The history of Ottawa begins with the retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet from to c. , which allowed human settlement. Since at least , Algonquin people have lived along the Ottawa River, frequently meeting at Chaudière Falls (known to them as ) to socialize and trade. Europeans first explored the river in 1610, but Algonquins maintained a monopoly on trade until the Beaver Wars, when Haudenosaunee (known exonymically as Iroquois) attacks drove many from the Ottawa Valley.
The subsequent Seven Years' War saw the conquest of New France, with the British claiming the Ottawa Valley via the Province of Quebec. However, the Algonquins continued to exercise land rights for some time. The European population did not begin to grow substantially until after the American Revolutionary War, when British loyalists fled to the province and a major timber trade developed. Concerns about conflict with the newly independent United States prompted the construction of the Rideau Canal and the establishment of the adjacent settlement of Bytown—predecessor to present-day Ottawa, which received its current name in 1855.
Throughout the mid-19th century, the capital of Canada changed regularly before settling on Ottawa. Parliament Hill was constructed during the 1860s and 70s, leading to a major increase in the population. Processed lumber was central to the city's economy, though production began to decline beginning in the 1880s. Major disasters, including a fire in 1900 and typhoid epidemics in 1911 and 1912, caused many to argue that the city should be modernized. After the upheavals of World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, the city underwent considerable changes under the Gréber Plan, becoming more decentralized. As the capital of Canada, it also saw many protests and social movements during the mid-twentieth century. In 1969, it became part of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa–Carleton (RMOC).
Over the next few decades, Ottawa's private sector grew substantially—particularly the technology sector. Various cultural institutions were established, including the present-day Ottawa Senators, Ottawa Bluesfest, CityFolk Festival, and Ottawa Fringe Festival. In 2001, under the direction of the Ontario provincial government, Ottawa annexed many of its neighbours in the RMOC, growing substantially in land area. Lines 1 and 2 were constructed—the latter attracting considerable controversy due to the Rideau Transit Group consortium's alleged mismanagement. In 2022, a large protest against federal vaccination requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic led to an occupation of the city that lasted several weeks, culminating in the invocation of the Emergencies Act.
Pre-contact
From to , the Laurentide ice sheet retreated from the Ottawa Valley, rendering it habitable. Archaeologists Ken Swayze and Robert McGhee theorize based on stone artifacts found at the Heritage Hills site near present-day Ottawa that the area may have been used as a hunting ground for seals and other marine mammals as the ice sheet receded.
Other significant Archaic sites in the area include those at Allumette and Morrison Islands (near present-day Pembroke). Occupied between and , these sites were nodes in a major copper trading network stretching across North America. The copper industries at these sites were among the earliest examples of metal tool use in the world. The Woodland period saw the development of stone tools fashioned from local chert deposits and of ceramic containers, which first appear in the region's archaeological record at Pointe à l'Indien (located at the confluence of the Ottawa and Chalk Rivers).
Algonquian peoples
Algonquian peoples have lived in the Ottawa Valley since at least . Because the region was not suited to agriculture, many Algonquian groups practised fishing, hunting, and gathering. Most migrated seasonally throughout the region, congregating annually in the summer for economic, political, religious, and social activities. One congregation site for the Algonquin people was located at Chaudière Falls (known to them as ), where people commonly met to socialize and trade.
The Ottawa River (known to the Algonquin as ) was of central importance to the Algonquin people, serving as a site of community and religious ritual. According to Algonquin oral histories, families left ( 'tokens of gratitude') around rock carvings scattered along the riverbank to honour their ancestors and the river itself. These oral histories also say that the carvings were sites where could move between worlds, with some helping to guide travellers along the river, among other things.
European exploration and contact
In 1610, French missionaries Étienne Brûlé and Nicolas de Vignau, who were sent by Samuel de Champlain to live among the Wendat people in Georgian Bay, were the first Europeans to explore the Ottawa River. After what he claimed was a later exepdition up the Ottawa, Vignau reported discovering the remains of an English ship. Intrigued by this rumour, Champlain himself travelled up the river in 1613 with Vignau.
At the time, the French identified six Algonquin groups living in the region: the Keinouche near present-day Pontiac, Quebec; the Matouweskarini near the Madawaska River; the Weskarini near the Lièvre River; the Onontchataronon directly along the Ottawa River; and the Otaguottouemin and Kichesipirini, both near Allumette Island—also directly along the Ottawa River. Champlain received help from the Kichesipirini, visiting Chaudière Falls, Rideau Falls, and Morrison Island (among other places). It was during this expedition that Champlain gave the Rideau River its French name, meaning "curtain".
