Manitoba is the easternmost of the three Prairie Provinces. Comparatively level, Manitoba generally ranges from 490-ft. to 980-ft. above sea level. Baldy Mountain is Manitoba's highest point, at 2727 ft. Agricultural land lies in a triangle, bordering Saskatchewan and the U.S., cutting diagonally across lake Winnipeg. The northern 3/5 of Manitoba is Precambrian Shield. In northernmost Manitoba lies tundra and permafrost (permanently frozen subsoil). All waters in Manitoba flow to Hudson Bay. Before settlement, a large area of southern Manitoba was flood plain or swamp. An extensive system of drainage ditches had to be constructed throughout south central Manitoba to make the region suitable for cultivation. The provincial capital is Winnipeg, a city of around 650,000 population.

Manitoba was settled by members of the Ojibwa and Assiniboine tribes. The first European to reach present-day Manitoba was Thomas Button, who visited the Nelson River in 1612. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Vérendrye visited the Red River Valley in the 1730s as part of opening the area for French exploration and exploitation. An important French-Canadian population (Franco-Manitobains) still lives in Manitoba, especially in the Saint-Boniface district of Winnipeg.

The territory was won by Britain in 1763 as part of the French and Indian War and became part of Rupert's Land, the immense monopoly territory of the Hudson's Bay Company. The founding of the first agricultural community in 1811 by Lord Selkirk, near modern Winnipeg, resulted in conflict between the white colonists and the Métis who lived near there. A battle in 1816 saw 20 colonists killed by the Métis, including the governor.

When Rupert's Land was ceded to Canada in 1869 (it would become the Northwest Territories), a lack of attention to Métis concerns would lead their leader Louis Riel to establish a provisional government. Negotiations between this government and the Canadian government resulted in the creation of the province of Manitoba and its entry into Confederation in 1870.

Originally the province was only 1/18 of its current size - it was known as the "postage stamp province." It grew progressively, absorbing land from the Northwest Territories until it attained its current size by reaching 60°N in 1912.