Rupert's Land

Rupert's land was an area that forms a large part of present-day Canada. Originally it belonged to the Hudson 's Bay Company ( HBC). It is named after Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, the first Governor of the Company.

The lease agreement, the Charles II had concluded with the Company, gave her the monopoly of the fur trade in the catchment area of the rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay. This area encompassed approximately 3.9 million square kilometers, more than a third of the area of present-day Canada.

1821 united the North West Company ( NWC ) of Montreal and the HBC. The common catchment area, which was extended by a license to the Northwestern territory, is now extended to the Arctic Ocean in the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

1869 sold the HBC their rights to Rupert's land and the former territories of the NWC of the Canadian Dominion, the forerunner of today's Canada. In 1870 the Manitoba Act, the new Canadian province of Manitoba created by its capital Fort Garry (now Winnipeg ) henceforth with managed from the mighty rest of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory as Northwest Territories.

With the creation of additional provinces and territories and several border transfers parts of the former Rupert's land was next to Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nunavut, Ontario and Quebec. Already with the demarcation of 1818 along the 49th parallel were parts of the country went to the United States, which are now among the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota.

Rupert's Land is also an ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Church of Canada, including the Canadian prairies and a large part of the Canadian Arctic. It is also the name of an Anglican diocese in Manitoba.

• Historical Territory (Canada)
• Historical territory ( America)