The Indigenous population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000[23] and two million,[24] with a figure of 500,000 accepted by Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.[25] As a consequence of European colonization, the Indigenous population declined by forty to eighty percent.[26] The decline is attributed to several causes, including the transfer of European diseases, to which they had no natural immunity,[27] conflicts over the fur trade, conflicts with the colonial authorities and settlers, and the loss of Indigenous lands to settlers and the subsequent collapse of several nations' self-sufficiency.[28] Although not without conflict, European Canadians' early interactions with First Nations and Inuit populations were relatively peaceful.[29] First Nations and Métis peoples played a critical part in the development of European colonies in Canada, particularly for their role in assisting European coureurs des bois and voyageurs in their explorations of the continent during the North American fur trade.[30] These early European interactions with First Nations would change from friendship and peace treaties to the dispossession of Indigenous lands through treaties.[31] From the late 18th century, European Canadians forced Indigenous peoples to assimilate into a western Canadian society.[32] Settler colonialism reached a climax in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[33] A period of redress began with the formation of a reconciliation commission by the Government of Canada in 2008.[34] This included acknowledgment of cultural genocide,[35] settlement agreements,[34] and betterment of racial discrimination issues, such as addressing the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women.[36] European colonization Map of territorial claims in North America by 1750. Possessions of British America (pink), New France (blue), and New Spain (orange); California, Pacific Northwest, and Great Basin not indicated.[37] It is believed that the first documented European to explore the east coast of Canada was Norse explorer Leif Erikson.[38] In approximately 1000 AD, the Norse built a small short-lived encampment that was occupied sporadically for perhaps 20 years at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland.[39] No further European exploration occurred until 1497, when seafarer John Cabot explored and claimed Canada's Atlantic coast in the name of Henry VII of England.[40] In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the Gulf of Saint Lawrence where, on July 24, he planted a 10-metre (33 ft) cross bearing the words, "long live the King of France", and took possession of the territory New France in the name of King Francis I.[41] The early 16th century saw European mariners with navigational techniques pioneered by the Basque and Portuguese establish seasonal whaling and fishing outposts along the Atlantic coast.[42] In general, early settlements during the Age of Discovery appear to have been short-lived due to a combination of the harsh climate, problems with navigating trade routes and competing outputs in Scandinavia.[43] In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, by the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I, founded St John's, Newfoundland, as the first North American English seasonal camp.[44] In 1600, the French established their first seasonal trading post at Tadoussac along the Saint Lawrence.[39] French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent year-round European settlements at Port Royal (in 1605) and Quebec City (in 1608).[45] Among the colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the Saint Lawrence River valley and Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana.[46] The Beaver Wars broke out in the mid-17th century over control of the North American fur trade.[47] The English established additional settlements in Newfoundland in 1610 along with settlements in the Thirteen Colonies to the south.[48] A series of four wars erupted in colonial North America between 1689 and 1763; the later wars of the period constituted the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War.[49] Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht and Canada and most of New France came under British rule in 1763 after the Seven Years' War.[50] British North America Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe (1771) dramatizes James Wolfe's death during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City.[51] The Royal Proclamation of 1763 established First Nation treaty rights, created the Province of Quebec out of New France, and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia.[16] St John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony in 1769.[52] To avert conflict in Quebec, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act 1774, expanding Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.[53] More importantly, the Quebec Act afforded Quebec special autonomy and rights of self-administration at a time when the Thirteen Colonies were increasingly agitating against British rule.[54] It re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law there, staving off the growth of an independence movement in contrast to the Thirteen Colonies.[55] The Proclamation and the Quebec Act in turn angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, further fuelling anti-British sentiment in the years prior to the American Revolution.[16] After the successful American War of Independence, the 1783 Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the newly formed United States and set the terms of peace, ceding British North American territories south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi River to the new country.[56] The American war of independence also caused a large out-migration of Loyalists, the settlers who had fought against American independence. Many moved to Canada, particularly Atlantic Canada, where their arrival changed the demographic distribution of the existing territories. New Brunswick was in turn split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes, which led to the incorporation of Saint John, New Brunswick, as Canada's first city.[57] To accommodate the influx of English-speaking Loyalists in Central Canada, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province of Canada into French-speaking Lower Canada (later Quebec) and English-speaking Upper Canada (later Ontario), granting each its own elected legislative assembly.[58]