History of Quebec FInal exam Flashcards
What is Quebec?
- Challenging to discuss the history of Quebec, because the definition of what Quebec is has changed over time
- Name to identify Quebecois people has changed - Quebecois was given after the Quiet Revolution, terms as french Canadian, Canadian, Quebecois
- Quebec does not exist in a vacuum
The Laurentian Axis
- Important river system
-Area with limited agricultural potential - Settlement, Concentrations of people along the st Laurent axis and or saint Laurent lowlands - because they have more agricultural potential
- geographically separates St Lawrence Lowlands and Great lakes Lowlands
Three sisters agriculture
Three sisters agriculture - an advanced and effective way to produce calories for a dense population. If the population is dense greater ability to exploit resources and military strength.
- main crops are squash, corn, and beans
How do we know about Indigenous history?
The St Lawrence Valley in 1500
2 main confederacies
Wendat confederacy - by lake Simcoe
Haudenosaunnee confederacy
Other polities
The Hochelagans and Stadaconans
Inu and Algonquins north of St Lawrence valley
Hunting and Gathering vs Agriculture
Hunting gathering vs agricultural
Exist together - hunting-gathering leads to a more varied diet vs agricultural
Less risk for hunter-gatherer fish societies and agricultural societies have more reliable access to food
- Two ways of providing calories
Two main confederacies at war
Wendac and haudeshawnee have been at war for a while (low-intensity conflict)
- 15th, 16th century
Why do Europeans send explorers to North America?
- Europeans arent producing anything that china and india want
- Belief that all wealth comes from gold and silver, because only thing China and India will take in return for goods
- Chinese government remonetizes government with silver
Beaver
- Beaver had been hunted to extinction in french
- Pellting, felt, barbed, waterproof
- Main thing of value french find
Jacque Cartier
- French send Jacque Cartier
- He is looking for a way to get across north America
- Northwest passage
- Route to India and china
- Because the Ottoman empire is taking Constantinople
Is contacted by Stadaconans - Makes contact with the Hochelagans
Beaver - Cartier does not understand this is not a colonial space, can’t impose rule
- kidnapped a few people
Champlain
diplomat, soldier
- arrives where Cartier had been, and Hochelagans had been destroyed, were no longer there
- forms alliance with Algonquin and Inu
- set up a colony for trading beaver, in exchange for defence against Huadeshawnee expansionism. “The Great Alliance.”
- understood that indigenous alliances were the only thing keeping them in their position
- becomes first to join Indigenous war group - to attack Mohawk party
- founded Quebec and New france
France’s early explortaion
- One must integrate into trade networks
- Early french explorers don’t get that they can’t colonize the population
The Start of the Franco-Wendat Alliance
- Between Wendac confederacy, Algonquin, Inu and French
- Set up by Champlain
- defensive based alliance
- ## in return Champlain gets permission to settle
Did french know they were in a massive war in 17th century?
- drawn into an already existing conflict between Haudeshawnee and indigenous
- start arms race as indigenous see potential in firearms and demand them from their allies
Dutch arms trade
Dutch set up in Albany
- become an arsenal for indigenous communities
- Haudeshawnee become best armed in North America
- french ask indigenous to convert to Christianity to get arms
The 1640s, what epidemic began to hit communties?
