ABSTRACT
By international standards, Canada is a fairly young nation. It is also one of the few countries in the world, which gained nationhood without a revolution. It was rst permanently settled by Europeans in 1608, by Samuel de Champlain of France and then by the English circa 1660s around the Hudson Bay area. Although England and France were interested in colonization, their primary investment in the “New Land” was fur trading. Within a few years, the rivalries over trading routes and territory began to escalate. is culminated in the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) in which the French were defeated, but in the Quebec Act of 1774, French Canadians were granted a certain amount of autonomy in Quebec. However, the Quebec Act said that for criminal law, the law of England would apply.
