History of Quebec

Pre-European History

Quebec was inhabited by a range of First Nations before the arrival of the French, and still is today. The Quebec government recognizes 10 First Nations and the Inuit Nation on its territory. The Amerind nations are the Mohawks, the Cree, the Algonquin, the Atikamekw, the Micmac, the Malecites, the Naskapis, the Hurons-Wendat, the Abenaki, the Innus.

The Basques and the Vikings visited the coasts of Canada long before the French arrived to settle.

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New France

1534 - The first European explorer of Quebec was Jacques Cartier, who planted a cross in the Gaspé in 1534 and sailed into the Saint Lawrence in 1535.

1608 - Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City in 1608; it would become the nucleus of New France and the origin of French exploration of North America.

The French brought their religion and language, which were imposed upon the natives. In addition, the French brought the practise of slavery with them, using black Africans shipped from Nantes, the major French port serving the slave trade. The laws of France applied to the colony, and slaves such as the one given the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique were summarily executed for minor crimes. However large-scale argicultral slavery, as practiced in the Caribbean and the American South, was not economically viable in Quebec's climate, and slaves where only used as domestic servants for the rich. There were never more than 1,200 African slaves in the entire colony.

After 1627, King Louis XIII of France forbade settlement in Quebec by anyone other than Roman Catholics, ensuring that welfare and education was kept firmly in the hands of the church. "New France" became a royal colony in 1663 under Louis XIV and the intendant Jean Talon.

The French colonists living in the Saint Lawrence River Valley, allied with the Hurons against the Iroquois, who were allied to the English.

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British Regime

1759 - The wars between England and France in Europe and North America came to a head in 1759 when the English general James Wolfe defeated Louis-Joseph de Montcalm at the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City. This event is known as the Conquest.

1763 - Great Britain acquired New France at the Treaty of Paris (1763) when King Louis XV of France and his advisors chose to keep the territory of Guadeloupe for its valuable sugar crops instead of New France, which was viewed as a vast, frozen wasteland ("quelques arpents de neige" - Voltaire) of little importance to the French Colonial Empire. The Royal proclamation of 1763 saw Canada (part of New France) renamed the Province of Quebec.

1774 - Pressured by the agitation in its American colonies, the British crown passed the Quebec Act in 1774, restoring French civil law but keeping the British common law of crimes and court procedures. During the American Revolution, Montreal was captured and the revolutionaries attempted to rally the Canadiens to their cause. The Canadiens remained mostly neutral in the conflict, following the edicts of the Roman Catholic Church.

1791 - After the independence of the American colonies, many Loyalists settled in Quebec. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the former region of France at the Ottawa River, creating Upper Canada (now Ontario) and Lower Canada (now Quebec).

Under the Constitutional Act, the population of Quebec discovered British parliamentarism. Within the limits of this political system, the representatives of the people battled for autonomy. The sum of the demands and grievances of the people can be read in the Ninety-two resolutions written by Louis-Joseph Papineau, leader of the Patriot Party. Five years after the resolutions were presented, London replied with the ten Russell's resolutions. Following this event, Papineau's political movement became more radical. A mandate of arrest on the nationalist leaders sparked an armed conflict in Lower Canada (as well as in Upper Canada) in 1837.

1839 - The rebellion was put down and the report of Lord Durham, sent to investigate the uprising, recommended the union of the Canadas in order to assimilate the French-speaking Canadiens and installing a government to be responsible before the chamber of representatives.

1840 - The Act of Union was passed by the British Parliament and the new jointly run government was instituted in 1849, under Robert Baldwin from Upper Canada and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine of Lower Canada.

1864 - Political deadlocks led to talks of a confederation, which in turn led to the creation of the Dominion of Canada with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Province of Canada would redivided along the Ottawa River into Ontario and Quebec.

1867 - The NABA is passed by London.

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Confederation

1867 - First provincial elections in August: the conservatives favor the confederation, the Liberals oppose the new constitution. The Liberals program is not very well defined, but it is not without similarity to the project of sovereignty-association that will be discussed 90 years later. Despite the threats of the Church who warn that a vote against confederation is a mortal sin, no less than 45% of Québec votes Rouge. We know today that the election was stolen in many conscriptions. Many proconfederation candidates won doubtful victories with majorities of only 6 votes. In a third of the ridings, no elections were held.

Hanging of Louis Riel.

John MacDonald declares "Even if all the dogs of Quebec bark, Riel will be hanged!"

1871 - Law against French schools in New-Brunswick (Common school Act).

1877 - Law against French schools in PEI (Public School Act).

1887 - Election of Honoré Mercier, leader of the Parti National.

