Ontario (The vanquished North)

Ontario
Timeline: The vanquished North

Capital	York
Largest city	Hamilton
Other cities	St. Catherine's, Hawkesbury, Newark
Language   official	English
others	Polish, German, French, Native languages
Area	258,999 km²
Population	8,378,683

Ontario is an American state. Ontario is bordered by Assiniboia and Canada to the north, Michigan to the west, New York and Canada to the east and New York to the South.

History

The modern area of Ontario was inhabited by various Indigenous people, such as the Mississauga, Nipissing, Odawa, Ojibwe, Cree, Huron-Wyandot, Potawatomi, Petun, Haudenosaunee and the Neutral Confederacy.

France claimed much of the territory but made no effort to settle it. The British acquired it following the 7 years war but still did not develop it.

Following the invasion of the Province of Quebec, British influence in North America was weakened since the former French settlers had declared Independence and then united with the United States. The British soon realised that holding their position in OTL Ontario and Manitoba was untenable and began negotiating with the Americans about ceding British North America to the US. The British were still interested in the area, since nearly 500,000 Loyalists (Americans who supported the British during the war and wanted to leave the new nation) were being kept there and the government wanted to resettle the Loyalists in the remaining British territory. Proposals for places to resettle the Loyalists expanded to include Northern Ireland, India and the Caribbean. The British also want to keep a foothold in North America so they can still have access to the fur trade. In 1790, the treaty of Hanover is signed, it guarantees British rule over the James bay colony, Red River colony and the OTL maritime provinces while Ontario is ceded to the United States. In exchange the Americans recongnise the independence of the Ohio confederacy (Northwest Confederacy) and give most of Maine to the British, which is now known as New Ireland. The British now see the new United States as a threat. The British then propose the creation of an anti-American alliance with the Spanish, who agree and begin to populate Florida to prevent its seizure by the US.

Settlers soon started to arrive from New England and New York, finding the southern and western shores of Lake Ontario to be perfect for agriculture due to its warmer climate, which allowed them to grow grapes, lavender, peanuts, cherries and peaches. The most common crops were wheat and to a lesser extent corn. While New Englanders settled the coasts it was Scottish Americans who first ventured into the interior.

Wars soon started with the native people who lived in the area, notably with the remnants of the Iroquois Confederacy, but also with the Mississauga, Odawa and Nipissing. The state government suggested creating an Indian Territory in the north and east of the state, which was a densely forested area with little to no European settlement. The Ottawa river valley was excluded due to its lucrative timber industry.

Ontario became the 24th state in 1819, as a Free State.

The population continued to grow as new immigrants arrived from nearby states as well as Forty Eighters from Europe. German, Czech, Polish and Hungarian immigrants moved to coastal agricultural areas and established many towns in the area. The other main population area, Ottawa, had a mostly static population. Many had moved to the area from Canada, Ireland and states such as Wisconsin. Some Forty Eighters moved to the area but the timber-based economy was less appealing to many than agriculture. This meant that Ottawa remained mostly French-speaking due to its proximity to Canada. Railroad construction started at this time.

Land surveyors in Northern Ontario soon discovered large reserves of gold, silver, copper and nickel (also zinc but it had no use during this time). The population of this area was still small and large scale mining would not start in that area until the 1870s when the industrial revolution gave them the ability to extract minerals in larger quantities.

Many Ontarians volunteered to fight for the Union during the American Civil War.

Hamilton skyline, C. 1900

Southern Ontario began to industrialise during the 1870s. The Welland and Rideau canals were built during this time, with steel and textile industries quickly developing around these areas as well as large cities like Hamilton, Newark and York. Italian, Central European (mostly Ukrainians, Poles, Hungarians, Croatians and Slovaks), Canadian and African American immigrants were attracted to the growing need for workers in southern Ontario and moved there by the hundreds of thousands. Railroads were now a common sight throughout Ontario. Lumber yards and sawmills in the Ottawa river valley industrialised, this attracted immigrants from Finland, Greece, Bosnia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. Labour for the mining boom in Northern and Central Ontario was mostly provided by Canadian, German, Hungarian, Slovene and Dutch immigrants, as can be seen in many town names in the region, such as Berlin (OTL Kitchener). Industrialisation of agriculture allowed Ontario's wheat exports to increase by five times. Many people moved from rural areas to cities, as the native-born population went from 20% urban to 50% from 1870 to 1910. In the same time period the population grew from 1,396,446 to 4,189,342. Majority of the population lived in major industrial cities. Many small fishing villages on the coast of lake Ontario and Erie saw majority of their populations leave. This trend continued with the beginning of car manufacturing.

Demographics