The human story began for Canada 14,000 years ago when the first people crossed the Bering Strait from Asia during the last great ice age. The Inuit came later, around 2000 BC, long after the land bridge had been covered with water. The first Europeans, the Vikings, settled briefly in Newfoundland in 1000 BC. It was not for another 500 years that Europeans came to stay. Canada became a country in its own right in 1867, expanded its territories across a continent, opened its borders to immigration and has become the home to one of the most diverse populations in the world.