The resident of Quebec is known as the Quebecer (besides spelled "Quebecker"), or even around French, un(e) Québécois(e).

Geography

Independent hydro-electric projects are repose on La Grande Rivière. A extreme northward of the province, okay, known as Nunavik, is subarctic or arctic and is home to a share of the Inuit nation.

A virtually all populated region is the St. Lawrence River Valley in the south, where the capital, Quebec City, and the largest city, Montreal, are situated. N of Montreal come a Laurentians, a range of ancient mountains, & to a east come the Appalachian Mountains which extends into the Eastern Townships and Gaspésie regions. A Gaspé Peninsula juts into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the east.

10 Largest Municipalities by population !Municipality !2001 !1996 |- |Montreal |1,812,723 |1,774,846 |- |Quebec City |507,986 |504,605 |- |Longueuil (Part of Greater Montreal) |348,091 |373,009 |- |Laval (Part of Greater Montreal) |343,005 |330,393 |- |Gatineau |226,696 |217,591 |- |Saguenay |148,050 |153,476 |- |Sherbrooke |146,689 |135,501 |- |Trois-Rivières |122,395 |124,417 |- |Lévis |121,999 |118,344 |- |Terrebonne |80,531 |75,110 |}

History

Discovery and exploration

A title Quebec, which comes from either an Algonquin word meaning "strait" or even "narrowing", originally intended a narrowing of the St. Lawrence Flow of any stream off what is presently Quebec City.

A 1st European explorer of what is currently Quebec was Jacques Cartier, who planted the cross either in the Gaspé in 1534 or at Old Fort Bay on the Lower North Shore and sailed into the St. Lawrence River in 1535.

New France

Quebec City was founded near a places of Stadacona, a village populated by Iroquoians when Jacques Cartier explored Canada. Notwithstanding, a village was there are no yearn there once Samuel de Champlain established the Habitation first state Quebec inside 1608.

Fallowing 1627, King Louis XIII of France introduced the seigneurial system and forbade settlement around New France by anyone other than Roman Catholics, ensuring that welfare and education was saved firmly in the paws of the church. Future France became the royal province within 1663 under King Louis XIV of France and the intendant Jean Talon.

Change of colonial powers

Peachy Britain acquired Canada per Treaty of Paris (1763) when King Louis XV of France and his advisers chose to keep a territory of Guadeloupe for its valuable sugar crops instead of Up to date France, which was take for a immense, frozen waste of little importance to the French colonial empire. Per British Royal Proclamation of 1763, Canada (part of Future France) was renamed a Province of Quebec.

Around 1774, a British Parliament passed the Quebec Act that helped ensure a survival of the French language and French culture inside a region; since it did non hinder Catholicism in Quebec, it wwhen deemed as one of the Intolerable Acts that spurred the American Revolution. A Work allowed Quebec to maintain a French civil law when its judiciary & sanctioned a freedom of religious selection, allowing for a Roman Catholic Church to remain.

Quebec retained its seigneurial patterns & civil law code after France's returning of the territory to England. Owing to an inflow of Loyalist refugees from a America Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Act of 1791 saw the colony divided around both at the Ottawa Flow of any stream (a little part west of the Ottawa/St. Lawrence Flow of any stream confluence, which experienced a westmost seigneuries, was retained within Lower berth Canada); a american a share became Upper Canada and changed to the British legal system. A eastern section was known as Lower Canada.

The Patriotes Rebellion in Lower Canada

Prefer their counterparts around Upper Canada, in 1837, English and French speaking residents of Lower Canada, led by Louis-Joseph Papineau and Robert Nelson, formed an armed resistance class action to search an prevent to British compound rule. Their actions resulted in the Lower Canada Rebellion. An unwary British Army had to raise a local militia force and the rebel forces were shortly defeated when getting scored a triumph around Saint-Denis, Quebec, south of Montreal.

Act of Union

Fallowing a rebellions, Lord Durham was asked to undertake the survey & develop the report on the matter & to offer a guide for the British Parliament to assess. Ensuing Durham's Report, the British government merged them compound provinces into of these Province of Canada in 1841. Still, a union proved contentious.

Canadian Confederation

around the 1860s, the delegates from either the colonies of British N America (Canada, Future Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Isl&, & Newfoundland) met within a series of conferences in Charlottetown, Quebec City and London to discuss a wide union. Following of victims deliberations, inside 1867 the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the British Northerly Us Work, providing for the Confederation of virtually all one provinces. A former Province of Canada wwhen once more divided into its 2 previous area as a provinces of Ontario (Upper Canada) and Quebec (Lower berth Canada). New Brunswick and Nova Scotia joined Ontario & Quebec within the freshly Dominion of Canada (Prince Edward Isl& and Newfoundland entered Confederation later on, in 1873 and 1949, severally).

The "Quiet Revolution"

A conservative government of Maurice Duplessis and his Union Nationale dominated Quebec politics from 1944 to 1960 sustaining a trend lines of the Catholic church. Pierre Trudeau & other intellect and liberals formed an rational opposition to Duplessis' repressing regime setting a groundwork for the Quiet Revolution under Jean Lesage's Liberals. a Quiet Revolution was a period of spectacular mixer & political vary that saw the decline of the Roman Catholic Church's influence, the nationalization of Hydro-Québec and the emergence of the breakaway movement under previous Lesage minister René Lévesque.

