History of Quebec

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The history of Quebec may be divided into four periods:

The Precolumbian Period
The French Rule (1534-1760)
The British Rule (1760-1867)
The Contemporary Period (1867 à nos jours)

The Precolumbian Period

The Natives of America, commonly called "Indians", arrived in America from the Bering Strait 20 000 to 40 000 years ago. Occupying the continent little by little, they arrived in Quebec 10 000 years ago and still live here.

By the end of the Middle Ages in Europe, were living in the northeastern part of North America the Inuits (in the North of Quebec), the Algonquiens, (in the Canadian Shield and the Appalachians), and the Iroquoiens (in the Saint Lawrence Valley). Those societies, though different from European societies, were nonetheless complex, and by the arrival of the first european explorers during the XVth Century, the First Nations living in the Saint Lawrence Valley had already began to settle.

8000 B.C. Arrival of the first natives in present-day Quebec.
1507-1508 Fishermen from several European countries cross the Atlantic to fish for cod on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Basques hunt whales in the Saint Lawrence estuary.

The French Rule (1534-1760)

1534 Jacques Cartier takes possession of Canada in the name of the King of France.
1535-1536 Cartier's second voyage.
1541-1542 Cartier's third voyage.
1608 July 3: Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec City.
1612 Samuel de Champlain is appointed lieutenant of New France and is re-appointed to the position in 1633.
1615 Arrival of the first missionaries.
1617 Louis Hébert, the first colonist in Canada, settles in Quebec City with his familly.
1627 Establishment by Richelieu of the Compagnie des Cents-Associés, which asks him to settle "New France called Canada".
1629 The English (Kirke brothers) capture New France, which regains its freedom in 1632.
1634 Foundation of Trois-Rivières.
1635 Establishment of the Collège des jésuites, in Quebec City.
1636 Charles Huault de Montmagny, first governor and lieutenant-général of New France.
1639 The Ursulines arrive in Québec City; the Augustines hospitalières establish the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.
1642 May 17: Foundation of Ville-Marie, present-day Montreal, by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve.
1648-1650 Destruction by the Iroquois of Huronia.
1658 Mgr de Laval becomes the vicar apostolic of New France; he shall be appointed bishop in 1674.
1663 New France becomes a royal colony.
1665 Jean Talon is appointed intendant; following a sojourn in Europe, he again occupies the position in 1670.
1672 Louis de Buade de Frontenac et de Palluau is appointed governor, a position that he occupies again in 1689.
1672-1673 Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette reach the Mississippi.
1694-1697 Campaigns by Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville in Newfoundland and Hudson Bay.
1701 Peace of Montreal between New France and the five Iroquois nations.
1713 Signature of the Treaty of Utrecht, which ends the War of the Spanish Succession. France loses Acadia, Newfoundland and Hudson Bay.
1731-1743 The La Vérendrye family explores the West.
1737 Opening of the Chemin du Roy, between Montreal et Quebec City.
1755 The British deport the Acadians, who had been living in present-day Nova Scotia for 150 years.
1756-1763 Seven Year's War, also called French and Indian Wars.
1758 The French under Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, achieve a victory in Carillon (present-day Ticondera, NY).
1759 Siege of Québec City and battle of the Plains of Abraham (September 13), during which generals James Wolfe and Montcalm die.
1760 The French achieve a victory in Sainte-Foy.
September 8: New France capitulates; a military regime is established.

The British Rule (1760-1867)

