Quebec Attractions

A vast province about one-sixth of the whole of Canada, Québec could accommodate the United Kingdom five times over, but has a population of only 7.5 million people representing a population density of just 5 per sq. km (10.4 per sq. mi.). Most Québécois live in the two large conurbations of Montréal and the provincial capital Québec. The province's lifeline is the St Lawrence, almost 1200 km (750 mi.) long, which, with the St Lawrence Seaway, has since 1959 been the direct link between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes.

Québec Province can be divided into three major physical regions. Firstly, the north belongs to the primeval Laurentian mountains, and is part of the Canadian Shield. These rounded uplands, dotted with lakes, rise up to about 1000 m (3,300 ft), then slope gently down towards Hudson Bay and James Bay in the north. The Torngat Mountains in the north-east are the highest part of the Canadian Shield, reaching over 1500 m (4900 ft), while the densely wooded Laurentians form the southern edge of the Shield. The extreme south of the province and the Gaspé Peninsula, are considered part of the Appalachians, which extend as far as Newfoundland, and rise to between 970 m (3184 ft) and 1270 m (4168 ft). The third region, the St Lawrence Lowlands between the Laurentians and the foothills of the Appalachians, was the first part of the province to be settled, and is today where 90 per cent of the population live, on the rich land along both banks of the great river.

Québec's climate is influenced by its northerly position (45°-74°N) and the cold Labrador current. The north, and particularly the north-west, is sub-Arctic with bitterly cold, dry winters and cool summers, while the south of the province is subject to strong seasonal variation. With no high mountains to contend with, the air masses can circulate freely. Spring begins in April/May, and often lasts for only two weeks before the onset of the often humid heat of summer. Average temperatures are around 20°C (68°F), but records of 35°C (95°F) are not unusual. Although it may have started abruptly, summer is slow to fade and there can still be a few warm, autumn days in late October, and sometimes even early November, those days of Indian summer when the bright autumn colours permeate the leaves of the mighty forests. Winters are cold, with a great deal of of snow. The average January temperature in Montréal is 28.9°C (16°F), and further north up the St Lawrence River is even colder, with more and more snow. The average January temperature in Québec City is (211.6°C) (11.1°F), and while Montréal gets 2.5 m (8 ft) of snow, Québec gets over 3 m (10 ft), and Sept-Îles, still farther east, has more than 4 m (13 ft). It is thanks to this cold winter that the Canadians can rely on getting ideal conditions for their national game of ice-hockey.

As the climate varies from one zone to another, so does the vegetation, with fruit and vegetables being intensively farmed around the St Lawrence and then, on the poor soil stretching far to the north, come the vast tracts of mixed timber (maple, birch and pine) which cover two-thirds of the province. Then as these woods peter out in the far north, the mosses and lichens take over.

In 1534 the Breton Jacques Cartier reached the mouth of the St Lawrence on his quest for a Northwest Passage, and on the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula he claimed the land on behalf of the King of France. The Algonquin and the Iroquois Indians lived at that time in large villages along the St Lawrence. On his second journey a year later Cartier got as far as the Indian settlements of Stadacona (now Québec) and Hochelaga (Montréal). However, when he returned to Paris from his third voyage in 1542 bringing only "worthless" minerals, interest in this far land waned for a while. This was to change in 1600 when Canada's wealth of furs, especially beaver, prompted Pierre Chauvin to set up a first trading post at Tadoussac. Samuel de Champlain set out to explore the St Lawrence, founding the settlement of Québec in 1608. He immediately began establishing links with the local Indians, and bartering for furs. Conflict with the Iroquois, who were allied with the British, began soon after, inhibiting further settlement, and the few colonists that there were lived in daily fear of attack.

It was Louis XIV who made the region the crown colony of "Nouvelle (New) France". Wanting to increase France's fame and prestige, he sent over troops and settlers, appointing the Comte de Frontenac, Louis de Buade, its governor. The province owed its stability to three factors: the absolutist government, the strong Catholic Church, and the seigneurial system, based on the French feudal system, whereby the landed gentry (seigneurs) rented out land to settlers (habitants) who paid their rents in kind.

