History of Quebec

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Quebec's Past

While there is plenty of evidence to show that people have inhabited the southern region of Quebec since approximately 8,000 BC, it was not until the Woodland Era that domesticated people began settling in the area permanently. Various experiments with domestic animals and basic agriculture were performed over the centuries until the Iroquoians began developed increasingly sophisticated agricultural methods starting in approximately the year 800 of the modern era. By the 14th Century, the area that is now modern Quebec was quite advanced from an agricultural standpoint, with operations in place to cultivate and harvest numerous food products, including beans, sunflowers, corn and more. When you are overlooking the valley of the St. Lawrence Valley today, you are looking at an area that would have been covered in the farm lands of the Iroquoians some 500-600 years ago.

Things began to change quickly during the 16th century as French explorers laid claim to the land in the name of France began penetrating further into the region to see what resources of the region could be exploited. The city of Quebec was founded at the dawn of the 17th Century as the first permanent settlement of New France. Quebec began as a walled fortification known as the Habitation that served as protection from the Iroquoians. The original location of the Habitation can still be found in modern Quebec. However, a lack of knowledge of local agriculture and few supplies from France meant that the early years of Quebec included brutal winters and long decades of scraping a living from the land. During this time, the Roman Catholic Church acquired the rights to a third of the land of New France, including Quebec, and chartered the Company of One Hundred Associates to bring several thousand people to the region. Instead, the company ignored the charter and only brought 300 settlers with the express purpose of exploiting the fur trade, and Quebec continued to function primarily as a permanent trading post for furs suffering through the decades with very little supplies or development.

Following a century of sovereignty, Quebec became under British rule through the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763 and bringing an end to the Seven Years War. Unlike much of Canada, the people of Quebec maintained their social roots in French culture throughout this period, partly through the Quebec Act of 1774, through which the British Empire approved the restoration of French civil law, granted citizens the freedom to practice the Catholic faith and alter the colonial oath of allegiance. The Quebec Act altered the course of Quebec dramatically, preserving the region's cultural and largely keeping French Canadians out of joining forces with the American Revolutionary War.

During the 19th Century, Quebec became an official province, first of the Federal Dominion and later of the nation of Canada itself. The Statute of Westminster finally freed Canada from any form of British rule in 1931. Throughout this period, Quebec maintained its own separate culture and customs from the larger society of Canada, and the mid 20th century gave rise to a growing civil unrest in Quebec, beginning during the conscription of soldiers for World War II. In 1950, Quebec approved their own flag, consisting of a white fleur-de-lis against a blue background. In 1960, the Quiet Revolution began a series of social and political changes that solidified a truly separate national identity for Quebec, beginning a long period of political strife as Quebec fought for sovereignty from Canada. In 2006, the Canadian House of Commons approved a motion granting the people of Quebec to "form a nation within an united Canada."

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