History

Québec is immense, the largest province in the second-largest country in the world (after Russia) at 1,667,926 sq. km (643,819 sq. miles) -- more than three times as large as France. It stretches from the northern borders of New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire up north to almost the Arctic Circle. To the east of it lie Maine and the province of New Brunswick; to the west, the province of Ontario and James and Hudson bays. Its substantial fund of natural resources includes 16% of the world's supply of fresh water.

Most of the province's population lives in its lower regions -- the St. Lawrence lowlands and parts of the Appalachians and the Laurentians. More than 80% of its 7.5 million residents live within an area 322km (200 miles) long and 97km (60 miles) wide, one of the highest concentrations of people in sparsely populated Canada.

The greater Montréal metropolitan area is home to nearly half of the province's population. The city itself is on an island that is part of the Hochelaga Archipelago. The island is situated in the St. Lawrence (St-Laurent) River near where it joins the Ottawa River. At the city's center is a 232m (761-ft.) hill (which natives like to think of as a mountain) called Mont-Royal, from which the city takes its name. Real mountains rise nearby: the Laurentides (the Laurentians) are the oldest range in the world and the playground of the Québécois. The northern foothills of the Appalachian mountains separate Québec from the United States and add to the beauty of the Cantons-de-l'Est, the bucolic region on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence once known as the Eastern Townships, where many Montréalers have country homes. Québec City, 263km (163 miles) northeast of Montréal, commands a stunning location on the rim of a promontory overlooking the river, which is at its narrowest point here.

The Europeans Arrive -- The Vikings landed in Canada more than 1,000 years ago, probably followed by Irish and Basque fishermen. English explorer John Cabot stepped ashore briefly on the east coast in 1497, but it was the French who managed the first meaningful European toehold in the wilderness. When Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1535, he recognized at once the tremendous strategic potential of Cape Diamond, "the Gibraltar of the North." But he was exploring, not empire building, and after stopping briefly on land he continued on his trip upriver.

Cartier continued past the spot that would become Québec City under Champlain to what was then a large island with a fortified Iroquois village called Hochelaga and composed of 50 longhouses. As usual, he didn't linger but pushed onward in his search for the sea route to China. His progress was halted by the fierce rapids just west of what is now the Island of Montréal. In a demonstration of mingled optimism and frustration, he dubbed the rapids "La Chine" on the assumption that China was just beyond them (today, they're known as the Lachine). He then decided to check out the Indian settlement after all, landing at a spot in what is now Old Montréal, and paid his respects to the Native people before moving on. That was the extent of Cartier's contribution to the future city.

Samuel de Champlain arrived 73 years later, in 1608, determined to settle at Québec, a year after the Virginia Company founded its fledgling colony of Jamestown, hundreds of miles to the south. The British and French struggle for dominance in the new continent focused on their explorations, and there the French outdid the English. Their far-ranging fur trappers, navigators, soldiers, and missionaries opened up not only Canada but also most of what eventually became the United States, moving all the way south to the future New Orleans and claiming most of the territory to the west. This vast region later comprised the Louisiana Purchase. At least 35 of the subsequent 50 states were mapped or settled by Frenchmen, who left behind thousands of names to prove it, among them Detroit, St. Louis, New Orleans, Duluth, and Des Moines.

Champlain's first settlement, or habitation, grew to become Québec City's Basse-Ville, or Lower Town, on the flat riverbank beneath the cliffs of Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond). But almost from the beginning there were attacks, first by the Iroquois, then by the English, and later by the Americans. To better defend themselves, the Québécois constructed a fortress on the cape, and gradually the center of urban life moved to the top of the cliffs.

The Founding of Montreal -- Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, arrived in 1642 to establish a colony and to plant a crucifix atop the hill he called Mont-Royal. He and his band of settlers came ashore and founded Ville-Marie, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, at the spot now marked by Place-Royale. They built a fort, a chapel, stores, and houses, and the energetic Jeanne Mance made her indelible mark by founding the hospital named Hotel-Dieu-de-Montréal, which still exists today.

Life was not easy. Unlike the friendly Algonquins who lived in nearby regions, the Iroquois in Montréal had no intention of living in peace with the new settlers. Fierce battles raged for years, and the settlers were lucky that their numbers included such undaunted souls as la Salle, du Luth, de la Mothe Cadillac, and the brothers Lemoyne. At Place d'Armes today there's a statue of de Maisonneuve, marking the spot where the settlers defeated the Iroquois in bloody hand-to-hand fighting.

From that time the settlement prospered. Until the 1800s, Montréal was contained in the area known today as Vieux-Montréal. Its ancient walls no longer stand, but its long and colorful past is preserved in the streets, houses, and churches of the Old City.

England Conquers New France -- In the 1750s, the struggle between Britain and France had escalated, after a series of conflicts, beginning in 1689, that had embroiled both Europe and the New World. The latest episode was known as the French and Indian War in North America, an extension of Europe's Seven Years' War. Strategic Québec became a valued prize. The French appointed Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, to command their forces in the town. The British sent an expedition of 4,500 men in a fleet under the command of a 32-year-old general, James Wolfe. The British troops surprised the French by coming up and over the cliffs of Cap Diamant. The ensuing battle for Québec, fought on the Plains of Abraham just southwest of the city center on September 13, 1759, is one of the most important battles in North American history: It resulted in a continent that was under British influence for over a century. (That influence carries on to today: The face of Queen Elizabeth II is still on all Canadian currency.)

