History of TorontoSourced history of Toronto, Ontario

Toronto History: Guide to the Pages of This Section

The Toronto history section of History of Toronto collects pages on the city’s past, from the Indigenous nations who lived on the north shore of Lake Ontario to the amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto in 1998. The British settled the site in 1793 and named the town York, and the City of Toronto was incorporated on March 6, 1834. This page explains how the section is organized and which page answers which question.

What this section covers

Toronto has a long documented past. Indigenous peoples, including ancestors of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas, lived in the area long before European settlers. The French built a trading post, Fort Rouille, in 1751, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. The British established York in 1793 as the capital of Upper Canada, and the settlement grew into a city, a regional metropolis, and finally the largest city in Canada. The city’s population in 2026 is 3,358,275.

The pages below look at that story from different angles: a general account, individual buildings, churches, a nineteenth-century book, and collections of outside links. Each page can be read alone.

Start with the overview

Readers new to the subject should begin with the overview of Toronto’s history. It runs from the first villages through Fort York, the rebellion of 1837, the railway era, and the merger of 1998, and it includes a timeline of dates. The other pages assume only a general idea of that sequence.

Guide to the pages

  • History overview: a continuous account of Toronto from Indigenous settlement to amalgamation, with a timeline and answers to common questions about the city’s name and founding.
  • Historic buildings of Toronto: a look at surviving and lost structures that show how the city’s architecture changed over time.
  • Historic churches of Toronto: an account of congregations and church buildings that shaped neighborhoods and public life.
  • A History of Toronto and County of York: a page about a nineteenth-century reference work on the city and its surrounding county, useful for readers who want older local sources.
  • Genealogy links: a list of outside websites for people tracing family history in Toronto and Ontario.
  • History links: a directory of outside sites about Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
  • History of the national flag of Canada: the story of how the country chose its flag and what the design represents.

How the history is divided

Historians usually split the city’s story into a few periods. The first is the Indigenous and French era, in which the French outpost of Fort Rouille was burned and abandoned in 1758 to 1759. The second is the Upper Canada period beginning in 1793, when John Graves Simcoe founded York and the settlement became a provincial capital and military post. The third begins with incorporation as a city in 1834 and runs through the rebellion of 1837, which collapsed at Montgomery’s Tavern on December 7, 1837, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

The fourth period starts after the Second World War, when suburban growth led the province of Ontario to create the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The City of Toronto’s exhibit on the Toronto Transit Commission states that the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto Act took effect on January 1, 1954, while other accounts date the enabling act to 1953, which is why some sources give one year and some the other. The fifth period begins with the amalgamation of 1998, when Metropolitan Toronto and its six local municipalities became one city, according to a University of Toronto paper on the amalgamation.

Using the sources

Local history draws on archives, books, and oral tradition, and these do not always agree. The origin of the name Toronto is one example. Natural Resources Canada traces it most likely to a Mohawk word, tkaronto, meaning “where there are trees standing in the water,” while the nineteenth-century writer Henry Scadding proposed a Huron meaning of “place of meeting,” which Natural Resources Canada finds unconvincing. Where sources disagree, the pages in this section name each version. Readers who want original records can consult the City of Toronto Archives, the Toronto Public Library, Library and Archives Canada, and the Archives of Ontario.

Frequently asked questions

Where should a reader start?

The overview page gives the full sequence of events and a timeline, so it is the best first stop.

When did York become Toronto?

York was incorporated as the City of Toronto on March 6, 1834, with William Lyon Mackenzie as its first mayor.

Is there material on family history?

Yes. The genealogy links page lists outside sites for tracing ancestors in Toronto and Ontario.

More in the history section

Twentieth-century Toronto

The 1800s and early 1900s

Last verified: October 2026

Sources

Cite this page

APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 25). Toronto History: Guide to the Pages of This Section. http://localhost:8210/history

MLA: “Toronto History: Guide to the Pages of This Section.” History of Toronto, 25 Oct. 2026, http://localhost:8210/history. Accessed .

Chicago: History of Toronto. “Toronto History: Guide to the Pages of This Section.” Last modified October 25, 2026. http://localhost:8210/history.

The pages have no named author, so the site is given as the author. Add the date you read the page if your style asks for it.