Canada was the name of the
French colonyThe French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued in the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America...
that once stretched along the St. Lawrence River; the other colonies of
New FranceNew France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
were
AcadiaAcadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
,
LouisianaLouisiana or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682–1763 and 1800–03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
and Newfoundland. Canada, the most developed colony of New France, was divided into three districts, each with its own government:
QuebecQuebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
,
Trois-RivièresTrois-Rivières means three rivers in French and may refer to:in Canada*Trois-Rivières, the largest city in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada*Circuit Trois-Rivières, a racetrack in Trois-Rivières, Quebec...
, and
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. The governor of the District of Quebec was also the governor-general of all New France.
Because of the level of development of Canada compared to the other colonies, the terms "Canada" and "New France" were often used interchangeably. After the
Treaty of ParisThe Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
of 1763, when
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
ceded Canada and its dependencies to
Great BritainThe former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
, the colony was renamed the
Province of QuebecThe Province of Quebec was a colony in North America created by Great Britain after the Seven Years' War. Great Britain acquired Canada by the Treaty of Paris when King Louis XV of France and his advisors chose to keep the territory of Guadeloupe for its valuable sugar crops instead of New France...
.
Settled country
A 1740 survey of the population of the St. Lawrence River valley counted about 44,000 colonists, the majority born in Canada. Of those, 18,000 lived under the Government of Quebec, 4,000 under the Government of Trois-Rivières and 22,000 under the Government of Montreal. The population was mostly rural; Quebec had 4,600 inhabitants; Trois-Rivières had 378; and Montreal had 4,200 inhabitants. Also, Île Royale had 4,000 inhabitants (of which 1,500 were in Louisbourg), and Île Saint-Jean had 500 inhabitants. Acadia had 8,000 inhabitants.
Pays d'en Haut
Dependent upon Canada were the Pays d'en Haut (upper countries), a vast territory north and west of Montreal, covering the whole of the
Great LakesThe Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
and stretching as far into the
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n continent as the French had explored. North of the Great Lakes, a mission,
Sainte-Marie among the HuronsSainte-Marie among the Hurons was a French Jesuit settlement in Wendake, the land of the Wendat, near modern Midland, Ontario, from 1639 to 1649. It was the first European settlement in what is now the province of Ontario. Eight missionaries from Sainte-Marie were martyred, and were canonized by...
, was established in 1639. Following the destruction of the Huron homeland in 1649, the French destroyed the mission themselves and left the area. In what are today
OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and the eastern prairies, various trading posts and forts were built such as
Fort KaministiquiaFort Camanistigoyan, now standardized as Fort Kaministiquia, located at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River on Lake Superior in what is now northwestern Ontario, Canada, was established in 1717 by Zacharie Robutel de la Noue following the restoration of the system of trading permits by...
(1679),
Fort FrontenacFort Frontenac was a French trading post and military fort built in 1673 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It was positioned at the mouth of the Cataraqui River where the St. Lawrence River leaves Lake Ontario , in a location traditionally known as Cataraqui...
(1673), Fort Saint Pierre (1731), Fort Saint Charles (1732) and
Fort RouilléFort Rouillé or Fort Toronto was a French trading post located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that was established around 1750 but abandoned in 1759. The fort site is now part of the public lands of Exhibition Place...
(1750).
The French settlements in the
Pays d'en Haut south of the Great Lakes were
Fort NiagaraFort Niagara is a fortification originally built to protect the interests of New France in North America. It is located near Youngstown, New York, on the eastern bank of the Niagara River at its mouth, on Lake Ontario.-Origin:...
(1678),
Fort Saint AntoineFort Saint Antoine was a seventeenth-century French fort in Wisconsin.The fort was founded in 1686 by Nicholas Perrot and a group of Canadiens.-Perrot's expedition:...
(1686),
Fort St. JosephFort St. Joseph may refer to:In Canada:*Fort St. Joseph , on St. Joseph Island at southern end of the St. Marys River, now the site of Fort St. Joseph National Historic Site CanadaIn the United States:...
