Québec, during the colonial era was ruled by several Aboriginal groups who are still the area’s residents to date. Among them were the Mohawks who were along St Lawrence River, the Cree were above them and the Innu who was then at the far-east and far north are still its residents currently. The Inuit were in the remote areas in the far north. In 1535, Jacques Cartier who was a French explorer landed in Québec city. Another French man, Samuel de Champlain was the first to hear and record the word ‘kebec’ which meant where the river narrows. In 1608, he put up settlements in Québec city.
In the entire 17th century, the English and the French have quarrels and skirmishes over who would control Canada. In 1759, the English had the last battle that saw them victorious in the Abraham plains in Québec city. The English men became the winners of the colonial sweepstake in Canada. Henceforth, the French ceased to rule the area and returned to their country.
In the 1770s, thousands of Britons who were loyalists fled from the American Revolution and what was the new colony was divided into today’s Ontario which is the upper section and Québec which is the lower section. The French, in fact, almost all settled in Ontario. The struggles for power and dominion between the French and the Americans over the area prolonged to the 1800s. The Lower Canada joined the Canadian confederation later as Québec in 1867.
In the 20th century, Québec began changing from being a rural and agricultural society that was full of plantations, food crop and cash crop farming into an urban and industrialized city. So many industries were put up both manufacturing, processing and service industries. Still, it maintained to be an educational and religious center based on the principles of the Catholic Church. There are so many educational centers, kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, tertiary institutions, universities and colleges have been built. The religious principals have had immense power and haven’t failed to date. From a research that was conducted recently, 90% of the population in Québec is of the Roman Catholic.
There were tumultuous in the 1960s that brought about the Quiet Revolution. During this time, all the aspects that were of the francophone society were all deeply scrutinized, assessed and overhauled. The extremists and the intellectuals had a debate on the independence prospects of Canada. The people of Québec began to notice and appreciate their sense of nationhood.
The pro-independence party that was formed in 1968 became the most powerful and the ruling party in 1976. The party was headed by a charismatic person who was called Rene Levesque. After this, there have been two referendums that were held in separate times and the people voted No on the issue of separating Québec from Canada. Currently, the idea of Québec being independent is not as attractive to the young generation who have more global concerns. There have been riots, clashes or skirmishes regarding the separation. In our next historical stories, find out when using ricotta in lasagna began.