Vancouver (Civ5)/Civilopedia

The native peoples of the region had lived in the Pacific Northwest for 10,000 years when British naval captain George Vancouver landed at Point Grey in 1792 AD. In 1808, the British trader Simon Fraser travelled down the river that bears his name as far as Point Grey. Based on reports from Fraser and other trappers, in 1827 the Hudson Bay Company built Fort Langley - but the area remained little inhabited until the Fraser Gold Rush in 1858, when miners from California and eastern Canada poured in.
A more enduring source of wealth soon became the basis for greater growth. A number of lumber mills were established along the shores of the inlet; in 1867 a crude settlement called Gastown sprang up around the shore-front tavern run by "Gassy" Deighton. In 1884 the town, with its magnificent natural harbor, was selected as the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The influx of newcomers, mostly Scandinavians and Scots, brought such rapid growth that the various settlements on the inlet were combined and incorporated as the city of Vancouver in April 1886.
With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 AD, it became economically feasible to ship grain and timber directly to the east coast of North America and to Europe from Vancouver. With its completion in 1923, the Ballantyne Pier made Vancouver the most technologically advanced port in the entire British Commonwealth. After World War II, the boom in Vancouver continued, making it the eighth-largest city in Canada. The rise of tourism in the North Pacific means a number of cruise ships depart regularly from Vancouver, 199 sailings in 2011. Recently, the exploration and exploitation of oil in Alaska and natural gas in western Canada have resulted in plans to make it a major crude oil and gas terminus.