Victoria summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Victoria.

Victoria, City (pop., 2001: metro. area, 311,902), capital of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, overlooking Juan de Fuca Strait. It was founded in 1843 by the Hudson’s Bay Co. as a fur-trading post known as Fort Camosun; it was later renamed Fort Victoria to honour the English queen. It was selected as the capital in 1866 when Vancouver Island united with British Columbia. It is now one of the province’s largest business centres and a tourist resort and retirement community. A major port, it is the Pacific headquarters of the Canadian navy.

British Columbia Summary

British Columbia, westernmost of Canada’s 10 provinces. It is bounded to the north by Yukon and the Northwest Territories, to the east by the province of Alberta, to the south by the U.S. states of Montana, Idaho, and Washington, and to the west by the Pacific Ocean and the southern panhandle

Canada Summary

Canada, the second largest country in the world in area (after Russia), occupying roughly the northern two-fifths of the continent of North America. Despite Canada’s great size, it is one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries. This fact, coupled with the grandeur of the landscape, has