Quebec

I was only 9 at the time, but in 1608 was when I heard that Champlain convinced de Monts to let him try to agree to a settlement in the St. Lawrence valley where he could get better access to the Native Peoples and the furs. Although I was only a little girl and didn’t have a side to this whole event I still understood most of what was happening from eavesdropping on the adults, and now that I understand it, maybe eavesdropping wasn’t such a good idea. I remember like it was yesterday when I heard the parents talking about Champlain coming to where we were, in New France. When he finally arrived in New France from his expedition he created a small habitation in Quebec. I remember that the habitation was like a small European fortress. I also remember a few of my older friends that understood what was happening telling me that he formed alliances with Huron against the Iroquois so that it would help expand the fur trade, and it worked. But just because the fur trade grew, the population of New France didn’t grow, which was a bad thing because once Champlain realized this and that the control of New France depended on the population he needed to be careful because of the rivalry of the English, Dutch and French for the land and fur trade. Then I started asking questions about it because I was a curious 9 year old, and one thing that stuck out to me the most was that Champlain continued to try to get help from French. Another thing that came with it was the Company of 100 Associates. That was when, in 1627, the French government gave the Company of 100 Associates a monopoly on the fur trade in New France, and because they did that the Company was supposed to being 4000 French Catholics to settle in New France over the next 15 years, but because of the war in Europe with England and France, unfortunately for Champlain the Company of 100 Associates had gone out of business.

 

 

 

Jesuits

  After the whole thing with the French, there was the Jesuits. I remember when they arrived in New France and a lot of people referred to them as the Black Robes. I remember my parents saying that they created a college for the sons of settlers at Quebec in 1635, they also created hospitals and convents by bringing groups of nuns into New France. It was also going around that they built mission churches and schools for the Huron in Huronia. We didn’t know much about Huronia, which was where the Huron lived, when I was little but now that I’m older now I know a lot more of what happened. For example, now I know that the Jesuit headquarters were located in the mission of Ste. Marie in Huronia, and that in the mission there was a chapel, hospital, bakery, carpentry shop, blacksmith, and that they planted crops and imported livestock from France. One thing we did know about the Jesuits was that they had a big political influence on us, and that the Superior of the Jesuits was one of the three main members of the superior council, which administrated the council. Another thing I remember about them was when the Huron and the Iroquois battled and because the Iroquois had earlier traded with the Dutch, they had guns, and the Hurons didn’t because they didn’t convert to Catholicism. And because the Huron were weak from the European diseases, after the battles were over there was only about 500 Hurons left, and all of them died in the winter because of the conditions, and that was the end of the Hurons. After that the French tried to take the role of the Hurons, and although it didn’t work the French expanded in the fur trading empire, and because of that the Catholic Church turned a lot of its attention to the needs of the French people in the settlement.

 

 

 

Royal Government

Another thing I remember from then was the government, it was a big deal because they were the ones that could control everything that happened. One of the examples of the government is the Governor General Comte de Frontenac, he became the governor of New France in 1672, but because he quarreled with the intendant and bishop he was recalled to France in 1682. He then returned to New France in 1689 to create by suppressing the Iroquois, and to attack the English’s settlements and expanding France’s fur trade. He stayed in New France until his death in 1698. His main concern was the expansion of New France’s fur trade. In the Royal Government there was also the Bishop, Francois de Laval. He was a Jesuit Priest and he arrived in Quebec in 1659.

 

 

 

Coureurs de Bois

Yet another of the memories I have from when I was little were the Coureurs de Bois. The Coureurs de Bois were, when the French tried to have a close trading relationship with the Natives and in practice they went with the French explorers far out in the continent searching for furs and the Northwest Passage. The Coureurs de Bois were the independent fur traders of the business and they bent the rule that said that furs were supposed to be ruled by monopolies, but because the Iroquois stopped native bands from bringing furs to the St. Lawrence they had to go to the source and had to pay officials fees and bribes to let them do it. Some of the more famous Coureurs de Bois that I knew when I was younger were brothers in law Pierre Radisson and Médart de Groseilliers. De Groseilliers had brought a lot of furs from the north and Radisson went to Hudson Bay and the territories around it, and when France wasn’t interested in what they had found they decided to go to England, where King Charles II agreed with the creation of the Hudson Bay Company. Another famous Coureurs de Bois was Sieur de La Salle. He was a noble from Normandy in France. He built the first sailing ship and although it sank it was discovered again later on.

 

 

Seigneury

One night I remember my parents talking about this thing called a Seigneur, back then I didn’t really understand what it was then but as people kept on telling me different things I started understanding it more. I started to understand that a seigneury were pieces of land that were near rivers that were separated into long strips of land. They were almost like small separated villages. In a Seigneury the person who controlled it, kind of like a mayor was a Seigneur and the people who lived in the Seigneury were Habitants. The Seigneur would divide the land for the habitants, build a house and a flour mill on the seigneury, they would have to contribute to the construction of the church, and Report to the intendant information about the population, the amount land being used, and the dues that are being paid. The Habitant would pay their taxes to the seigneur, build a house and farm on the land, preform unpaid labor for the seigneur a few days a year, and give a percentage of the produce that they gather to the seigneur annually.

