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COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group, COPYRIGHT 2005 Thomson Gale, a part of The Thomson Corporation
FRENCH-CANADIAN AMERICANS
OVERVIEW
Canada, with an area encompassing just over six million square miles, is the largest country in the world. This American neighbor to the north is bordered on the other three sides by oceans: the Pacific to the west, the Atlantic to the east, and the Arctic to the north. At 5,525 miles, its border with the United States is the longest undefended border in the world.
More than half of the 26.9 million people in Canada are concentrated in the corridor between Windsor, Ontario, and Québec City, Québec. Much of the remaining population lives in the southern areas of each of the nation's ten provinces and two territories. The country's largest cities are Toronto, with 3.8 million residents, Montréal with 3.1 million, and Vancouver with 1.6 million. Although there are French Canadians in each of the provinces, by far the greatest number can be found in the province of Québec. In 1991, 81 percent of the population of Québec cited French as their "mother tongue" (the first language spoken as a child and still understood), compared to about nine percent for English. The next-highest concentration of French-speaking Canadians is in New Brunswick (33 percent). All of the remaining provinces reported figures of less than five percent, ranging from 0.4 to 4.6 percent. Overall, 6.5 million Canadians, or 24 percent of the population in 1991, reported French as their "mother tongue."English-speaking Canadians numbered 16.5 million, or almost 61 percent of the total population.
There is also a strong and growing trend of bilingualism in Canada. According to the 1986 census, 16 percent of the population spoke both English and French, again with the province of Québec leading the way. In Québec almost 60 percent of anglophones, more than 30 percent of francophones, and close to half of those whose mother tongue is neither English nor French were bilingual. For comparison, outside Québec only about five percent of anglophones and 80 percent of francophones were bilingual.
Québec was by far the leading point of departure for French-Canadian immigration to the United States, although there were those who travelled south from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Ontario. Québec is the largest province, making up almost 16 percent of Canada's total area and over one-fourth of its population. The provincial motto is Je me souviens (I remember), and the flower is the fleur-de-lis. Both motto and flower are featured prominently on the provincial coat of arms.
HISTORY
The man who is credited with discovering the Canadian mainland was French explorer Jacques Cartier (1491-1557). He was seeking gold and riches via the famed Northwest Passage to the East, but reached Newfoundland instead in May 1534. He made another journey to Canada in 1535 and, unlike earlier explorers, continued west along the St. Lawrence River as far as modern-day Québec City, and then pressed on even farther to the future site of Montréal. This first foray into the interior was difficult—particularly because of the harsh winter conditions in Québec City and the rampant scurvy that killed many men. The remainder were said to be saved by a native tea made from the bark of the white spruce tree.
Cartier's third voyage to Canada was a failure in terms of establishing a settlement. Permanent settlement would have to wait until the fur trade gave reason to send more than the occasional fishing vessel. Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) finally established the first trading post on the site of Québec City in 1608. Champlain, too, had sought the Northwest Passage, but he soon realized that beaver pelts would be responsible for the survival of any settlements. He set up a system of company monopolies to systematically hunt and sell pelts and, in exchange for 300 settlers coming to the new land annually, to serve as the area's government from 1627 until 1642.
Unfortunately, Champlain's early settlement was attacked by English and Iroquois Confederacy rivals. The Catholic church, an integral part of French settlement, also suffered during the mid-seventeenth century at the hands of those opposed to French colonization. Groups such as the Jesuit missionaries, who were sent to convert the natives, were often attacked, and many missionaries and their followers were tortured and killed.
In addition to founding Québec, Champlain ventured into northern New York (he discovered the lake named for him in 1609), and explored the Atlantic coast as far as Massachusetts, including many of the larger rivers in Maine. However, Champlain's efforts to establish a successful French colony were thwarted by weather, battles with the English and certain native groups, and limited support from France. He died in Québec in 1635, at the age of 68.
NEW FRANCE
For all of the hardships, the King of France, Louis XIV, did not give up. In 1665 he sent two ships to Québec containing the first regular troops to be sent to Canada, in addition to Alexandre de Prouville, the Marquis de Tracy (1596-1670), who was made lieutenant-general for all French possessions in North America. The government changed from Champlain's company monopolies to a Sovereign Council composed of the governor of New France, a bishop, and an intendant—the latter being the chief representative of royal power in a French colony. France shipped boatloads of demoiselles bien choisies (women of good health and upbringing), or filles du roi (king's girls), to raise the numbers and help settle New France. Jean Talon (1626-1694), the first intendant of New France, was instrumental in doubling the population between 1666 and 1678, to 7,605 settlers. He was joined in his efforts by the first bishop, François de Montmorency-Laval (1623-1708), who established a seminary that would become the University of Laval, and the governor of New France, Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac (1622-1698).
