Although it is often described in different terms, the expedition that led to the discovery of Newfoundland was primarily an economic enterprise.

European fishers had been working off Newfoundland and Labrador's coasts for about 100 years by the turn of the 17th century.

The origin of what is today referred to as traditional society in Newfoundland and Labrador may be traced to a way of life that developed around the inshore fishery in the late 19th century outport.

An informal economy is one in which people provide for their own needs by engaging in a variety of noncommercial activities

Much of our knowledge of daily life in outport Newfoundland in the late 18th and early 19th century comes from the pens of visitors. They were typically missionaries, explorers, naturalists, and geologists whose work brought them to outlying communities not often visited by outsiders or even the local government.

Considerable uncertainty surrounds our understanding of daily life in Newfoundland during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

During the late 1960s and 1970s, Newfoundland and Labrador experienced what has been variously called a cultural renaissance, revival, or revolution.

The Second World War triggered a series of rapid and far-reaching social changes in Newfoundland and Labrador.