1763 October 7: George III creates the "Province of Quebec" by royal proclamation.
1764 Appearance of the first newspaper, the Gazette de Québec.
1774 The Parliament of Westminster adopts the Quebec Act.
1775 Invasion of Quebec par les rebelles américains.
1783 The Treaty of Versailles ends the American War of Independence.
1791 Adoption of the Constitutional Act. London divides the colony into Upper and Lower Canada, and a Legislative Assembly is created.
1792 First legislative elections in Lower Canada.
1796 Opening of the public library in Montréal.
1801 Adoption of the Institution royale, intended to establish a school system in Lower Canada.
1803 First pulp and paper plant in Montréal.
1806 Establishment of the newspaper Le Canadien, the organ of the Parti canadien patriote.
1808 Establishment of the Société littéraire de Québec.
1809 November 1: The Accommodation, the first steamship on the Saint Lawrence, sails from Montréal to Québec City.
1813 October 26: Victory in Châteaugauy of the Canadian forces led by Charles de Salaberry during the War of 1812.
1815 Louis-Joseph Papineau, of the Parti canadien, becomes the speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
1817 Establishment of the Bank of Montreal, the first bank in the colony.
1820 Construction of the Lachine Canal in Montréal begins and the canal is inaugurated four years later.
1822 The proposed Union of Upper and Lower Canada is submitted to the British Parliament, sparking controversy in Lower Canada. The project is rejected.
1827 Quebec City typographers establish a labour union.
1829 McGill University is established, in Montréal.
1830 Satires, épîtres, chansons et épigrammes, by Michel Bibaud, is the first poetry collection published in Quebec
1832 A cholera epidemic kills over 4 000 people, many of them Irish.
1834 Adoption of the "Ninety-two Resolutions" by the Lower Canada assembly, which demands a constitutional government for the colony and that London grant its inhabitants the same political rights as those the British enjoy.
Establishment by Ludger Duvernay in Montréal of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, a French-Canadian patriotic organization.
1836 Inauguration of Canada's first railway.
1837 London refuses to act on the "Ninety-two Resolutions". First insurrection in Lower Canada: battles in Saint-Denis, Saint-Charles and Saint-Eustache.
1838 Second insurrection; Lower Canada declares its independence.
1839 12 patriots are hung in Pied-au-Courant in Montréal.
1840 Adoption of the Act of Union. Upper and Lower Canada merge into the Province of Canada. On the strength of the Durham Report, it was hoped to make the French-Canadians a minority and encourage their assimilation.
1842 Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine defends the French language in the Legislative Assembly.
1843 Establishment of Bishop's College in Lennoxville (Eastern Townships).
1844 Establishment in Montréal of the Institut canadien by the members of the Parti rouge.
Montreal becomes the capital of the united Province of Canada.
1845 Publication of the Histoire du Canada by François-Xavier Garneau, in reaction to Durham's claim that French Canadians "were a people with no literature and no history".
1847 Large numbers of Irish immigrants arrive in Canada.
1848 The La Fontaine-Baldwin administration obtains ministerial responsibility.
1849 April 25: Adoption of legislation compensating the Patriotes for losses sustained during the rebellion, followed the conflagration of the Parliament of the united Province of Canada in Montréal, a symbol of responsible government, by furious English-speaking Tories.
1852 Establishment of Université Laval à Québec, the first French-speaking Catholic university.
1854 Abolition of the seigneurial system.
1855 Arrival in Québec City of La Capricieuse, the first French ship to navigate the Saint Lawrence since 1763.
1857 Ottawa becomes the capital of the united Province of Canada.
1864 The Charlottetown and Québec City conferences seek to create a union of the colonies of British North America.
1866 London Conference.
1867 March 29: Adoption of the British North America Act by Parliament in London, creating the Dominion of Canada, a federal but centralized constitutional monarchy.

The Contemporary Period (Since 1867)