(1691), Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit (1701),
Fort MichilimackinacFort Michilimackinac was an 18th century French, and later British, fort and trading post in the Great Lakes of North America. Built around 1715, it was located along the southern shore of the strategic Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, at the northern tip of the lower...
(1715),
Fort La BayeFort La Baye was a French military post at La Baye, which was built in 1717, and occupied until 1760.By 1718, there were a number of Canadien families living in the area near the fort. Other families settled across the river from the fort in an area which was called Munnomonee, because of the...
(1717), and
Fort BeauharnoisFort Beauharnois was a French fort built on the shores of Lake Pepin, a wide part of the upper Mississippi River, in 1727. The location chosen was on lowlands and the fort was rebuilt in 1730 on higher ground. It was the site of the first Roman Catholic chapel in Minnesota, which was dedicated to...
(1727).
Today, the term
Les Pays-d'en-HautLes Pays-d'En-Haut is a county regional municipality of Quebec in Canada. The population of the MRC according to the 2006 Census is 36,573-Towns:* Estérel* Sainte-Adèle* Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson* Saint-Sauveur-Municipalities:* Lac-des-Seize-Îles...
refers to a
regional county municipalityFollowing is a list of the regional county municipalities and equivalent territories in the province of Quebec, Canada, as of January 2007...
in the
LaurentidesThe Laurentides is a region of Quebec. While it is often called the Laurentians in English, the region includes only part of the Laurentian mountains...
region of
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, north of Montreal.
Legacy
In its civil law, customs and the cultural aspects of the great majority of its population, the modern successor to the French colony of Canada is the Province of Quebec. The term
Canada may also refer to the modern
Canadian federationCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
created in 1867, or the historical
Province of CanadaThe Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...
, a British colony comprising southern Ontario and southern Quebec (referred to respectively as Upper Canada and Lower Canada when they were themselves separate British colonies prior to 1841). For Francophone Quebecers, preserving their distinctiveness from
English CanadaEnglish Canada is a term used to describe one of the following:# English-speaking Canadians, as opposed to French-speaking Canadians. It is employed when comparing English- and French-language literature, media, or art...
has been historically important, particularly since the rise of contemporary
Quebec nationalismQuebec nationalism is a nationalist movement in the Canadian province of Quebec .-1534–1774:Canada was first a french colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America...
dating from the
Quiet RevolutionThe Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...
of the 1960s. Francophone Quebecers will therefore often use the term
New France (
Nouvelle-France) when referring to Canada (New France), and the term
Canadien, at one time used to refer to the French-speaking populations of colonial Canada, was replaced by the term
Canadien-Français (French-Canadian), and more recently by
Québécois. Descendants of the original French-speaking
Canadien population of Canada (New France) now living outside of Quebec are now often referred to by reference to their current province of residence, such as
Franco-OntarianFranco-Ontarians are French Canadian or francophone residents of the Canadian province of Ontario. They are sometimes known as "Ontarois"....
. Francophone populations in the Maritime provinces apart from northwestern New Brunswick are, however, more likely to be descended from the settlers of the French colony of
AcadiaAcadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
, and therefore still call themselves Acadians.
See also
- New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
- Name of Canada
- Former colonies and territories in Canada
Former colonies, territories, boundaries, and claims in Canada prior to the current classification of provinces and territories. In North America, ethnographers commonly classify Aboriginals into ten geographical regions with shared cultural traits and by related linguistic dialects...
- Monarchs of Canadian territories
- Territorial evolution of Canada
The federation of Canada was created in 1867 when three colonies of British North America were united. One of these colonies split into two new provinces, three other colonies joined later...
- after 1867
- Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
- History of Quebec
Quebec has played a special role in Canadian history; it is the site where French settlers founded the colony of Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries.-Paleoindian Era :...
- Timeline of Quebec history
This article presents a detailed timeline of Quebec history. Events taking place outside Quebec, for example in English Canada, the United States, Britain or France, may be included when they are considered to have had a significant impact on Quebec's history....