- small poxs
- decimated Wendac as they lose a lot of Leadership and leads to Haudeshawnee going on offensive resulting in Wendac dispersal
Early Fur trade
- Fur trade is centred on Heronia and Wendac confederacy
- becoming middlemen
- trapping beaver themselves and conducting trade with the french
- removing the Wendac, changes structure of the fur trade
- centered around Montreal, French now have to contribute
Devlopment of New France
17th century, chartered a company to devlop new France but does not work
- French state takes over as a crown colony
- New France is now controlled by the French state and exists only to serve
- also a military garrison, as French fight Haudeshownee
- Bring down regular strength regiment to push into Haudeshawnee confederacy territory
- get raw materials, no diversifying economy
1701 - great peace of Montreal signing
- ends warfare
- Champlain started New France’s involvement to be at War with the Haudeshwonee
- numerous nations signed
- solves new frances biggest safety threat
New France Labour and Feudalism
- Labour is too expensive, too few europeans
- No possibility for military shipbuilding, bad wood quality
- last feudal society
New France seignoral system
- lord is granted a piece of land by the crown
- his job is to encourage people to settle on land and rent out land plots
- give people riverfront access
- farms are near one another
- narrow plots
- peasant and seigneur relationship of responsibility to one another
1730s-1740s “golden age” of New France
- Population was increasing
- Urban society (20% of ppl lived in city)
7 Year of war breaks out against the English
- British and french are shooting at each other in 1756 in Europe
- France loses
- major event in French Canadian history for many
- caused the clerical elite to go back to France
- France had pulled its forces into the interior
- France give up new France but keep important colonies like St domingue
Anglo protestant commercial class
- settle in Montreal
- deurbanization
- population growth in rural countryside
- anglo bourgeoisie take charge of the Fur trade
Treaty of Paris 1783
-This treaty, signed on September 3, 1783, between the American colonies and Great Britain, ended the American Revolution and formally recognized the United States as an independent nation.
- ends 7 year war and American revolution, and french vs confederacy war
- defined the US boarder
Are French allowed to keep Rights?
- Quebec act of 1774 - they keep religious and civil rights
- English are broke, don’t want to police colony
- French Canadians can use civil code
- French Language is used in government and catholic office is legalized
- French allies were abandoned by Indigenous allies in return for promise from British to not expand into indigenous territory
American Revolution
- Britain colonists move West of Appalachians, hand over province of Quebec to keep Americans out
- Tries to balance colonial interests, indigenous alliances, french Canadian rebellion
- Americans of 13 colonies of Britain’s North america reject imperial rule due to taxation
- want quebec support to fight to free French from Britain’s rule
- Leave them stuck with colony full of Catholics and French
- Loyalists flee north
Creation of Upper Canada
- during the war, loyalists from American crown flee north
- new colony south of the river called upper Canada
- north of Ottawa river
Fur trade in the 19th century
Beavers are driven to extinction by fur trade
- are pushed further west
- Montreal fur traders start North West company
- have a monopoly on trade in Montreal
- rival of Hudson Bay company
- North West Company is defeated in the war
- Britain crown forces the two to merge, based in London (1821) (no longer centred on st Lawrence valley, eliminates trade in Montreal)
New commodity of Lumber
- napoleonic war france had tried to starve britain of raw materials, wood for ship building,
- north America had lot of lumber for them
- end of 19th century, lumber is massively exported into the British Market
- 80% of commodity being sold as exports
- going into woods to cut down trees becomes huge economical survival strategy in this period
- incentivizes development of saw mills and shipbuilding which becomes main economy around Quebec city
- diversifying economy
Navigation acts
- created a closed system between Birtain and Canada
- get preferential tariffs that US wouldn’t have
- subsidized by British market - encourages the development of lumber economy
Age of Revolution
- 1791 - corrupt system run by the chateau click (mostly anglophone elites, bourgeois, mostly class-based)
- elected assembly had no power
- governor general and executive assembly had all the power
- fight for democracy
Patriot party
- put pressure on anglos to give power to elected assembly to grant them the power to make laws
- ## British deny this and leads to armed rebellion by 1867
1841 - upper Canada and lower Canada are fused back together through an act of union
- creates a province of Canada
- Durham recommended they have a responsible government in response to the patriots
- assumed people would assimilate on their own
- wanted the new colony to not have majority rule but anglo protestant minority rules over it
- split it politically into two sections
- both quebec and Ontario would have equal numbers of seats
- equal political power was given
French Canadians and English Canadians get democracy by 1840s
- get responsible government
- if you win an election you have the authority to make law
- the area becomes democratic. for land owning males
1849 - women lose right to vote
- public sphere for men
- private for woman
- gendering of society
importance of continental and free trade
- The entire existence of quebec when entered Laurentian lowlands up until the 1840s - economically tied to a European empire
1846 - Anti Corn Law League
- tariffs on corn and grain but Canada is exempt
- 1846 - gets corn laws repealed
- now Canada is not in a mercantile system, no preferential access, in free trade
- 1849 - Anglo demand to be annexed by the united states and seek acess to American versus europen market
- North American trade versus European (continental shit)
start of industrialization around 1846 (start of Lachine canal, land frees up)
Montreal chooses to industrialize int he 19th century
- after fur trade, rich investors from capital accumulation from banking
- becomes capital when it is used correctly
- building of Lachine Canal
- abolishment of the Seigneural system, leads to selling of plots of land
- large landless populations developing, people have to work for wages (something u must do for rest of ur life, no independence, cost of labour is collapsed)
- all elements necessary to industrialize
two most important events of 1846?
