The federation of Canada was created in 1867 when three colonies of British North America were united. One of these colonies split into two new provinces, three other colonies joined later. The new federation continued as a British colonial possession, gradually evolving into an independent nation several decades later.

Before being part of British North America, the provinces that made up the new Dominion of Canada were part of the colonies of Canada and Acadia in New France, which were gradually ceded to Great Britain and the United Kingdom after defeat in several wars. The French influence lived on, as the French language was common in the initial provinces of Canada, and remains one of the two official languages of the country.

The central expanse of Canada was originally settled by the Hudson's Bay Company of the Kingdom of England, which had a royal monopoly over trade in the region; Rupert's Land was named after the company's first director, Prince Rupert of the Rhine. The North West Company later moved into a large portion of the region, and competition and minor hostilities between the two companies forced their merger. What was to become the Colony of British Columbia was claimed as part of New Spain and Russian America, until 1793 and 1825 respectively, and was for a time shared with the United States as what was known to Americans as the Oregon Country, until in 1846 the border was extended west from the Rockies to the Pacific along the 49th parallel north.

Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.

The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.