The battle lasted just 18 to 25 minutes, depending on which historian you read, and resulted in 600 casualties. Both generals perished as a result wounds received. Wolfe lived just long enough to hear that the British had won. Montcalm died a few hours later. Today a memorial to both men overlooks Terrasse Dufferin in Québec City, the only statue in the world commemorating both victor and vanquished of the same battle. The inscription, in neither French nor English but Latin, says, simply, COURAGE WAS FATAL TO THEM.

The United States Invades -- The capture of Québec determined the course of the war, and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 ceded all of French Canada to England. In a sense, this victory was a bane to Britain, however. If the French had held Canada, the British government might have been more judicious in its treatment of the American colonists. As it was, the British decided to make the colonists pay the costs of the French and Indian War, on the principle that it was their homes being defended. They slapped so many taxes on all imports that the infuriated U.S. colonists openly rebelled against the Crown.

But if the British misjudged the temper of the colonists, the Americans were equally wrong about the mood of the Canadians. George Washington felt sure that French Canadians would want to join the revolution, or at least be supportive. He was mistaken on both counts. The Québécois detested their British conquerors, but they were also staunch Royalists and devout Catholics, and saw their contentious neighbors as godless Republicans. Only a handful supported the Americans, and three of Washington's most competent commanders came to grief in attacks against Québec. Thirty-eight years later, in the War of 1812, another U.S. army marched up the banks of the Richelieu River where it flows from Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence. And once again, the French Canadians stuck by the British and drove back the invaders. The war ended essentially in a draw, but it had at least one encouraging result: Britain and the young United States agreed to demilitarize the Great Lakes and to extend their mutual border along the 49th parallel to the Rockies.

Montréal and Québec City Today -- The ancient walls that protected Québec City over the centuries are still in place today, and the town within their embrace has changed little, preserving for posterity the heart of New France. Montréal, though, has gone through a metamorphosis. It was "wet" when the United States was "dry" due to Prohibition from 1920 to 1933. Bootleggers, hard drinkers, and prostitutes flocked to this large city situated so conveniently close to the American border and mixed with rowdy people from the port, much to the distress of Montréal's mainly upstanding citizenry. For half a century the city's image was decidedly racy, but in the 1950s a cleanup began, with a boom in high-rise construction and eventual restoration of much of the derelict Old Town. In 1967, Montréal welcomed the world to Expo '67, the World's Fair. The great gleaming skyscrapers and towering hotels, the superb Métro system, and the highly practical underground city date mostly from the 40 years since the Expo.

All this activity helped to fuel a phenomenon later labeled the "Quiet Revolution." The movement was to transform the largely rural, agricultural province into an urbanized, industrial entity with a pronounced secular outlook. French Canadians, long denied access to the upper echelons of desirable corporate careers, started to insist upon equal opportunity with the powerful Anglophone minority.

Inevitably, a radical fringe movement of separatists emerged, signaling its intentions by bombing Anglophone businesses. The FLQ (Québec Liberation Front), as it was known, was behind most of the terrorist attacks, reaching its nadir with the kidnapping and murder of a cabinet minister, Pierre Laporte.

Most Québécois separatists, though, were not violent, and most French-speaking Québécois were not even separatists. Pierre Trudeau, a bilingual Québécois, became prime minister in 1968. More flamboyant, eccentric, and brilliant than any Canadian who ever held the post, he necessarily devoted much of his time to trying to placate voters on both sides of the issue. In 1969, the Official Languages Act mandated that all federal agencies provide services in both French and English. But succession remained a dream for many people; in 1980, a provincial referendum on separation from the confederation was defeated by only 60% of the vote. Subsequent attempts to assuage the chafed sensibilities of French Québécois failed again and again, as often at the hands of other provincial premiers as by the Québécois, hounding at least three prime ministers from office.

In 1993, the governing Tories were defeated by the opposition Liberals. The new Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, a federalist, was not aided in his task of national reconciliation by representation in the House of Commons of the militantly separatist Bloc Québécois, which became the largest opposition party in the same election.

On a regional level, the issue continued to simmer. In Québec the following year, the Parti Québécois won provincial elections to end 9 years of Liberal control. The new premier, Jacques Parizeau, vowed to hold an early referendum on sovereignty. In October 1995, the referendum lost by a mere 1% of the total vote. Parizeau resigned the next day, after making intemperate remarks about the negative role of ethnic voters in the results.

An unsettled mood prevailed in the province, thanks to a recession and general uncertainty over the future. But by 2000 things began to change. The Canadian dollar strengthened against the U.S. dollar. Unemployment, long in double digits, shrank to under 6%, the lowest percentage in more than 2 decades. Crime in Montréal (already one of the safest cities in North America) hit a 20-year low.

Nationally, the Liberal Party was racked by an ongoing corruption scandal. A vote of confidence was held in May 2005. The governing Liberals won by a single vote, but redemption was short-lived. In January 2006, the opposition Conservatives led by Stephen Harper ousted the long incumbent Liberals.

Meanwhile, the presence of skilled workers made much of Canada a favored site for Hollywood film and TV production. The rash of FOR RENT and FOR SALE signs that disfigured Montréal in the 1990s continued evaporating, replaced by a welcome shortage of store and office space.

Today, the quest for separatism seems to be fading. Conversations with ordinary Québécois suggest they are weary of the argument. As significantly, in provincial elections in March 2007, the Liberal Party, headed by Jean Charest, won just a minority government, with an out-of-nowhere second-place victory for the new Action démocratique du Québec party and its young leader Mario Dumont. The separatist Parti Québécois placed a distant third with just 28% of the vote marking, many think, the beginning of the end of the PQ's 40-year political movement and campaign for independence.