Talon also successfully implemented the seignorial system, in which feudal land tenures were granted to settlers free of charge in exchange for clearing the land and pledging loyalty to the King of France. The seigneur would, in turn, subdivide his acreage to tenants who paid a nominal rent, cleared, and farmed the land. These habitants were the first French Canadians. Soon the settlements had, at their center, a parish church and an established curé (priest) to meet their religious needs. Inaddition to the habitants, there were the coureurs de bois, traders who negotiated for furs with the Indians in the upper reaches of the Ottawa River and in the Great Lakes.
SETTLEMENTS OUTSIDE QUÉBEC
The French settled in other parts of North America as well. By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), France ceded Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Acadia to England. The French, however, retained control of present-day Cape Breton Island on the east coast of Nova Scotia where they built the fortress of Louisburg (1720-1740) to defend its remaining territory. In addition to Acadia, or the Maritime provinces of Canada, the French could be found in the coastal region of northern Maine. The first Acadian settlement was established in 1604 by Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts at St. Croix Island in the Bay of Fundy. In 1755, 6,500 Acadians were deported to the American colonies of the Atlantic Seaboard for having refused to take an oath to the king of England. Many of them would later find their way to Louisiana where they became known as Cajuns, a derivation of the word Acadian. Other early French towns in the United States included Detroit, Michigan, founded by Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac (1658-1730) in 1701. Cadillac also served as colonial governor of the Louisiana territory.
Finally, outside of Québec, the major concentration of French settlers was in what are now Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois. The Louisiana Territory was claimed for France in 1682 and named by explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle (1643-1687), after King Louis XIV. French forts along the Mississippi River spread northward from New Orleans. A pair of French Canadians founded and helped to colonize this southern French territory. Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville (1661-1706) established the city of Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1699, and Jean-Baptiste le Moyne de Bienville, established New Orleans in 1718. In 1803 the United States bought the land, which spread from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, from France for $15 million in the Louisiana Purchase.
There are many other place names in the United States that tell the tale of French influence and settlement. The state of Maine is said to have been named for the province of Mayne in France, and Vermont comes from the French words vert mont, which mean "green mountain." Duluth, Minnesota, is named for Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Du Lhut (1636-1710), who won the Lake Superior and upper Mississippi region for France. Likewise, Dubuque, Iowa, is named for Julien Dubuque (1762-1810), a pioneer settler of Iowa. Vestiges of the French connection remain in Minnesota's motto, L'Étoile du Nord (The star of the north).
WAR WITH THE ENGLISH
The English, French, and Spanish all wanted to claim North America for their own. After a series of smaller skirmishes, the French and Indian Wars of 1689-1763 (between the French and the English) finally led to the fall of the French colonies. These battles, offshoots of various European wars, culminating in the Seven Years' War, saw the French and native peoples aligned against the British and their American colonists. In 1745 English forces captured the fort at Louisburg. (It was returned to France in 1748.) The most renowned battle, however, took place on the Plains of Abraham in modern-day Québec City in 1759. By the time the assault was over, both the French General, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm (1712-1759), and the British commander, Brigadier General James Wolfe (1727-1759), lay dead on the battlefield. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763 and France ceded her Canadian and American territories east of the Mississippi to England, as well as much of French Louisiana to Spain as compensation for Florida, which Spain yielded to Great Britain. This temporarily ended immigration from France to the Canadian colonies—the French numbered around 60,000 in 1763. During the American Revolution, some French Canadians moved to the United States to escape British rule, while many American Loyalists (who were British sympathizers) were granted land in Québec and the Maritime Provinces.
In recognition of the differing interests of English and French Canadians, what are now the provinces of Ontario and Québec became Upper Canada and Lower Canada, respectively, in 1791. Lower Canada had its own legislature, and French Canadians were allowed to practice their Roman Catholic religion. Nevertheless, tensions culminated in a revolt in 1837, when Britain tried to unite the two Canadas. After the rebellion was quelled, the two halves were successfully joined in 1840. Many of the French rebels fled to the United States, particularly to New England. Finally, the Dominion of Canada was established in 1867....
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