Between 1760 and Confederation, the colonization of Lower and Upper Canada extended to the Canadian Shield. In Lower Canada, the Saguenay River, the Saint-Maurice valley and the region north of Montreal were the main settlement areas. In Upper Canada, colonization attempts were made in the Ottawa-Huron region, which extended eastward from Lake Huron to the Ottawa Valley. The Canadian Shield presented a challenge to settlement until population growth pushed the limits. In the early 19th century, the Shield offered a solution to the ideological and economic dilemmas of the Canadian colonies, and colonization was encouraged. The settlement that developed in the Canadian Shield was based on resource extraction and shaped the landscape of the region. However, colonization in the Shield eventually declined due to poor conditions, and new colonization solutions were found. The Canadian Shield influenced the colonization of Lower and Upper Canada because it provided a temporary solution during a difficult period of demographic and economic transition. The Shield highlighted the limits of settlement in the Canadian colonies and forced settlers to establish themselves in the interior Northwest. Settlement in the Canadian Shield provided an outlet for the growing population. In the early 19th century, Lower Canada experienced an influx of labor, pioneer families, and capital from the Atlantic and eastern North America. Colonization began to expand northward; however, according to geography professor Cole Harris, colonization "hesitated at the edges of the Canadian Shield" and "neither settlers nor capital touched the Canadian Shield until the early 1850s." Although the Shield was not effectively colonized, it prevented emigration until alternative solutions were found that allowed further exploitation of the resources. With the boundaries of the Canadian Shield pushed back, settlers realized that Canada was tightly confined and looked elsewhere for solutions. It could be said that the failure of the Shield colonization contributed to the westward expansion. Works cited: Galois, Robert M. “Rural Quebec: after the Conquest”. Lecture, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, November 3, 2011. Galois, Robert M. “Upper Canada: Agriculture and Rural Settlement.” Lecture, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, November 10, 2011. Harris, R. Cole. The reluctant land: society, space and environment in Canada before Confederation. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008.