful, it established the name "[[New France]]" for northeastern North America.{{sfn|Charpentier|Durocher|Laville|Linteau|1985|p=50}} After a few expeditions, France mostly abandoned North America for 50 years because of its financial crisis; France was involved in the [[Italian Wars]] and there were religious wars between [[Protestant]]s and [[Catholic]]s.<ref>{{cite book|first=Marcel |last=Trudel |title=Histoire de la [[Nouvelle-France]] : les vaines tentatives 1524–1603 |publisher=Fides |year=1963 |page=307}}</ref> Around 1580 however, the rise of the [[fur trade]] (particularly the demand for [[beaver]] pelts), reignited French interest.<ref name=mathieu>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/nouvelle-france|encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]|title=Nouvelle-France|trans-title=New France|language=FR|last=Mathieu|first=Jacques|date=September 4, 2013|access-date=July 10, 2022|archive-date=July 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710044155/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/nouvelle-france|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1608, [[Samuel de Champlain]] established France's first colonial settlement in New France, the [[Habitation de Québec]] (now [[Quebec City]]), in the [[Canada (New France)|colony of Canada]] (now southern Quebec). Afterwards, French explorers continued to travel west, establishing new villages along the coasts of the Saint Lawrence River. French explorers, the first of which was [[Étienne Brûlé]] who explored the Georgian Bay area in 1610–1612,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/82078/Etienne-Brule|title=Étienne Brûlé|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=January 5, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207030900/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/82078/Etienne-Brule|archive-date=December 7, 2008}}</ref> mapped [[Southern Ontario]] and called the region the [[Pays d'en Haut]] ("Upper Country"), in reference to the region being upstream of the Saint Lawrence River. The colony of the Pays d'en Haut was formally established in 1610 as an administrative dependency of Canada, and was for defence and business rather than a settlement colony. The territory of the Pays-d'en-Haut was quite large and would today include the province of Ontario, as well as, in whole or in part, the American states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Indigenous peoples were the vast majority of the Pays d'en Haut population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/francophonie/Nlle-France_Pays_d'en-Haut.htm#:~:text=Le%20premier%20Europ%C3%A9en%20%C3%A0%20s,Outaouais%20et%20du%20lac%20Nipissing|title=Le Pays-d'en-Haut (Canada)|access-date=July 16, 2022|archive-date=June 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621223241/https://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/francophonie/Nlle-France_Pays_d%27en-Haut.htm#:~:text=Le%20premier%20Europ%C3%A9en%20%C3%A0%20s,Outaouais%20et%20du%20lac%20Nipissing.|url-status=live}}</ref>[[File:1755 Bellin Map of the Great Lakes - Geographicus - GreatLakes-bellin-1755.jpg|left|thumb|A 1755 map of the ''[[Pays d'en Haut]]'' region of [[New France]], an area that included most of Ontario]] As for Northern Ontario, the English explorer [[Henry Hudson]] sailed into [[Hudson Bay]] in 1611 and claimed its drainage basin for England. The area would become known as [[Rupert's Land]].

[[Samuel de Champlain]] reached Lake Huron in 1615, and French missionaries, such as the [[Jésuites]] and [[Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice|Supliciens]], began to establish posts along the Great Lakes. The French allied with most Indigenous groups of Ontario, all for the fur trade and for defence against Iroquois attacks (which would later be called the [[Iroquois Wars]]). The French would declare their Indigenous allies to be subjects of the King of France and would often act as mediators between different groups. The Iroquois later allied themselves with the British.<ref name="thefrenchshouldvewon">{{cite web|url=http://www.gov.on.ca/ont/portal/!ut/p/.cmd/cs/.ce/7_0_A/.s/7_0_252/_s.7_0_A/7_0_252/_l/en?docid=004520|title=About Ontario; History; French and British Struggle for Domination|work=Government of Ontario|access-date=January 5, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070905194801/http://www.gov.on.ca/ont/portal/!ut/p/.cmd/cs/.ce/7_0_A/.s/7_0_252/_s.7_0_A/7_0_252/_l/en?docid=004520|archive-date=September 5, 2007}}</ref>

From 1634 to 1640, the Huron were devastated by European infectious diseases, such as [[measles]] and [[smallpox]], to which they had no immunity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ontarioarchaeology.on.ca/summary/contact.htm |title=The Contact Period |work=ontarioarchaeology.com |access-date=September 26, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003124851/http://www.ontarioarchaeology.on.ca/summary/contact.htm |archive-date=October 3, 2009}}</ref> By 1700, the Iroquois had been driven out or left the area that would become Ontario and the Mississaugas of the Ojibwa had settled the north shore of Lake Ontario. The remaining Huron settled north of Quebec.

During the [[French and Indian War]], the North American theatre of the [[Seven Years' War]] of 1754 to 1763, the British defeated the armies of New France and its Indigenous allies. In the [[Treaty of Paris 1763]] France ceded most of its possessions in North America to Britain. Using the [[Quebec Act]], Britain re-organised the territory into the [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Province of Quebec]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/qa_1774.html|title=The Quebec Act of 1774|website=Solon.org|access-date=January 15, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070207151343/http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/qa_1774.html|archive-date=February 7, 2007}}</ref>