The history of Canadian nationality law dates back over three centuries, and has evolved considerably over that time. During the early colonial period, residents of the French colonies were French subjects, governed by French nationality law, while residents of British colonies were British subjects, governed by British law. Prior to Confederation in 1867, the residents of the various provinces of British North America were British subjects, governed primarily by British law. After Confederation, as Canada evolved to full nationhood, it gradually enacted laws relating to rights of domicile and entry to Canada, although Canadians continued to be British subjects under British law. In 1946, the federal Parliament enacted the Canadian Citizenship Act, 1946, which created fully independent Canadian citizenship, separate from British law and status as British subjects. That Act came into force on January 1, 1947, and remained in force for thirty years. It conferred citizenship in different ways, by birth in Canada, birth to a Canadian parent, and by naturalisation. Since 1977, Canadian nationality has been regulated by the Citizenship Act, enacted in 1976 and brought into force in 1977. The Canadian Citizenship Act, 1946 imposed restrictions on multiple citizenship. The current Canadian Citizenship Act does not restrict multiple citizenship. Background Canada became a French possession in 1663 and Louis XIV established that the laws and ordinances of France governed the territory. The Ancien Régime of France developed a system of feudal allegiance in which subjects were bound together by a scheme of protection and service tied to land ownership. Possession of land was typically tied to military and court service and omitted women because they could not perform those obligations. Thus, French nationality also derived from place of birth in French territory, until the nineteenth century, but under feudal law married women were subjugated to the authority of their husbands under coverture. In 1763, at the end of the Seven Years' War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, Canada was transferred to British control and converted to the laws of Britain. For a decade, English Common Law defined civil status in the territory. In Britain, allegiance, in which subjects pledged to support a monarch, was the precursor to the modern concept of nationality. The crown recognised from 1350 that all persons born within the territories of the British Empire were British subjects. Those born outside the realm — except children of those serving in an