French regime (1500s–1763) Quebec City is one of the oldest European settlements in
North America and the only fortified city north of
Mexico whose walls still exist. While many of the major cities in
Latin America date from the 16th century, among cities in Canada and the United States, few were created earlier than Quebec City (
St. John's,
Harbour Grace,
Port Royal,
St. Augustine,
Santa Fe,
Jamestown, and
Tadoussac). 's meeting with the indigenous people of
Stadacona in 1535 It is home to the earliest known French settlement in North America,
Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, established in 1541 by explorer
Jacques Cartier with some 400 persons but abandoned less than a year later due to the harsh winter and resistance of indigenous inhabitants to colonial incursion on their land. The fort was at the mouth of the
Rivière du Cap Rouge, in the suburban former
town of Cap-Rouge (which merged into Quebec City in 2002). Quebec was founded by
Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer and diplomat, on 3 July 1608, and at the site of a long abandoned
St. Lawrence Iroquoian settlement called
Stadacona. Champlain, who came to be called "The Father of
New France", served as its administrator for the rest of his life. The
name "Canada" was given to the colony that developed around the settlement at Quebec. Although the
Acadian settlement at
Port-Royal was established three years earlier, Quebec came to be known as the cradle of North America's
Francophone population. The location seemed favourable to the establishment of a permanent colony. , which accompanies those to
Louis Hébert and
Marie Rollet).
Parc Montmorency,
Québec City. The population of the settlement remained small for decades. In 1629 it was
captured by English privateers, led by
David Kirke, during the
Anglo-French War. Samuel de Champlain argued that the English seizing of French lands was illegal as the war had already ended, and worked to have them returned to France. As part of the ongoing negotiations following the end of the Anglo-French War, in 1632 the English king
Charles I agreed to return captured lands in exchange for
Louis XIII paying his wife's
dowry. Quebec was the headquarters of many raids against
New England during the
French and Indian Wars. In 1690 the city
was attacked by the English, but was successfully defended. In the last of the conflicts, the
French and Indian War (
Seven Years' War), Quebec was captured by the British in 1759, and held until the end of the war in 1763. In that time many battles and sieges took place: the
Battle of Beauport, a French victory (31 July 1759); the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in which British troops under General
James Wolfe defeated the French General
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm on 13 September 1759, and shortly thereafter took the city after a short siege. A French counterattack saw a French victory at the
Battle of Sainte-Foy (28 April 1760) but the subsequent second
Siege of Quebec the following month however saw a final British victory. France ceded
New France, including the city, to Britain in 1763, when the
French and Indian War officially ended. At the end of French rule, Quebec was a town of 8,000 inhabitants, surrounded by forests, villages, fields and pastures. The town was distinguished by its monumental architecture, fortifications, and affluent homes of masonry and shacks in the suburbs of Saint-Jean and Saint-Roch. Despite its urbanity and its status as capital, Quebec remained a small city with close ties to its rural surroundings. Nearby inhabitants traded their farm surpluses and firewood for imported goods from France at the two city markets.
British and Canadian rule (1763–present) engage the
Continental Army in the streets of the city. The Americans' failure to take Quebec in 1775 led to the end of their
campaign in Canada. During the
American Revolution, revolutionary troops from the southern colonies
assaulted the British garrison in the city in the hope that the peoples of Quebec would rise and join the
American Revolution so that Canada would join the
Continental Congress, along with the other British colonies of continental North America. The American invasion failed, however, and the war resulted in a permanent split of British North America into two entitles: the newly independent
United States of America, and those colonies (including Quebec) that remained under British control, which would later become the country of
Canada. The city itself was not attacked during the
War of 1812, when the United States again attempted to annex Canadian lands. Amid fears of another American attack on Quebec City, construction of the
Citadelle of Quebec began in 1820. The Americans did not attack Canada after the War of 1812, but the Citadelle continued to house a large British garrison until 1871. It is still in use by the military and is also a tourist attraction. Until the late 18th century Québec was the most populous city in present-day Canada. As of the census of 1790, Montreal surpassed it with 18,000 inhabitants, but Quebec, which had about 14,000 of population at that time, remained the administrative capital of the former New France. It was then made the capital of
Lower Canada by the
Constitutional Act of 1791. From 1841 to 1867, the capital of the
Province of Canada rotated between
Kingston,
Montreal,
Toronto,
Ottawa and Quebec City (from 1851 to 1855 and from 1859 to 1865). The city experienced an economic golden age in the 1800s, due to its favorable location on the Saint Lawrence River which gave rise to industries of wooden
sailing ships manufacture, export of squared
timber logs. to Europe, as well as associated enterprises such as
sawmills. However, by the 1870s, Québec City entered a period of economic decline. Contributing factors included the rise of steel-hulled
steamships, the expansion of railroads at the expense of waterways for continental commerce; the depletion of forest resources near major rivers upstream of Québec City and in the west of the province, which were transported to
Québec's port by
log driving; the construction of
locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway, opening up trade routes to the U.S. from Montreal; and the city's inability to retain immigrant populations. This unfavourable context, coupled with the departure of the British army from the city's Citadel in 1871, contributed to the exodus of English speaking populations, such as local bourgeoisie of Scottish origin or workers of Irish background, to Montreal in the second half of the 19th century. Anglophones made up approximately 40% of the city's population in 1861, but 16% in 1901. Before the
Royal Military College of Canada was established in 1876, the only French-speaking officer training school was the Quebec City School of Military Instruction, founded in 1864. The school was retained at Confederation, in 1867. In 1868, The School of Artillery was formed in Montreal. ,
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Winston Churchill, and the
Earl of Athlone (left to right) at the
First Quebec Conference, a secret military conference held in
World War II The
Quebec Conference on
Canadian Confederation was held in the city in 1864. In 1867,
Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the definite capital of the Dominion of Canada, while Quebec City was confirmed as the capital of the newly created province of Quebec. During World War II, two conferences were held in Quebec City. The
First Quebec Conference was held in 1943 with
Franklin D. Roosevelt (President of the United States),
Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom),
William Lyon Mackenzie King (Prime Minister of Canada) and
T. V. Soong (minister of foreign affairs of
China). The
Second Quebec Conference was held in 1944 and was attended by Churchill and Roosevelt. They took place in the buildings of the Citadelle and at the nearby
Château Frontenac. A large part of the
D-Day landing plans were made during those meetings. Until 2002, Quebec was a mostly urbanized city and its territory coterminous with today's borough of
La Cité-Limoilou. The Government of Quebec then mandated a
municipal reorganization in the province, and many
suburbs of the north shore of the Saint-Lawrence were merged into Quebec City, taking the form of
boroughs, thus constituting the boundary of present-day Québec City. In 2008 the city celebrated its
400th anniversary and was gifted funds for festivities and construction projects by provincial and federal governments, as well as
public artwork by various entities, including foreign countries. ==Geography==