An Overview of the Intricacies of Québec's Rich and
Colorful Past
Although t
he
evidence shows that there were humans in the area that is now Québec
since around 10,000 BC, the presence of Europeans only dates back a
few hundred years.
In the early 16th century, French, Basques and Spanish navigators
ventured into the gulf of the St. Lawrence River. Frenchman Thomas
Aubert brought back several American Indians (probably Iroquois) to
France in 1508.
In 1528, Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano was hired by
the King of France and a group of French merchants to explore the
New World in order to find a passage to Asia. He did not locate a
passage, but he found an area far up the Northern Atlantic seaboard
so beautiful that he compared it to Arcadia, Greece.
On June 24, 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross
on the Gasp Peninsula and claimed the territory for King Francis I
of France. On his second voyage in 1535, Cartier sailed up the St.
Lawrence to an Iroquoian village that stood near the site of
present-day Québec.
In 1541, Cartier came back with five ships and 1,500 men to
establish a settlement in the New World, Charlesbourg Royal which
was the first French settlement on North American soil. Rocque de
Robertval followed with settlers, supplies and artillery.
Unfortunately Cartier had made some mistakes in his relations with
the natives, in particular his kidnapping of Iroquois Chief
Donnacona and members of his family, whom he took back to France as
proof of his discoveries. They die
d in France. Not pleased with
Cartier, the Iroquois made life miserable for the French settlers,
and Charlesbourg Royal was abandoned within two years.
France lost interest in the area until the end of the 16th
century when it became apparent that there was money to be made in
the fur trade.
France called its possessions in North America New France, and
New France came to include Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Nova Scotia,
and Louisiana. But, it was the founding of Québec City in 1608 by
Samuel de Champlain that laid the groundwork for New France.
Tadoussac had been founded in 1604, but as a trading post. Québec
City was the first permanent settlement by the French. It became the
capital of French Canada and all of New France.
But, the beginnings of Québec were not smooth.
The French Huguenot brothers, David, Louis and Thomas Kirke
commanded a group of British privateers who commandee
red
the first two convoys of ships and settlers bound for the city. With
supplies cut off, Champlain had no choice but to surrender the city
to the Kirkes without a fight on July 19, 1629. He was taken
prisoner and was not released until 1632, when the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
returned all French possessions to New France. He returned as
governor but died three years later.
Because the new territories were based solely
on commerce, the vast majority of people who immigrated there were
men, so the population in the French territories did not increase,
which was in contrast with the English settlements which were
family-oriented.
To solve the problem, Louis XIV replaced the
company rule with a royal government. One strategy he employed to
even the male/female ratio was to send young orphaned women over to
New France starting in 1863 to marry the existing males. They were
called les filles du roi or the Kings Daughters. Some were
stre
et
beggars, but many came from the country. They brought their own
trousseaus and were supplied with dowries if they could not supply
their own. They were heavily chaperoned until they were wed
He also provided cash incentives to men who
married and particularly to fathers of large families. Bachelors had
their hunting and fur-trading privileges withheld until they
married. And, marriage between Frenchmen and Indians was also
encouraged. These measures greatly increased the sparse French
population in Québec.
However, the population of the French colonies
still did not come close to that of the British. By the middle of
the 18th century, the relatively small area of New
England boasted more than a million inhabitants, while the vast
reaches of New France had only 60,000. The E
nglish looked at New
France as an easy target, and the Seven Years War began. The flag of
Québec is based on the flag carried by the French militia at the
Battle of Fort Carillon (now Fort Ticonderoga), which the French won
early in the war.
But the French did not remain victors for long.
Once Québec was taken on September 5, 1759, by the forces of General
James Wolfe in Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the British
successfully captured all of Canada. Wolfe, as well as the French
leader Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm died in
that battle.
Québec was under military rule
from 1760 until February 10, 1763, and the signing of the
Treaty of Paris, in which the French renounced their claim to Québec
in exchange for the right to retain possession of Guadaloupe.
Many Qubecers fought in the American
Revolution, Including Majo
r
Clment Gosselin and Germain Dionne, who fought with Lafayette and
Washington in the last battle that gave United States of America its
freedom.
One upshot of the US freedom was that many
British subjects who remained loyal to the crown left the former
colonies and went to Canada. This was the beginning of the dual
personality of Canada, with both French and British influence. But,
Québec, as the oldest French city in North America, remained
defiantly proud of its French beginnings.
From 1763 to 1791, the Province of Québec was a
British colony. In 1791, it became the British colony of Lower
Canada. In 1841, it formed the Canada East portion of the Province
of Canada, still a colony of Great Britain. In 1867, Canada became a
country, and Québec became Québec once more as a province of Canada.
Over the years,
Québec has struggled to retain its French language and traditions,
and there has been an ongoing fight for a sovereign Québec. On May
20, 1980, the first referendum on sovereignty was defeated (59.56%
no to 40.44% yes). A second referendum on October 30, 1995, was
rejected by an even slimmer margin (50.58% no to 49.42% yes).
The effort to retain the sense of Québec as a
unique entity in North America resulted in the Qubcois being
officially recognized by the government of Canada as a nation within
a united Canada on November 27, 2006.
