Toronto

Definition: Toronto is the capital city of the province of Ontario. Toronto is located in the southern part of the province, on the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Origin of the Name Toronto: The name Toronto started with the Mohawk word Tkaronto, meaning "where there are trees standing in the water" and was used to describe The Narrows near today's Orillia. By the 1720s, a French fort called Fort Toronto stood where the present city is located. The fort was destroyed in 1759 by the retreating French. In 1787, the British Governor-in-Chief Lord Dorchester negotiated the Toronto Purchase in which the British bought about 1000 sq. km (about 250,000 acres) of land in the area of present Metropolitan Toronto and York Region from the Mississaugas. In 1793 the site was chosen as the capital of the new province of Upper Canada and Lord Simcoe changed the name to York to honour the Duke of York, George III's second son, Frederick Augustus. By 1834 the city was incorporated and the name of Toronto was restored, partly to avoid any confusion with New York and other Yorks.