Economic boom 1830s-1850s
Move to free trade matters less and the period in 80’s is the great boom - the quickest and largest expansion
Economic pious gets bigger - so rapidly that no one is concerned about it
Confederation outcomes
(1867 - the province of Canada, Nova Scotia, news Brunswick)
1. Intercolonial railway - from halifax to the province of Canada
2. annexation of Rupert land. Great Britain and Canada think it should be annexed
3. New colony or confederation that would connect 4 maritime provinces
4. Create a federation in Canada - a colony in southern Ontario and quebec
Why did the Union and confederation fail?
System didn’t function - always gridlock because of equal representation in parliament
1867 - Idea of two confederations - the distinction between French and English Canada
- end of the union of Upper vs Lower Canada, replaced with the provincial state called quebec
- shift from imperial to continental
- 1860s onwards, relationship with the US starts to become more important
- Now province of quebec
When did working class emerge?
- 1880s, Creation of a working class
- wage labour always existed but was a life sentence for people now
- Previously goal had been no dependence on wages
- Now was a life sentence
- working-class culture develops - women had to work and participate in the public sphere
Montreal becomes important in Quebec?
- Montreal was rapidly expanding working-class city because of industrialization
- Undisputed Metropol
- politics still in Quebec city
Tavern
Unionization becomes more common late 1860s and 1880s
Pope declares problem deals with the working class and clergy needs to make sure workers aren’t being brought into socialist and Marxist unions which are atheist
- form national unions under supervision of clergy
Great depressions 1870s
- damaged labour movement a lot
- Most of unions collapse - hard to organize when no work
Knights of labour and Internationals (1880’s)
- try to organize along industrial rather than craft lines
- try to organize everyone ( both English and french assemblies)
-Form national unions under the supervision and authority of the clergy - The Knights organized unskilled and skilled workers, campaigned for an eight hour workday, and aspired to form a cooperative society in which laborers owned the industries in which they worked.
-create united front between producers and non producers
Radial inequality of wealth at end of 19th century - question of property?
- State needs to improve people’s lives or will invite a socialist revolution
- Communist revolution was seen to be probable in Montreal
- Progressive areas - idea of using powers of state to improve peoples lives
Municipal progressive area
Largely municipality based not the federal or provincial government
Mainly water system
Public health - Pasturization for milk supply
Late 1890s massive economic expansion
- main thing coming out of this change
- technological innovations
- development of refrigerated ships
- huge demand for cheddar
- switch to dairy (a massive part of Quebec’s economy)
- throughout Canada and the industrialized world - the ability for society to start enacting change
- invention of high tension wire
- Greater hydro and dam potential
Public Parks
- idea to combat sickness
- ## need clean air for the working class to be healthy
“The labour question” - what do we do to regulate working-class lifestyles and workplaces?
Land capacity in Quebec is reached
- The land is expelling people - people can’t live on land despite the development of the dairy industry
- Laurentian lowlands are at their limits
Must leave to support themselves
Go to US and Montreal - 1/4th was living in New England - build communities or little Canadas where there are french churches - causes concern in politics which are dominated by clerical nationalist elite
colonization projects in industrialization
- Redirect immigration away from US and Montreal and direct them onto the land
- Colonization projects were failures
- 1920s dies off
The decline of anglophone community
Decline of anglophone community in 1920s
Anglophone quebec expells population - go west to other areas or united states
Immigration in early 19th century
- Start of immigration to quebec are coming from jewish and italian communities - people come back from italy
- Sojourner Immigrrration - they work for short periods and then comeback
- New england is prime destination for french canadians and allows them to return home because of railway
Quebec in the 1914’s
- ## familiar quebec (automobiles, cinemas for movies.)
