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Quebec (French: le Québec) is a Canadian province with a population of 7,410,504 (Statistics Canada, 2001), primarily speakers of the French language. It is surrounded by over 300 million English speakers in the US and the rest of Canada, and yet it manages to keep its unique culture and language.

Geography of Quebec

Quebec is located in eastern Canada, bordered by Ontario and Hudson Bay to the west, Atlantic Canada to the east, the United States to the south, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. The province, Canada's largest, occupies a vast territory (six times the size of France, most of which is very sparsely populated.

The most populated region is the Saint Lawrence River Valley in the south, where the capital, Quebec City, and the largest city, Montreal, are situated. North of Montreal are the Laurentians, a range of ancient mountains, and to the south, the Appalachian Range extends into the Eastern Townships. The Gaspé Peninsula juts into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the east. The Saint Lawrence River Valley is a fertile agricultural region, producing dairy products, fruit, vegetables, maple sugar (Quebec is the world's largest producer), and livestock.

Northern Quebec has extremely rich resources in its coniferous forests, lakes, and rivers - pulp and paper, lumber, and hydroelectricity are some of the province's most important industries. The extreme north of the province, called Nunavik, is subarctic and is home to Inuit communities.

History of Quebec

Quebec was inhabited by a range of First Nations before the arrival of the French, and still is today - the Inuit in Nunavik, the Cree in the coniferous forests, the Huron and Iroquois (Mohawks) in the river valley, and the Mi'kmaq in the east, to name the most prominent peoples.

The first European explorer of Quebec was the Frenchman Jacques Cartier, who planted a cross in the Gaspé in 1534 and sailed into the Saint Lawrence in 1535. Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City in 1608; it would become the nucleus of New France and the origin of French exploration of North America. New France became a royal colony in 1663 under Louis XIV and the intendant Jean Talon.

The French allied themselves with the Huron against the Iroquois, who were allied to the English. The wars between England and France in Europe and North America came to a head in 1759 when the English general James Wolfe defeated Louis-Joseph de Montcalm at the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City. Although Great Britain acquired New France at the Treaty of Paris, it passed the Quebec Act in 1774, allowing the colony to retain its language, religion, legal system, semifeudal system, and customs. This act of tolerance was one of the grievances listed by the Americans in the Declaration of Independence.

After Loyalists fleeing from the American Revolution settled in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the region at the Ottawa River, creating Upper Canada (now Ontario) and Lower Canada (now Quebec). The first elected legislature was created in the same year.

Partisans in both Upper and Lower Canada revolted against the British Empire in 1837; in Quebec, the revolt was led by Louis-Joseph Papineau and the Patriotes. The rebellions were crushed, but they achieved their goal when Lord Durham's report recommended responsible government for the colonies. This was instituted in 1849. Lord Durham's report recommended that the French-Canadians be assimilated, and an attempt at this was made by merging the Canadas into the Province of Canada: what is now Quebec became Canada East. This was unstable, however, and when Canada confederated with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, it divided into Ontario and Quebec once more.

Please continue into the 20th century.

In 1995, 49.9% of Quebecers voted "yes" in a referendum that asked them if they wanted to split away from Canada, while 50.1% voted no. So Quebec is still part of Canada.

See also Canada, Canadian provinces and territories, Canadian cities, List of Quebec counties, Quebecois French, Quiet Revolution.