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articles
timeline America The World at large
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toronto after 1810 In 1812 the long expected war with the USA broke out. Americans invaded Canada and three times attacked Toronto. In the first bloody invasion, April 27, 1813, American forces number 1700 soldiers and 14 warships. After bloody fighting, the outnumbered British retreat to Kingston, leaving the local population "standing in the street like a parcel of sheep". The Americans seized Fort York in April. In May they looted the town, burned down the Parliament buildings and left. That summer the Canadians rebuilt the fort which stands today and was in military use until 1880. The Americans returned twice more, initially successful and in the last attempt were beaten back by the batteries on Gibraltar Point. For the first few years after the war, growth continued its slow pace. Montreal remained the financial capital of Canada and commerce flowed along the St. Lawrence, leaving York a backwater. Growth tho the west was planned and based on a grid. Growth to the east of town was scattered and random. Power rested with the Family Compact well into the 1830s and the town was socially layered with an aristocratic elite at the top, merchants and craftspeople emerging at the middle layer and a growing mass of poor, often immigrants at the bottom. To the east the townspeople lived in small homes on small lots and grew gardens to feed themselves. Cabbages were common giving the area its folk name "Cabbagetown". To the north, the land was slowly being subdivided, but large tracts remained in field or forest. To the west, where the public promenade still stretched along the lakeshore, no greenspaces were set aside as new homes and buildings went up. By 1820 there were 1240 people in York. But in 1825 the Erie Canal opened, linking the Great Lakes to the Hudson River, New York City and the Atlantic. This short route allowed shipping from York to bypass Montreal. As with many cities in the American mid-west, the Canal turned towns along the Great Lakes into major ports. Roads spread out from York to allow products and immigrants smooth passage into town. In 1834, the town became a city and by popular decree the city was re-christened Toronto. Its first mayor was William Lyon Mackenzie King, a man known for his hot temper. Previously a member of parliament he had been expeled from the Assembly on a number of occassions and always voted back in. His tenure as mayor was no less dramatic and he was turned out of office the following year. Two years later Mackenzie led a rebellion to overthrow the power of the Family Compact. In 1851 there were 30,775 people in Toronto In the 1850s, railways hastened the movement of products in and out of Canada West and the prairies. By this time power was in the hands of Tory supporters of Queen and Empire who opposed Catholicism. There were 24 churches in the city and a growing industrial base. When the Bank Act changed in 1871, Toronto-based banks profited from new freedoms. In 1881 there were 113,128 people in Toronto.Twenty years later the population had doubled to 238,080 and twenty years after that it was almost tripled to 611,443.
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