1890 - Law against French in Manitoba.

1896 - Wilfrid Laurier is the first Quebecer to be elected at Prime Minister of the Dominion.

1900 - Alphonse Desjardins founds the first credit union (caisse populaire in French) in America. Today, the Desjardins Credit Union Federation is the biggest financial institution in Quebec.

1904 - Henri Bourassa pleads in favor of bilingualism in the institutions of the federal government. His motion receives almost no support.

1914 - First World War. Quebecers massively reject the idea of sending its children to be killed for the imperial wars of Europe. The rest of Canada supports the war efforts.

1914 - Ontario banishes French from its schools.

1916 - Manitoba banishes French schools completely.

1918 - Lionel Groulx, becomes the first priest to publically denounce the injustices against the French-speakers. He denounces the the unilingual English face of Montreal, the absence of a bilingual currency, and the absence of French in Ottawa, the federal capital.

1922 - Joseph-Armand Bombardier engineers the first prototype of a snowmobile, the snowdog. The first fully operational unit will be assembled in 1935.

1942 - Refedendum on the conscription. Quebec votes against war a second time, the rest of Canada votes in favor.

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Modern Quebec

Under the Union Nationale government of Maurice Duplessis, the Roman Catholic Church was allowed to maintain religious control over social services such as schools and hospitals. Under the Constitution, the provinces had control of education but in Quebec the school system was entirely confessional. The Protestants and Roman Catholics ran separate school systems in Quebec until the 1990s when secularization of schools took place under the Parti Québécois government. The clergy used its influence to exhort voters to stay with the conservative government, who also took firm stands against social reform and unionism.

In 1960, under a new Liberal Party government led by Premier Jean Lesage, the political power of the church was greatly reduced. Quebec entered an accelerated decade of changes known as the Quiet Revolution. The changes were so quick and so radical that the Liberal government was voted out in 1965 and the Union Nationale party was returned to power.

During the 1960s, a terrorist group known as the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) launched a decade of bombings, murders, robberies and attacks on Government offices. Their activities culminated in events referred to as the October Crisis when the British Trade commissioner to Canada was kidnapped along with Pierre Laporte, a provincial minister and Vice-Premier, who was murdered a few days later.

A non-violent Quebec independence movement slowly took form in the late 1960s. The Parti Québécois was created by the sovereignty-association movement of René Lévesque; it advocated a reconfederation recognizing Quebec as an equal and independent nation. The Parti Québécois was elected in 1976. The first PQ government was known as the "Republic of teachers" for its high number of candidates teaching at the university level. The PQ passed laws to favor equal financing of political parties and the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). The Charter is a fundamental law making French the sole official language of Quebec while guaranteeing the rights of the English-speaking community. The first enactment of Bill 101 became controversial for its regulations on commercial signs. It banned English-only and bilingual signs, as the government claimed that they violated the right of the French-speaking majority. This section of the law was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, see: Ford v. Quebec (A.G.). With Bill 86, the law was amendend to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. The current 1988 law specifies that signs can be multi-lingual so long as French is predominant. Most businesses now voluntarily choose to put up French signs following market laws.

In 1980, Premier Lévesque put sovereignty-association before the Quebec voters in a referendum. 60% of the Quebec electorate voted against it. The Canadian government repatriated the constitution in 1982 without the approval of Quebec. From 1985 to 1994, the federalist Parti libéral du Québec governed under Robert Bourassa and Daniel Johnson, Jr.. Progress on the constitutional issue resulted in the Meech Lake Accord in 1987, but it collapsed in 1990. Another constitutional deal, the Charlottetown Accord, which sought to resolve a long list of unrelated issues at the same time as it resolved the nation's relationship with Quebec, was rejected by countrywide referendum in 1992.

The Parti Québécois was re-elected to office in 1994, led by Jacques Parizeau, and held another referendum on sovereignty. On October 30, 1995, the measure was rejected by an extremely slim margin, less than one percent. The federal Liberal Party under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien came under sharp criticism for mishandling the "no" side of the referendum campaign.

Parizeau resigned and was replaced by the head of the federal Bloc Québécois, Lucien Bouchard. Under Bouchard, the sovereignist option was pushed aside, as it didn't seem possible to gather "winning conditions".

For some the fight for Quebec independence is still very important to this day. However, after ten years of governing by the separatist Parti Québécois in the election of April 14, 2003, Jean Charest, leader of the Parti libéral du Québec, was elected premier of the province.

Quebec City hosted the Summit of the Americas in April 2001, attracting huge anti-globalization protests with activists from everywhere in the Americas.

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