1867 July 1: Proclamation of the British North America Act, marking the birth of Confederation, then including New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec.
1869 First Métis uprising in Red River. Establishment of Manitoba.
1874 Establishment of the Montreal Stock Exchange.
1875 Establishment of the Supreme Court of Canada, Canada's highest court, despite protests from Québec MPs, who challenge the Court's jurisdiction over Québec civil law.
1876 Université Laval establishes a Montréal campus, later to become Université de Montréal.
1877 Establishment of the first Canadian ice hockey club in Montréal.
1883 Eugène-Étienne Taché adds the Québec motto, "Je me souviens" to the province's coat of arms figuring on the House of Parliament in Quebec City.
The Privy Council hands down a judgment establishing the provinces' sovereignty in fields that fall under their jurisdiction.
1884 Establishment of La Presse in Montréal.
1885 Northwest (Manitoba) Métis uprising. Louis Riel, the Métis chief, is hanged.
In the wake of the Riel affair, Honoré Mercier establishes the Parti national.
Inauguration of the transcontinental railway (Canadian Pacific).
1887 Honoré Mercier becomes Prime Minister.
Interprovincial conference in Quebec City.
1896    Wilfrid Laurier, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada since 1891, becomes the first French Canadian Prime Minister of Canada.
1900 Alphonse Desjardins establishes the first Caisse populaire or "people's bank".
1905 Lomer Gouin becomes Prime Minister.
1909 December 6: Establishment of the Montréal Canadians hockey club.
1910 Colonization begins in Abitibi.
Henri Bourassa founds Le Devoir.
1911 Marie Gérin-Lajoie becomes the first women to earn a bachelor's degree in Québec.
1912 Québec obtains the territory of Ungava (northern portion of present-day Québec).
1917 August 29: Adoption of the Military Service Act by the Federal Parliament, authorizing conscription, to which are opposed most French Canadians.
Décember: Joseph-Napoléon Francoeur, a Liberal member of the legislative assembly, makes a motion demanding the breakup of Confederation.
Women gain the right to vote in federal elections.
1920 Louis-Alexandre Taschereau becomes Prime Minister.
1922 September 27: Radio station CKAC, owned by La Presse and the first French-language radio station in North America, goes on the air.
1927 The Privy Council in London grants Labrador to Newfoundland. The legal decision is challenged in Québec.
1931 The Statute of Westminster confirms Canada's independence from England; all that remains is the right of appeal to the Privy Council in London and the legal inability to amend the constitution.
1934 Establishment of the Action libérale nationale, headed by Paul Gouin.
The Catholic church condemns Jean-Charles Harvey's novel Les Demi-Civilisés.
1935 Establishment of the Union nationale, headed by Maurice Duplessis.
1936 Maurice Duplessis becomes Prime Minister
1937 Duplessis's Padlock Act is adopted, to counter communist influence.
1939 Adélard Godbout becomes Prime Minister.
1940 Québec women obtain the right to vote in provincial elections.
Ottawa sets up the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (Rowell-Sirois).
1942 A plebiscite on conscription is held in which Québec votes No, fearing British imperialism, and the rest of Canada votes Yes.
1944 Establishment of Hydro-Québec.
1948 January 21: The fleur-de-lysé flag is adopted as Québec's official flag.
Paul-Émile Borduas and seven other artists publish Refus global, denouncing the shortcomings of Quebec society at the time.
1949 Asbestos strike.
1950 Mgr Joseph Charbonneau resigns as archbishop of Montréal and is replaced by Mgr Paul-Émile Léger.
Establishment of the review Cité libre.
1954 The Quebec government establishes an income tax.
1955 March 17: The suspension of Maurice Richard, star player of the Montréal Canadians hockey team, sparks a riot at the Montréal Forum.
1956 The Tremblay Commission publishes its report on constitutional problems, noting that Canada is becoming more centralized and that the federal spirit is giving way to political "unitarianism".
1957 Establishment of the Alliance laurentienne, an independence movement, by Raymond Barbeau.
1960 Jean Lesage becomes Prime Minister.
1962 Reelection of the Lesage government on the theme of the nationalization of electricity. Hydro-Québec is nationalized.
1963 The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) commits its first terrorist acts. It shall scubber itself by 1971-1972.
1967 During an historic visit to Québec, on July 24 General de Gaulle utters his "Vive le Québec libre!" from the balcony of Montréal City Hall, which is heard around the world.
René Lévesque leaves the Liberal Party to establish the Mouvement souveraineté-association, advocading for Quebec's independence.
René Lévesque publishes his manifesto Option Québec.
Inauguration in May of Expo 67, the "Universal and International Exhibition" in Montréal.
1968 The Mouvement souveraineté-association merges with the Ralliement national, as the Parti Québécois.
1970 Robert Bourassa becomes Prime Minister.
October Crisis.
1974 Bill 22 is adopted, making French the official language of Québec.
1976 René Lévesque becomes Prime Minister.
The Olympic Summer Games are held in Montreal.
1977 Adoption of Bill 101, the Charter of the French language.
1980 A referendum is held on sovereignty-association. Nearly 60% of Quebecers deny the Government of Quebec a mandate to negociate independence with an economic association with Canada.
1982 The Constitutional Act, 1982 is officially signed on April 17, despite opposition from Québec, which loses its historic rights.
1985 Robert Bourassa becomes Prime Minister for the second time.
1987 The Meech Lake Accord, intended to remedy the 1982 "exclusion", is signed. It shall be rejected by two provincial legislative assemblies, and never entered into force.
1992 The Charlottetown Accord, the second attempt to reintegrate Québec into the Canadian constitutional framework after the failiure of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990, is adopted on August 28. The Accord is rejected on October 26 in separate Canadian and Québec referendums.
1994 Jacques Parizeau becomes Prime Minister.
1995 October 30: A referendum is held on Quebec's independence. 49,4% vote Yes; 50,6% vote No. With a majority of 1,12%, the No option wins, while 1,82% of the ballots are rejected.
1996 January 29: Lucien Bouchard becomes Prime Minister.
1998 Jean Charest becomes Leader of the Parti libéral du Québec in March. He will be beaten by Lucien Bouchard during the General Election held on November 30.
2001 March 8: After Lucien Bouchard's resignation, Bernard Landry becomes Prime Minister.
2003 April 14: Jean Charest is elected as Prime Minister of Quebec at the outcome of the 37th General Election.

Last update: November 11, 2004

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