Question 1 The city of Toronto, Ontario was founded in part by a German land speculator. True. In 1794, the city of York, now Toronto, was co-founder by William Berczy, a German land speculator and artist, when he started a gigantic colonization venture in Markham Township. With 190 immigrants recruited from Germany, he made way for a road through the forest that became Toronto's Yonge Street. He cleared land, cultivated fields, erected church and school, and built a model settlement who "German Mills" became widely known. The enterprise disbanded in 1803 when the Executive Council of Upper Canada, distrusting Berczy's motives, declared his grant invalid. Next Top of Page