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Period: Sep 1, 1500 to
Population
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Sep 16, 1500
Bering Strait Land Bridge
The first occupants of Quebec arrived in the America's thousands of years before the Europeans did. The first occupants came from Asia and went through Bering Strait Land Bridge (located between Siberia and Alaska) to the America's. Eventually the Bering Strait Land Bridge deteriorated and the two continents separated. -
Oct 4, 1500
Relations with the Native People
The Natives and Europeans would exchange what they have a lot of for what they need. The Natives would provide warm clothes for the Euro's, teach them how to survive the winter, travel equipment.
The Europeans would provide weapons for the Natives, tools made out of iron, salt and bread, alcohol, etc. The aboriginal population was decreasing because of diseases that the Euro's were bringing over and wars between the Euro's. -
Sep 16, 1534
Jacques Cartier's voyages
Jacques Cartier went on 3 voyage's.
He had 3 goals for his voyages.
1: Find a route to Asia
2: Bring back gold and other riches
3: Claim land for the king of France Accomplishments of these 3 voyages.
1534: Explored and mapped the Gulf of St-Lawrence.
1535: Sailed up the St-Lawrence and reached Stadacona (Quebec).
1541: Attempted to set up a colony in Stadacona. -
Samuel Champlain's voyages
The king first sent Samuel Champlain on a voyage in 1605 to establish a settlement in Nova Scotia called Port Royal. Port royal failed due to its geographic location. Champlain returned in 1608-09 to Stadacona which would then be called New France. The reason why port royal failed and New France did not is because Port royal has no access to water meaning no access to boats and New France was just along the Saint Lawrence therefore had easy access to boats. -
Seigneurial Regime
To cultivate the new colony (New France), the king would give pieces of land to seigneurs and the seigneurs would develop and accumulate rent from the peasants who lived on the land. The peasants would cultivate and give a percentage to their seigneur. The peasants had to use the windmill that belonged to the seigneur. -
The first intendant Jean Talon
The population of NF was not developing. Therefore the King sent Jean Talon to NF with the goal to increase the population. Talon did the following:
= offered free land to soldiers if they agreed to stay in NF after their service was done
= sent the "Files du roi" to NF which were orphans from the streets of France and were sent to get married and have kids
= Gave payments were given to couples who married young
= Fathers of unmarried girls paid fines
=Unmarried men over 21 paid fines -
Immigration Policies of the British Regime
After the battle of Abraham, very wealthy French had the option to leave. However, whoever stayed was now considered a British subject. The population was 99% French and 1% English. 1763, British immigration began with business men looking to take over businesses. 1791, granting land to shipping and railroad companies was offered. 1812, laws discouraging American immigration were put into place in Upper Canada. In 1840, in London, they had a permanent job to encourage immigration. -
The Effects of the Loyalists
36000 loyalists came to the Maritimes/Canada and 6000 loyalists came to Quebec. The English population of Quebec had a sudden increase from 1% to 10%. They made settlements with english names, they settled in townships , they also created english schools and protestant churches. -
The potato famine
When the potato famine struck Ireland, millions of people started starving because potatoes were the main food they ate at the time. Therefore thousands of the Irish decided to immigrate to New France. The Irish were stealing jobs from the french because they would work for less money. -
Grosse-Ile
From 1832 to 1848, the Irish were immigrating to New France due to the potato famine. On the boat that would take them there, some of the people on the ship would get sick (mostly from cholera) and that disease would spread through the ship to a majority of the passengers on board. In order to keep New France healthy, they would sent everyone on the ship to Grosse-Ile where they will stay there until they are healthy. A lot of people died on the island. -
Immigration policies
In 1867, the BNA was formed (British North American Act). This was for the federal-provincial government would have full control of what to do with the immigrants. In 1878, the national policy was to grant land over to rail companies to settle in the west. Later on international events would effect the immigration policies and more changes would be made. Also, Discriminatory policies ended after the Second World War, and ever since it's been diversification of immigration. -
composition of the population
Even with the Irish and loyalist immigration, english-speaking people were still minorities in Quebec and the French remain in the majority due to the high birth rate. In the 20th century, different cultured groups begin to populate the big cities. -
The Oka crisis
The natives did not respond well hen a golf course wanted to expand its nine holes onto native land. Mohawk warriors established road blocks on the borders to their reserves in Oka. The natives militarily organized themselves and the Canadian Forces were called in to handle the situation. After 78 days, the standoff had finally come to an end