 

 

Church

When I was young I remember the church being a big part of everyone’s life. It still is now but back then it was a big deal, you can tell just by the fact that half of the events that happened throughout this period of time that half of them were caused by religious disagreements. But the church was so big that it had a role in the Seigneuries, Education, and Health Care. For the Seigneuries there was always a church that was normally a small building made of wood or stone, and most of them had priests that would go around to every different strip of land because they didn’t have enough of them. In the Seigneuries the Priests would do many services for the people. They would have spiritual services like mass, heard confessions, baptize babies, and preform marriages and funerals. They would also do legal services like write wills, record business transactions, and created marriage contracts. They did government services too, like register births and deaths, and acted like government officials. The last service they would do is personal service like provide news from other pieces of land from the seigneuries. Besides the Seigneuries the church also had a role in Education. They were the only source of education in the Royal Colony, and the schools mostly only taught them the Roman Catholic religion, how to read and write in Latin and French, and do math. With that most boys didn’t get to go to school, instead some of them would go to train to be a Priest, and the others that didn’t want to become priests wouldn’t go to any kind of school and only work on farms. The church also had a role in health care. The church was the only place that you could get real health care and cared for the sick, elderly, orphans, and people with disabilities. The nuns were usually the people that would take care of the sick and the ones that eventually created the colonies first hospital in Quebec.

 

 

French Vs English

A big ongoing fight at this time was a fight between the French and uthe English, especially with the Fur Trade and fishing, Louisbourg, Halifax and the Acadians being deported. The first fight between the English and the French was the fur trade. It started when the Hudson Bay Company was created. That’s when the British and French started competing with each other. The British fur trade and the French fur trade were both very different, the British waited for the native people to bring the furs to their forts around Hudson Bay, while the French would get instructions from the native people and go farther inland to try and find more fur territory. Another problem French and the English had with each other was Louisbourg. It started when France lost Acadia and Newfoundland because of the treaty of Utrecht. Newfoundland was a big fishing source for the French and when they lost it they only had île St. Jean, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and île Royale, and that eventually ended up not being enough for the French, so they selected an island they named Louisbourg to be their new fishing station. Although Louisbourg was meant to be a fishing station it became much more. The French needed a military and naval base so they decided to make it on Louisbourg, which maybe wasn’t such a good idea because the base was poorly constructed, and was in a vulnerable spot surrounded by hills where enemies could attack. Although it was poorly made the British saw it as a threat so they created the fort of Halifax. Speaking of Halifax that was another reason the French and British didn’t get along. The Halifax base was a really strong base unlike Louisbourg. The Halifax base was a fortress built on a harbor that was a surrounded by five stockades rather than stone. The last reason why the French and British didn’t like each other was because of Acadia. The British were concerned about the number of French there was in Acadia. That’s when the Acadians had to take an oath of allegiance to the British otherwise they would have been deported. No Acadians agreed to take the oath and in 1755 the British began deporting them to Louisiana.

 

 

Seven Years War/ French and Indian Wars

One thing I remember the most, mostly because I was older, and because it was one of the biggest, and last, events that happened when all this was happening was the Seven Years War and the French and Indian Wars. It all started with the siege of Louisbourg. The British wanted to gain control of the entrance to the St. Lawrence River, but in order to do that they needed to capture Louisbourg because they wanted to travel down the river to attach Quebec. The attack on Louisbourg surprised the French and the battle only lasted 60 days. The French eventually surrendered and Louisbourg had been almost completely destroyed by the British. The next event that happened was the capture of the Ohio Valley. The French had a lot of fur forts in Ohio Valley, and before the fall of Louisbourg the French had successfully defended the Ohio valley, but because of the fall of Louisbourg it changed quickly. In August, Fort Frontenac a French fort in the Ohio Valley, was captured by the British, and later in November Fort Duquesne was captured too. Now the British were free to travel up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec. The next, and one of the biggest battles that happened was the Battle on the Plains of Abraham. The Leader of the French forces in Quebec, names Montcalm took his men and went to meet with the British on the Plains of Abraham, and the French had a disadvantage because they weren’t used to fighting on the open fields. They attempted to charge on the British but it didn’t work because they were too far away, and once the British were closer to the French they fired and the French retreated and in less than an hour the fight was over, and both the French leader, Montcalm, and the British leader, Wolfe, both died from injuries, but Quebec had finally been taken by the British. After the Battle of Abraham was over the French army returned to Montreal and in the spring of 1760 the French tried to stop the British from taking Quebec, and were able to force the British to hide behind the town walls. The struggle for Quebec was now depended on whether the ship that was send to Quebec in the spring had French or British on it. The ship had British in it and the French retreated to Montreal but the British attacked Montreal and the French governor eventually surrendered and British control in North America was finally achieved. After that it was the British Military Rule when although the Seven Years’ War ended in North America it still continued in Europe, and until the whole war ended in Europe and North America the Canadiens were hoping that New France would be returned to France. During this time the British army in New France set up a temporary government called the British Military Rule. The British Military governors were appointed to Quebec, Montreal, and Trois Rivières. The supreme authority was controlled by the British commander-in-chief, General Amherst who was in New York. The British Military Rulers didn’t want to cause any more disruption in New France and didn’t really make any big changes in the colony during the time. Finally, there was an end to all that had and what was happening when the Treaty of Paris was created. In 1763, the war had finally ended and the Treaty was signed. In the Treaty it stated that France had surrendered all of its possessions in New France and Acadia to Britain, and that they got to keep two small islands, St. Pierre, and Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland.

 

 

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