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Following the Seven Years' War, Quebec became a British colony in the British Empire. It was first known as the Province of Quebec (1763–1791), then as Lower Canada (1791–1841), and then as Canada East (1841–1867) as a result of the Lower Canada Rebellion.
- Overview
- Early history to 1860
The origins of Quebec go back to 1534–35, when the French explorer Jacques Cartier landed at present-day Gaspé and took possession of the land in the name of the king of France. Cartier brought with him the 16th-century European traditions of mercantile expansion to a land where a few thousand Indians (First Nations) and Inuit (the Arctic people of Canada known as Eskimo in the United States) had been living for thousands of years. Permanent European settlement of the region began only in 1608, when Samuel de Champlain established a fort at Cape Diamond, the site of present-day Quebec city, then called Stadacona. A half century later the French settlement had a meagre population of some 3,200 people.
Although New France began with the founding of three cities—Quebec city in 1608, Trois-Rivières in 1616, and Montreal in 1642—it eventually included a vast inland territory incorporating Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, and Newfoundland and extending southwest all the way to Louisiana. In the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which confirmed France’s defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession, Great Britain acquired all of Nova Scotia (except for Cape Breton), Newfoundland, and the lands around Hudson Bay. The remaining territory of New France, except for Louisiana and the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, was ceded to Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris (1763).
Within a decade of having acquired nearly all of France’s North American colonies, Britain faced a revolution of independence by its original 13 colonies. In 1774, hoping to retain the loyalty of their new subjects in the French and Catholic colony of Quebec by gaining the support of its clerical leaders, the British passed the Quebec Act. The act granted Catholics freedom of religious practice, legalized the French seigneurial system, recognized the French civil code, and reextended the boundaries of Quebec into the Ohio and Mississippi valleys to satisfy the fur traders and maintain alliances with the Indians. This strategy worked, and a vast majority of French Canadians remained neutral when American forces led by Gen. Benedict Arnold invaded Quebec in 1775. While losing its original American colonies, Great Britain retained Quebec and Nova Scotia. The influx of several thousand British loyalists into Quebec, all of whom demanded land and representative government, forced the British to again alter the constitutional arrangements. The poorly conceived Constitutional Act (1791) divided the colony of Quebec along the Ottawa River into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (the future Ontario). It also provided for an elected assembly and for appointed executive and legislative councils. In short order, the majority French Canadian society ensured that members of its increasingly nationalistic professional middle class, educated by the Catholic Church, came to dominate the elected assembly. The Canadian Party defended the seigneurial system, denounced the Catholic Church for collaborating with the British, criticized the emergence of commercial capitalism, and demanded responsible government—full rule by the majority in the elected assembly. Members of the British merchant, bureaucratic, and military classes were reduced to a rump, but this minority British Party retained full control over the appointed executive and legislative councils.
By the 1830s the increasing control of British merchants over the commercial and financial life of Lower Canada, the emergence of an agricultural crisis as wheat production (the only cash crop) collapsed, and the rise of a politically dominant French Canadian professional middle class resulted in a severe political, social, and economic crisis. The society had become ungovernable. When the British authorities refused to grant the assembly sweeping powers, the secessionist Patriot Party (formerly the Reform Party) sought to take the colony of Quebec out of the British Empire and create a new Republic of Quebec. The secessionist movement, led by a weak and indecisive Louis-Joseph Papineau, culminated in the unsuccessful rebellions of 1837–38. Papineau fled to the United States only to return in the late 1850s. The British military forces crushed the rebels (a few were hanged and others exiled in Australia) and instituted military rule. According to a report written by Lord Durham in 1839, the source of the rebellion was “two nations warring in the bosom of a single state.” Durham recommended the union of Upper and Lower Canada, massive British immigration, municipal reform, and the institution of responsible government.
The origins of Quebec go back to 1534–35, when the French explorer Jacques Cartier landed at present-day Gaspé and took possession of the land in the name of the king of France. Cartier brought with him the 16th-century European traditions of mercantile expansion to a land where a few thousand Indians (First Nations) and Inuit (the Arctic people of Canada known as Eskimo in the United States) had been living for thousands of years. Permanent European settlement of the region began only in 1608, when Samuel de Champlain established a fort at Cape Diamond, the site of present-day Quebec city, then called Stadacona. A half century later the French settlement had a meagre population of some 3,200 people.
