Block settlement


A block settlement is a particular type of land distribution which allows settlers with the same ethnicity to form small colonies.
This settlement type was used throughout western Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some were planned and others were spontaneously created by the settlers themselves.
The policy of planned blocks was pursued primarily by Clifford Sifton during his time as Interior Minister of Canada. It was essentially a compromise position. Some politicians wanted all ethnic groups to be scattered evenly though the new lands to ensure they would quickly assimilate to Anglo-Canadian culture, while others did not want to live near "foreign" immigrants and demanded that they be segregated. At the time Canada was receiving large amounts of non-British, non-French, immigrants for the first time, especially Italians, Germans, Scandinavians, and Ukrainians. The newcomers themselves wanted to settle as close as possible to people with a familiar language and similar customs. The government did not want the west to be fragmented into a few large homogeneous ethnic blocks, however. So several smaller colonies were set up where particular ethnic groups could settle, but these were spaced across the country.

Examples of ethnic block settlements in western Canada

African American

Meaning settlers from Eastern Canada, primarily Ontario, and mostly of British and Irish origins.
These include French Canadians from Quebec, French Americans, and Francophones from France, Belgium, and Switzerland
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
Saskatchewan
Some French settlements were founded by Francophone Métis from the Red River settlement in Manitoba. Many began as Métis hivernants buffalo hunting camps from the 1840s to the 1870s.
founded in 1903 in Saskatchewan was 4,662 square kilometres in size. It included 50 townships; townships 35 to 40, ranges 18 to 22, and townships 37 to 41, ranges 23 to 26 of the Dominion Land Survey west of the 2nd Meridian. 8,000 settlers had arrived in the colony by 1910 and by 1930 it was home to 18,000 Roman Catholics. Most were German Catholics. Between 1903 and 1925 parishes were established at Leofeld, Muenster, Fulda, Marysburg, Annaheim, Englefeld, Watson, Lake Lenore, Bruno, Humboldt, Burr, St. Gregor, Pilger, St. Benedict, Dana, Carmel, Cudworth, Middle Lake, Peterson and Naicam.

St. Joseph's Colony (Josephstal)

Villages in this Saskatchewan colony included Adanac, Biggar, Broadacres, Cactus Lake, Carmelheim, Cavell, Cosine, Denzil, Donegal, Evesham, Grosswerder, Handel, Kelfield, Kerrobert, Landis, Leipzig, Luseland, Macklin, Major, Onward, Pascal, Phippen, Primate, Revenue, Reward, Salvador, Scott, Tramping Lake, Unity, Wilkie and Wolfe.

Italian

are German-speaking Anabaptists who live in communal agricultural colonies. They have 188 colonies in Alberta, 117 in Manitoba, 72 in Saskatchewan and 3 in British Columbia. These Canadian colonies began with 18 colonies founded in 1919.

Jewish

founded in 1887 was the first Latter-day Saint settlement in Alberta.

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Ukrainian settlements with approximate date of founding :