Beaver wars
The Algonquin peoples were influential traders—and the Ottawa River an influential trade route. Under their leader, Tessouat, the Kichesipirini exercised a monopoly on trade along the river, preventing French traders from establishing forts along it. After Tessouat's death, however, Haudenosaunee (known exonymically as Iroquois) attacks disrupted this monopoly. This led to the Beaver Wars, which pitted the Algonquins and Wendat (nominally allied with the French) against the Haudenosaunee (nominally allied with the British). Haudenosaunee raids during this period, along with a number of epidemics, caused many Algonquin and Wendat peoples to flee the valley, seeking refuge in French settlements and in the area around Lac-Saint-Jean. Several Jesuit missionaries, including Jean de Brébeuf and Charles Lallemant, were also martyred during the conflict. However, by 1700, the Haudenosaunee had been completely driven from the valley, and the wars ended in 1701 with the Great Peace of Montreal.
British conquest and American Revolutionary War
In 1756, the Seven Years' War erupted between the rival imperial powers of France and the United Kingdom, as well as their respective allies. The war spilled over into North America, with British troops conquering Quebec City and Montreal between 1759 and 1760. New France was placed under military rule. The primarily Scottish-controlled North West Company quickly took control of the European fur trade in the region and began surveying the Ottawa River. Meanwhile, the British officially claimed New France (including the area around present-day Ottawa) with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Former French territory was consolidated into the Province of Quebec after the Royal Proclamation of 1763.
The province's European population remained very low until the American Revolutionary War, when displaced British loyalists fled to the province in great numbers. Between 1780 and 1784, the European population expanded from about 2,000 to about 25,000, with most settling in the southwest area of the province. After the war, many loyalists were granted free land in the Ottawa Valley. As tensions between these newly arrived loyalists and established Francophones rose, the Constitutional Act 1791 split the province into primarily Angolphone Upper Canada and primarily Francophone Lower Canada, with part of the boundary between the two defined by the Ottawa River.
Lower Canada refused to recognize the territorial rights of the First Nations people living along the Ottawa River. They argued that the land north of the river was French territory and had officially become British under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Meanwhile, during councils in 1783 and 1784 in what would become Upper Canada, the British allegedly purchased large sections of the Ottawa Valley (including the territory of the present-day city of Ottawa) from the Algonquins and Haudenosaunee for property along the St. Lawrence River and clothing for one local chief. However, in practice, Algonquins from around the Lake of Two Mountains still exercised land rights in the area around the eastern Ottawa River. They and their Nipissing allies used the region for hunting and trapping.
Birth of the timber industry
The Ottawa Valley's rich forests and waterways (which were used to power sawmills) made the region ideal for harvesting timber. The valley's first sawmill was installed by William Merrick, who founded Merrickville. Later, in 1800, Philemon Wright founded the first major European settlement in the valley near Chaudière Falls: Hull. Wright had hoped to use the land for farming, but timber proved more profitable. By 1806, Wright was selling timber to Quebec City. Other timber merchants—including Joseph Papineau, David Pattee, and Thomas Mears—soon followed. They found receptive markets as the British sought sources of timber for naval shipbuilding amidst the Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812.
Rideau Purchase At the same time, Algonquin and Nipissing groups consolidated their control over the islands in the Ottawa River, issuing leases and collecting rents in 1802. In May 1819, the British negotiated with 257 Mississauga people in Kingston to purchase 2.7 million acres of Algonquin-controlled land in the Ottawa Valley—including significant parts of the modern-day National Capital Region. The British negotiators agreed to pay these 257 Mississaugas GBP £642 10s—50s per person—for the land. They also sent the Mississauga negotiators blankets, hats, jewellery, and telescopes. This came to be known as the Rideau Purchase. The Algonquin peoples who used the land were not consulted about the purchase and never officially ceded their rights to it. During the 1820s, conflicts over hunting rights along the river arose between these Algonquins and their Nipissing allies and encroaching Haudenosaunee and Abenaki groups. Many of these conflicts were the subject of petitions to the British government, which refused to grant any group hunting rights in the region.
Construction of the Rideau Canal
Background to construction
The War of 1812 caused a naval arms race between Britain and the United States. Most of the war's naval activity took place in the Great Lakes, and an American attempt to seize control of the St. Lawrence River via Montreal failed. However, after the fighting ended, it was reported to Major General Frederick Philipse Robinson that the Americans had developed a more detailed plan to seize control of the St. Lawrence via Kingston or Montreal if the war continued.
To protect against such an attack in the future, the British made plans to revive an abandoned French project to build a canal around the Lachine Rapids, as well as to construct a new canal connecting Kingston and Montreal. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, supported the construction of a canal, and after several initial surveys, George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, bought the headland for the planned Kingston-Montreal canal in 1823. However, funding for the project was not forthcoming from Upper Canada or Lower Canada. As a result, Wellington authorized the canal's construction as a military project in 1826.
Founding of Bytown