colony · North America and Oceania

Rupert's Land

1670 CE – 1870 CE · capital York Factory

The vast Hudson Bay watershed granted to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670 and run as a fur-trading empire for 200 years before passing to Canada.

Origins

In 1670 Charles II chartered the Hudson's Bay Company, giving it trading rights and ownership of all lands draining into Hudson Bay, named Rupert's Land after its first governor, Prince Rupert. The grant covered much of what is now northern Quebec and Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of the northern United States, though the company knew little of the interior.

For a century the company kept to coastal forts such as York Factory, where Cree and Assiniboine traders brought beaver pelts in exchange for guns, kettles and cloth. French raids under Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville captured several posts until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Competition from the North West Company pushed the company inland after 1774, ending in merger in 1821. Under governor George Simpson it ruled the West, and the Red River Colony and Métis society grew.

Under the Deed of Surrender of 1869 the company sold Rupert's Land to the new Dominion of Canada for 300,000 pounds, and the transfer in 1870 followed the Red River Resistance led by Louis Riel.

Rupert's Land was a colony of Kingdom of England1670 CE – 1707 CE
Rupert's Land was a colony of Kingdom of Great Britain1707 CE – 1800 CE
Rupert's Land was a colony of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland1801 CE – 1870 CE
Red River Colony was part of Rupert's Land1812 CE – 1870 CE

Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Rupert's Land. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ruperts-land
MLA: “Rupert's Land.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ruperts-land. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Rupert's Land.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ruperts-land.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Rupert's Land’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ruperts-land (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