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1500
Land Bridge
The Land Bridge was a land mass that connected Alaska to North East Russia. It was used by people that came from Asia to get to North America, a new territory. They came upon the land bridge by following the animals. -
Period: Oct 22, 1500 to
Population and Settlement
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1534
Jacques Cartier's Three Voyages
Jacques Cartier took 3 voyages to North America, which he originally thought was India. These trips (1534, 1535 and 1541) were sponsored by the king of France and were done with the hopes of finding a route to Asia while avoiding the Ottoman Turks, finding gold and riches and claiming more land for the king of France. -
Establishment of Port Royal
Port Royal was the French's first try at colonizing North America. Headed by Samuel de Champlain, the project was set up , but ultimately failed as it wasn't close enough to the natives, who the Europeans depended on for survival. -
Establishment of Quebec.
3 years after the failure in Port Royal, Samuel de Champlain returned to set up a new trading post called Quebec. It was placed near where the natives lived and was close to water, on the Saint-Laurence river. It was easy to defend because of it's position, high up and on a very thin body of water. Fur trading was done there, which helped grow the French presence in North America. -
Relationship between Amerindians and the French
The French would mainly trade fur with the Natives. They had to fight wars against the Iroquois to show their allegiances to the Algonquians, the Abenaki, the Huron and the Innu. In return for fur the French would give them things they didn't have like steel and firearms. The French also brought diseases that the Amerindians were not prepared for like smallpox, which killed a large part of their population. The French tried to assimilate them and thought of them as less than human. -
Seigneurial Regime
The seigneurial system is a system that was created by the french and employed to encourage immigration to New France. The land is split up into thin rectangles run by seigneurs, rich french men. Then censitaires can use the land. They have to give the seigneur some of their produce and have to do tasks for him, but in return are given access to the water, crops, a mill and a church. -
The Company of One Hundred Associates
The Company of One Hundred Associates, a fur trading company, was tasked with populating the colony by the king of France in 1627. The colony was only inhabited by a measly 100 Europeans. The Company attracted a few hundred immigrants, who came to trade fur or battle Iroquois, but it wasn't enough as the king had originally wanted 4000 new people. -
Foundation of Trois-Rivières
Champlain tasks Sieur de Laviolette with creating the second settlement in North America. He then created Trois-Rivières where the St.Maurice and the St.Lawrence rivers meet. This became a site where fur traders could do business without worrying about the Iroquois attacking them. -
Foundation of Ville-Marie
In 1642, the Sieur de Maisonneuve, Paul Chomedy founded Ville-Marie, alongside the nurse Jeanne-Masse. Originally created as settlement for the evangelisation of the aboriginals, it became an important trading post because it was situated to what use to be the Iroquois village Hochelaga. Ville-Marie was later renamed Montreal. -
The engagés
The engagés, also known as the 36 months were one of the groups that the intendant Jean Talon convinced to immigrate to New France. They were trades men who helped with building or clearing the lands of the Saint-Laurence valley. They had three year contracts (36 months). After their contracts ended they were encouraged to stay, and were given land to practice agriculture on. -
Filles du Roy
The Filles du Roy was an initiative by Jean Talon, the Intendant at the time. He was tasked with developing the population of New France, but there was almost no women in the population. To fix this, orphan girls were picked up and brought over to North America, where they would be married off within the next 5 months. The king would pay for their trip and their dowry. -
Soldier Immigration to New France
In 1665, about 1200 soldiers were sent to New-France to help containing the Iroquois and maintaining peace. After stabilizing the situation within three years, so Jean Talon tried to convince them to stay to increase the population. As incentives, he offered them land and money and the high ranking soldiers were even offered positions as seigneurs. He succeeded at keeping 600 or soldiers to stay on and become full time inhabitants.These men could now also protect the colony in case of emergency. -
Birth Incentives for the New-France population
Because of the success of the immigration policies to New France, the Minister in France was worried that they would lose too many people. So instead of looking to immigration, Jean Talon encouraged the people of New France to have lots of kids. He would offer money to people who got married very young or who had over a certain number of kids, as well as punishing those who were celibate or who had kids who were still celibate. This worked well and the birth rate became 9 kids per woman. -
Employment of Slaves in Quebec
Slavery was used in Quebec during the 1700's. Legalized in 1709, slaves were owned by the rich and important people of the Quebec society, the 4000 or so slaves were two thirds Aboriginal and a third African. The African slaves were more expensive and showed that their owners were rich. They were used as servants. This was continued for over 100 years and only ended in 1833 when the British abolished slavery throughout their empire. -
Social Groups in the 18th century
By the end of the French Regime, New France was split into three main social groups. They were:
The Secular Elite:
The rich, the lords, nobles and politicians.