Although New France began with the founding of three cities—Quebec city in 1608, Trois-Rivières in 1616, and Montreal in 1642—it eventually included a vast inland territory incorporating Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, and Newfoundland and extending southwest all the way to Louisiana. In the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which confirmed France’s defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession, Great Britain acquired all of Nova Scotia (except for Cape Breton), Newfoundland, and the lands around Hudson Bay. The remaining territory of New France, except for Louisiana and the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, was ceded to Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris (1763).
Within a decade of having acquired nearly all of France’s North American colonies, Britain faced a revolution of independence by its original 13 colonies. In 1774, hoping to retain the loyalty of their new subjects in the French and Catholic colony of Quebec by gaining the support of its clerical leaders, the British passed the Quebec Act. The act granted Catholics freedom of religious practice, legalized the French seigneurial system, recognized the French civil code, and reextended the boundaries of Quebec into the Ohio and Mississippi valleys to satisfy the fur traders and maintain alliances with the Indians. This strategy worked, and a vast majority of French Canadians remained neutral when American forces led by Gen. Benedict Arnold invaded Quebec in 1775. While losing its original American colonies, Great Britain retained Quebec and Nova Scotia. The influx of several thousand British loyalists into Quebec, all of whom demanded land and representative government, forced the British to again alter the constitutional arrangements. The poorly conceived Constitutional Act (1791) divided the colony of Quebec along the Ottawa River into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (the future Ontario). It also provided for an elected assembly and for appointed executive and legislative councils. In short order, the majority French Canadian society ensured that members of its increasingly nationalistic professional middle class, educated by the Catholic Church, came to dominate the elected assembly. The Canadian Party defended the seigneurial system, denounced the Catholic Church for collaborating with the British, criticized the emergence of commercial capitalism, and demanded responsible government—full rule by the majority in the elected assembly. Members of the British merchant, bureaucratic, and military classes were reduced to a rump, but this minority British Party retained full control over the appointed executive and legislative councils.
By the 1830s the increasing control of British merchants over the commercial and financial life of Lower Canada, the emergence of an agricultural crisis as wheat production (the only cash crop) collapsed, and the rise of a politically dominant French Canadian professional middle class resulted in a severe political, social, and economic crisis. The society had become ungovernable. When the British authorities refused to grant the assembly sweeping powers, the secessionist Patriot Party (formerly the Reform Party) sought to take the colony of Quebec out of the British Empire and create a new Republic of Quebec. The secessionist movement, led by a weak and indecisive Louis-Joseph Papineau, culminated in the unsuccessful rebellions of 1837–38. Papineau fled to the United States only to return in the late 1850s. The British military forces crushed the rebels (a few were hanged and others exiled in Australia) and instituted military rule. According to a report written by Lord Durham in 1839, the source of the rebellion was “two nations warring in the bosom of a single state.” Durham recommended the union of Upper and Lower Canada, massive British immigration, municipal reform, and the institution of responsible government.
4 days ago · Quebec, eastern province of Canada. Constituting nearly one-sixth of Canada’s total land area, Quebec is the largest of Canada’s 10 provinces in area and is second only to Ontario in population. Its capital, Quebec city, is the oldest city in Canada.
- Michael D. Behiels
2 days ago · Quebec, city, port, and capital of Quebec province, Canada. One of the oldest cities in Canada—having celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2008—Quebec city has a distinct old-world character and charm. It is the only remaining walled city in North America north of Mexico and was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.
- Brett Mcgillivray
Sep 30, 2007 · Technically, Quebec is a province. Others claim that Quebec is a nation in the sense that it is the home of the French-speaking nation in North America and other Québécois of non-French origins.
Following the Seven Years' War, Canada became a British colony, first as the Province of Quebec (1763–1791), then Lower Canada (1791–1841), and lastly part of the Province of Canada (1841–1867) as a result of the Lower Canada Rebellion. It was confederated with Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick in 1867.
Feb 7, 2006 · With the Constitutional Act, 1791, Britain divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (the predecessor of modern-day Ontario) and Lower Canada (whose geographical boundaries comprised the southern portion of present-day Quebec).