Between 1641 and 1760 the French-speaking population grew from 500 to over 80,000. In the 18th c., however, the conflicts between the British and the French intensified, but the Seven Years' War (1756-63) put an end to France's colonial aspirations and "New France" was ceded to Britain by the Peace of Paris in 1763.

In the Québec Act of 1774 the British Parliament guaranteed the French Canadians a say in their government and the right to their own language, religion and culture. When many English Loyalists moved up here after the American War of Independence, and the two differently structured national groupings fell out, it was decided, by the Constitutional Act of 1791, to divide the territory into Upper Canada (more or less present-day Ontario) and Lower Canada (Québec). The limitations on the rights of the elected parliament, which had no authority over the British Governor, led to unrest in both colonies. This was put down and well over half a million Québécois subsequently emigrated to the USA.

In 1840 Upper and Lower Canada joined together to become the "Province of Canada", and in 1867 the British North America Act made Québec a province in its own right in the Dominion of Canada, together with the other three provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Little changed in the decades that followed in this province of farmers and lumberjacks, where the exploitation of its raw material resources was mainly in the hands of Anglo-Canadian and U.S. business.

The end of the 1940s saw Québec's French-speaking majority starting to take up the cudgels against the overbearing role of the Anglo Canadians. The movement gathered strength in the 1960s and the "Parti Québécois" went as far as to demand full independence from the state of Canada. In 1974 French was declared the sole official language, and two years later the "Parti Québécois" won the provincial elections. However, a provincial referendum held in 1980 produced a majority against secession, a result which was repeated in October 1995 in a second referendum held following the separatists' election victory of 1994. A further ballot on the issue is under consideration.

In the 17th c. the powerful Iroquois Nations represented a great threat to the settlers of New France. In 1657 they even besieged Québec. Armed with muskets and tomahawks by the Dutch and the British, the war-like Iroquois were greatly feared, often luring soldiers and traders into ambushes or falling unexpectedly on homesteads. Their great rivals were the Huron, but they managed to eliminate them in the mid-17th c. This was despite the arrival of the Carignan-Salières Regiment and the bounties offered by the French - 20 crowns for every Iroquois captured, and 10 crowns for every Iroquois scalp.

The Iroquois settled around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, living in large families in the longhouses of their little villages. They grew some crops but lived mainly from hunting, fishing, and fur trading, and usually wore garments of deer-skin. They also held great religious festivals every winter, and celebrated harvest with ritual dances by masked men swinging axes and spears.

Québec is the French province of Canada - about three-quarters of its 7.5 million people are of French origin. Those of British ancestry, about an eighth of the total, live mostly in and around Montréal. The rest are mainly descendants of Italian, Jewish, Greek and German settlers, and in recent years many other nationalities. The Indians and Inuit, who live in smallish settlements in the north of the province, are becoming an ever diminishing group.

Québec's present-day French-speaking population can actually be traced back to a very small group of immigrants. These were the 10,000 or so French people who came here between 1608 and 1759. It was their birthrate of 10-15 children per family that led to the present population figure. In the recent past, however, as in other industrialised countries, the birthrate has declined sharply.

Québec's Lower Town, site of the original settlement, is built on the low-lying ground bordering the St Lawrence. The Upper Town, atop the 100 m (330 ft) cliffs, grew up to accommodate the government of New France as well as being the location of the military barracks.

Many of Quebec's attractions are located in the Lower Town including, Batterie Royale, the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Château Frontenac, Notre-Dame, City Hall, and the Old Port area.

The Upper Town of Quebec, atop the 100m (330 ft) cliffs, grew up to accommodate the government of New France as well as being the lcoation of the military barracks.

Among the highlights of the Upper Town are the Citadel, the Plains of Abraham, Place d'Armes, and the Parque Historique de l'Artillerie.