The Church:
Bishop, Priests and the Clergy
The People:
Farmers, Merchants, Tradesmen, Slaves and Craftsmen -
Loyalist Immigration
After the 13 colonies declares it's independance from the British Empire, those who are still loyal to the British, the ones who are well off leave, looking to find another British colony to live in. The majority of them went to the Maritimes and some went to Quebec. The English population then increased. -
Mortality Rate
In the 18th century the mortality rate was very high because of the bad food quality and diseases spreading. This situation was ameliorated in the 19th century by the development of vaccines that fought against the diseases like small pox tarting in 1796. They became mandatory after the small pox epidemic that killed 3000 people in Montreal. Life expectancy was still not very high, and it was lower in the city because of the conditions that still remained poor. -
Religious Diversification in Quebec
After the British take over Canada from the French, the majority of immigrants were no longer catholic. We start to see more cultures and religions. The most prominent being the Jews and the Irish of which some were protestant. -
Irish Immigration
Starting in 1815, a large percentage of the irsh population immigrated to Lower Canada. The first wave was caused by overpopulation in Ireland, but the second was a result of the potato famine. The Irish depended on the potatoes for food, so when the famine occurred in the 1840's, they were forced to leave. They emigrated to North America by the tens of thousands. Many of them were actually quarantined on Grosse-Ile, because of disease. -
Britain's immigration policies.
Starting in 1815, the British government made a program to provide funding to settle immigrants in Canada. After ten years they ended the porgram, saying it was too costly. Upon the end of this program, immigration wasn;t really regulated since Britain considered the movement of people from Britian to it's colony internal migration. Companies were therefore allowed to buy land and run ads in Europe to encourage people to come and work there. -
Contagious diseases
One of the negative consequences of the immigration to New-France was the risk of contagious diseases or epidemics. For example in 1932 British immigrants gave the colony cholera, which could not be treated at the time. It devastated the population, killing more than 3000 people in Quebec City, which was about 10% of the city's population. To defend itself from further epidemics, immigrants started being quarantined on Grosse-île. Unfortunately, this didn't work and there were still diseases. -
French Canadian emigration
From 1870 to 1930 French Canadians were leaving Quebec in favour of places like Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New England. These places were more accessible because of the new railroad and were booming with new industries. All though these people tried to keep their culture in the States, they were quickly assimilated by American culture. -
Population Distribution in Quebec
In the 20th century there was a rural exodus in Quebec. The urban population went from 35% to a whopping 80%. They moved because of the lack of jobs in the country because of the machines and the new jobs in the cities. Near the end of the century, urban sprawl started to happen because people wanted to improve their quality life. -
Immigration Diversification
John MacDonald and his government are looking for an immigration policy to base their agenda on, whether it be to stimulate or regulate immigration. So, from 1901 to 1931 they welcome 4 600 000 immigrants, but during the depression and the second world war, the government stopped subsidizing immigration and became much more picky when allowing people in. Certain races weren't allowed entry because of the belief that they wouldn't integrate well into the Canadian Society. -
Oka Crisis
The Oka Crisis was an example of the aboriginals standing up for their land in 1990. To protest the new golf course and condominiums that were to be set up on their land, they blocked a street in Oka and the Mercier bridge. The Canadian Army had to be called in and a member of the Quebec police force was shot and killed when it became violent at one point.
