Settlement+Patterns

Settlement Patterns
Canada has wide variety of communities in different sizes, functions, and cultures. These communities are also spread all over Canada creating many unique settlement patterns. In this activity the student will examine these settlement patterns and statistics dealing with the population of Canada.

Settlement Patterns
The first people in Canada were the aboriginals, also referred to as First Nations. They lived here for thousands of years before anyone else arrived. The next group to arrive were the Vikings. Due to various reasons they did not remain in Canada, and, therefore, there are no descendants from this group of people living in Canada today. Over the last 500 years most of Canada’s people came from European or Asian countries. Canada’s current population is not evenly distributed throughout the land. The people who settled in Canada created distinct settlement patterns. These patterns formed for various reasons. Quebec, Ontario, and Prairie Settlement Patterns

Long Lot System:
The first group of Europeans to settle permanently in Canada were the French. The first people to arrive from France and settle here came to Canada in 1604. Back then, people traveled by water. The first settlers used the water for transportation. Every farmer, called a Habitant, needed access to the water, so all the land along the waters edge was divided up. When the children of these farmers inherited the land (farm), each male child got a section, a thin sliver of land with access to the water. Transportation along the water was still important, so the land was divided into narrow strips like this.

The houses were along the transportation routes. People lived near each other in rows. It was easy to visit, but it could be a long way to the other end of a farmer's field. This system of narrow strips of farm fields is called the Long Lot System. Satellite images of farmland over the St. Lawrence River still show long lots in what used to be New France.

Concession System:
Prairies: When the British (English) arrived, they used different settlement patterns. Surveyors went out first and planned out the roads and farms in a grid pattern. These grids included concessions and side roads. These properties tend to be rectangular. The houses were set in the middle of the property to make it easier for the farmer to farm. Though it was shorter to get to the fields, it was longer to visit neighbours. If you live in rural southern Ontario, you probably live within

Survey System.
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The prairies were also surveyed before they were developed for farming. The survey system was the Section system. This created square-shaped properties. On the prairies these small farm sizes were not enough to grow crops for sale. If they were able to, farmers bought their neighbours properties in a process known <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">as farm consolidation. This process of bringing farms together created bigger farms which could grow enough crops (like wheat) to be sold around the world. Many of these large farms today are agribusinesses. These large farms had houses which were also more isolated from each other than those of the Long Lot System.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Assignment
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1. Match the word with the appropriate definition. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Aboriginals <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">First Nations <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">settlement patterns <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">long lot <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">transportation <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Habitant <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">concession system <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">surveyors <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">grid pattern <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">section system <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">agribusiness

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">industries that own and farm vast amounts of land, often using advanced technology <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">descendants of the first inhabitants of Canada before recorded history or before colonists arrived <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">a long, narrow farm property which extends back from rivers or roads <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">a survey system on the Prairies <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">people who measure or survey land (determining the boundaries of land or structures on the land by measuring angles and distances) <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">a survey system based on squares and rectangles, a road system pattern a farmer in New France <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">a type of survey system used in southern Ontario where land is divided by concession roads and side roads into squares and rectangles of different sizes <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">groups of Aboriginal people who share the same culture and heritage <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> the movement of goods or people <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> the distribution of farms and farmhouses, villages, towns, and cities in a region

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. If applicable, draw an example of the concession system as well as the concession system.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">3. Which one would you prefer if you were a farmer? Why?