The Great War
- Great war is important because - Quebec and Canada had a ambiguous foriegn policy - called a dominion rather than a colony
Self governing - Becomes a question of is canada a colony
- Sudan crisis and Boar war - Canada began by sayig no
Conscription
- Henri bourassa dosen’t think they owe them anything
- Massive opposition to conscription
- Government under Borden - want a pro conscription majority
- Borden finds a way to get majority by giving vote to women (nurses) second phase wives and widows at the front (VERY PRO CONSCRIPTION)
- Men not fighting were physically attacked
- Establishes solid pro-conscription bloc
- Split liberal party under Wilfred Laurier
- anti-conscription party
- Liberals outside of quebec join the union government and conservative party, Quebec is isolated in the 1930 election
- Pro-conscription majority 1918 - soldiers get sent to the front, war ends before most served - Culminated in easter 1918 - Toronto troops fire on anti-conscription protest in quebec city
Suffragists movement
- tons of organizations pressuring quebec government
- Women right to vote in 1940 - massive pressure
- Leads to liberal party putting right to vote to women in 1939 platform and go through with it once they win
Spanish Influenza
- 14 thousands people die - massive casualities
- Provincial and federal aren’t doing much
- they do set up a board of health through the province, however, mostly municipal government
- Cholera pandemics
Try to coordinate municipal reaction to the pandemic
Indigenous remote communities are most affected - no access to medical services - Urban working class in poor housing conditions
1920s things start to improve in QUebec
- Another economic boom - stock market speculation that culminates in biggest capitalist crisis
- France and Britain pay back war debt
1920s good year - something is clearly wrong
Great depression
- Worst place hit in Canada
- Goes to 25 percent in terms of unemployment
- liberal capitalism has failed - more progressive places bounce back faster under Roosevelt
- Fascist movement and communist movement in response point to liberal capitalism failings
Mackenzie King liberalism (Liberal Intereggnum)
- 1939 - snap election is called - gets outmaneuvered by Mackenzie king - would have conscription but no soldier to fight outside of Canada
- Fulfilled demands of quebec
- Duplessis runs a bad campaign in 1939 and lost elections to liberals
- Liberals are the first provincial progressive party - use state to make change
- Restore the right to vote as women fight for it
- Create hydro quebec in 1943 by nationalizing a herbert Cobol monopoly of electricity
- First mandatory schooling system in quebec
- Quebec was behind in mandatory social service
Duplessis
-1944 - Duplessis comes back into power
Expended most power in the war - stays PM until 1954 - Period referred to as The Great darkness
- main thing was catholic and residential school system creation
- different because controlled by church, based on creating catholic rather than assimilation
Post war period in Quebec
- 1960 seen as turning point
- Massive demographic changes - Baby boom
- Quebec reached limits to population growth
- English Canada society catches up - similar demographic growth rates
French Canadian Exceptionalism of birth rate ends in post-war period
-
Modernization of Montreal in 1960s
- First sky scraper
- Result of St LAwrence seaway - removal of water front of poor communities in western quebec and Ontario
- increased volume but changed Montreal’s importance as a key port
- Montreal’s upperclass support project cuz lachine canal can’t handle construction
- Too many people live in the area, can’t expand, cant handle big container ships
Immigration after victory of Lassage
- 1960s - the victory of lasage
- See massive changes in immigration
- Main group of immigrants mostly from southern Europe
Quebec model of development Quebecois idea of needing to catch up - take over the province with more control
- Lasage comes into power in 1960
Main ideologies - french canadians should be masters in their own house - Large idea is quebec model of economic development
- Overcome being ‘behind’
- Creation of hydro quebec
- secularization of education
- 1960s take over the power grid Nationalize electricity gid