, a provincial minister & Vice-Premier, world health organization was murdered two or three years late. In their promulgated Pronunciamento, a terrorists declared: "In the coming year Bourassa (Quebec Premier) will have to face reality; 100,000 revolutionary workers, armed and organized."

At a asking of premier Robert Bourassa, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act. It used to be that a War Measures Work was in situ, arrangements were wreak tons political detainee to understand law office. Additionally, a Quebec Ombudsman [http://www.protecteurducitoyen.qc.ca/en/index.asp], Louis Marceau, was instructed to hear complaints of detainees & a Quebec government agreed to pay wrongs to any human unjustly in remission. In February Three, 1971, John Turner, the Minister of Justice of Canada, reported that 497 persons experienced been arrested under a War Measures Work, of whom 435 got been freed. the more 62 were charged, of which 32 were crimes of such seriousness that a Quebec Superior Court judge refused the two bail. The federal government inquiry late revealed that a bit of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) agents infiltrated a class action to benefit grounds to believe of the class action's willingness to commit act of terrorism.

Inside 1977, a new elective Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque introduced the Charter of the French Language.Often referred to as Bill 101, it defined French as a lone official language of Quebec. To this day it remains controversial, & widely misunderstood two in & outside Quebec.

Quebec and the Canadian constitution

Lévesque & his person experienced do in a 1970 & 1973 Quebec elections under the platform of separating Quebec from either the rest of Canada. His person was discomfited each days, by using 23% & 30% of the vote severally, & Lévesque himself was defeated around his have riding (electoral dominion). In the 1976 electiin, he softened his message by promising the referendum (plebiscite) on sovereignty-association rather than outright separation, by which Quebec would stand independence within virtually all governement functions however part another ones, like the most common currency, by owning Canada. Though numerous Quebecers, especially English-speaking Quebecers, viewed sovereignty-association as thinly-veiled separatiin, Lévesque and a Parti Québécois were swept into power by having 41% of the popular vote on November 15, 1976. A wonder of sovereignty-association was placed prior to a elector in the 1980 Quebec referendum. When you took a campaign, Pierre Trudeau promised that the vote for the There are no side was a vote for reforming Canada. Trudeau advocated a patriation of Canada's Constitution from a United Kingdom, as a existent constitutional document, a British North America Act, could just exist as amended per United Kingdom Parliament.

Sixty percent of a Quebec electorate voted against the proposition. Polls showed that a ovewhelming majority of English Quebecers voted against, & that French Quebecers were near equally divided, by owning older elector less in favour of, & immature elector other in favor. When his loss in the referendum, Lévesque went back to Ottawthe to run negotiating a newly constitution by using Trudeau, his minister Jean Chrétien and the nine more provincial premiers. the negotiations quickly reached a could have-however. So inside a nighttime on November Four to November Five 1981, known as in Quebec the 'Nighttime of the Long Knives' (La Nuit des Longs Couteaux'), Jean Chrétien secretly met all the provincial premiers except René Lévesque to sign a document that would at length be the freshly American constitution. A next morning, it put Lévesque ahead of the "fait accompli." Lévesque refused to sign a document, & returned to Quebec. Around 1982, Trudeau experienced a newly constitution approved per UK, using Quebec's signature however missing (the situation that persists to this day).

Inside subsequent years, ii tries were mass produced to benefit Quebec's approval of the constitution. A foremost was a Meech Flow of any stream accord of 1987, which was eventually abandoned around 1990 whilst a provinces of Manitoba and Newfoundland refused to vote on it. This led to the formation of the fresh Bloc Québécois party in Ottawa, led by Lucien Bouchard (formerly of the Progressive Conservative Person). A 2nd attempt, a Charlottetown Accord of 1992, was rejected by 56.7% of all Canadians & 57% of Quebecers. This effect driven the split in the Quebec Liberal Party that led to the formation of the new Action Démocratique (Democratic Action) party led by Mario Dumont and Jean Allaire.

In October 30, 1995, by using a Parti Québécois back in power, a second referendum on sovereignty took place. This period, it was rejected by the thin majority (L.6% There is no to 49.4% YES). There wwhen too the spoiled ballot arguing as Xi.7 % of ballots were spoiled within a single awheel (Chomedey).

A equivalent nighttime, Jacques Parizeau, then premier, declared that a loss was due to money & a ethnic vote. The media hysteria in these comments forced Parizeau to resign. Lucien Bouchard became Quebec's new premier around 1996.

When winning a next election, Bouchard retired from either politics within 2001. Bernard Landry was then appointed leader of the Parti Québécois and premier of Quebec. Inside 2003, Landry wasted a election to the Quebec Liberal Party and Jean Charest.

Politics

Independent article: Politics of Quebec

A Lieutenant Governor represents Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. A head of government is the Premier (called premier ministre in French) world health organization leads a big person in the unicameral National Assembly or Assemblée Nationale, from which a Council of Ministers is appointed.

