| As in the United States, this period represented the triumph of industrialism in Canadian society. The nation had taken significant steps toward national unification in 1867, but 1885 is considered the crucial watershed in Canadian history during this period. The year 1885 marked the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the nation's first transcontinental transportation network. Like the United States, Canada was now linked by a single rail system from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Moreover, in 1885, Canadian forces defeated the Métis (a multiracial ethnic group) and its Indian allies and opened the way for the unrestricted European occupation of the Canadian west. In the wake of the Métis war, Canada also embarked upon a public debate about its national identity, which revealed deep cleavages between English-speaking (mainly Ontario) and French-speaking (mainly Quebec) Canada. At the same time, this period witnessed the growth of the labor movement, rising demands for women's suffrage, and growing animosities and restrictions against the small Chinese population. Thus, by the eve of World War I, Canada continued to wrestle with significant class, cultural, and regional divisions. | 1 |