Until 1968, a Quebec legislature was bicameral, consisting of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. Therein season a Legislative Council was abolished, & a Legislative Assembly was renamed a National Assembly. Quebec was a survive province to abolish its Legislative Council.

a food and drug administration of Quebec awards an choose of merit known as the National Order of Quebec. These are inspired within a share per French Legion of Honour. These are conferred upon men & women born or even dwelling around Quebec (however non-Quebecers may be inducted too) for great accomplishment.

Economy

Independent article: Economy of Quebec

A St. Lawrence Flow of any stream Valley occurs as fertile agrarian area, producing dairy products, fruit, vegetables, maple syrup (Quebec is the world's big producer), & livestock.

Northerly of the St. Lawrence Flow of any stream Valley, a territory of Quebec is highly rich around resources around its cone-bearing forests, streams, lakes, & wells throughout, and streams, lakes, and wells throughout—resins & paper, lumber, and hydroelectricity are still a few of the province's first industries.

High-hi-tech industries may be crucial as much as Montreal. It includes a aerospace corporations such as jet-black manufacturer Bombardier, the jet engine company Pratt & Whitney, the flight simulator builder CAE and defense contractor Lockheed Martin, Canada. People corporations & more major subcontractors produce Quebec a 4th large streaming video player worldwide in the aviation industry.

Culture

Independent article: Culture of Quebec

A Québécois population, a people besides noticed around microscopic minorities of Canada and of the United States, consider Quebec their country of origin. A Québécois come a big people of French speakers in the Americas. Virtually all French Canadians live in Quebec, though there are other concentrations of francophones throughout Canada by having variable degrees of ties to Quebec. Montreal is the vibrant cosmopolitan metropolis of Quebec. History mass produced Quebec the place in which cultures meet, in which population from either either completely above the world own experience United states of americthe, however from a trifle few feet away & across a different eye. Typically described as a crossing between Europe & America, Quebec is page to a humans that has the privilege of existence attached to the hard ethnic currents of the United States, France, and a British Isles all at the equivalent instance.

Quebec is as well front yard to Xi primal cultures & that of the big Anglo-Quebecer minority of approximately 600,000 humans.

Demographics

Independent article: Demographics of Quebec

Quebec's fertility rate is now among a lowest around Canada. At Unity.48, these are swell following a replacement birth rate of Ii.I. This contrasts by using a fertility prior to 1960 which was among a greatest of the industrialised countries.

Although Quebec is merely 24% of a people of Canada, the total of international adoptions inside Quebec is the greatest of tons provinces of Canada. Inside 2001, 42% of international adoptions inside Canada were carried call at Quebec.

Ethnicity

A majority of the people come of French descent, approximately 80% of the people. There are too important many Irish, English, Italians, and Portuguese.

Racial Groups 91.9% White 2.1% Black 1.2% Aboriginal 1.0% Arab 0.8% Asian

Religious Groups 83.3% Roman Catholic 4.7% Protestant 2.2% more Christian 1.5% Muslim 1.2% Jewish 7.1% more, non-professing

Language

Independent article: Demolinguistics of Quebec

Quebec is a single American province in which French is the sole official language & the majority. Around 2001 a people was: French speakers: 81.2% English speakers: Eight.0% French & English: Zero.8% Allophones: X.0% (Italian 6.3%, Spanish Two.9%, Arabic Two.5%, & others)

Symbols and emblems

A catchword of Quebec is Je maine souviens (We remember), which is carved into a Parliament Building façade within Quebec City (Ville delaware Québec) & is seen on the coat of arms & licence plates.

A graphic emblem of Quebec is the fleur-de-lis, usually whiten in the blue background, when on the flag of Quebec (above), the Fleurdelisé. Equally indicated on the government of Quebec's Website, a flag recalls a Royal banner said to keep around accompanied a army of General Montcalm, Marquis de Saint-Véran during the victorious battle of Carillon within 1758. A fleur-de-lis as a symbol of the at present deposed Home of Bourbon is look upon "counter revolutionary" within France.

A flowered emblem of Quebec is the blue flag iris (Iris versicolor). It was erst a Madonna lily, to recall the fleur-de-lis, however has been changed to the iris which is indigene to Quebec.

A avian emblem of Quebec is the snowy owl.

A patron saint of French Canada is John the Baptist. La Saint-Jean-Baptiste, June 24, is Quebec's national day, and is officially known as a Fête nationale du Québec since 1977. A song "Gens du pays" by Gilles Vigneault is often look upon Quebec's unofficial anthem.

Quebec is periodically known as "La Belle Province" which means "The Beautiful Province". Until a late 1970s, this sentence was displayed in Quebec licence plates. It has since been replaced per province's official shibboleth: "Je me souviens" which means "I remember". The most common debate within popular American culture (two French & English) is to what is existence remembered. Quebec's unofficial anthem is "La Marseillaise", the national hymn of France, the province's avowedly mother nation. Rather a French, Quebec celebrates Bastille Day on July 14.