There are many things that Americans find confusing about Canada. After our beer and our incessantly annoying politeness, probably the thing they understand the least about us is Quebec. That's all right. Quebec is probably the thing we understand least about ourselves as well.
As a service to my American readership I offer this truncated version of the last 350 odd (and very odd some of them have been) years of the history of Quebec in Canada. Although this should by no means be seen as a definitive statement, hopefully it will give you a little more of a grasp on how the current situation came about.
The first thing to remember is that the French were the first settlers of the area that stretches from modern Quebec to as far West as the Mississippi River and down into the Ohio Valley. If they hadn't actually settled that territory, they had explored it and formed trading partnerships with the native nations living there. This, of course, started to bring them into conflict with the English who were establishing themselves along what is now the Eastern seaboard of the United States.
By the 1700's the conflict between the two nations came to a head in what's known as the French-Indian Wars. This is sort of confusing as it leaves out all mention of British involvement. The fight ended up being a conflict between the British colonists and their Native allies (the Iroquois confederacy) with the French and their Native allies, the Huron.
To this day I still hear Iroquois claim that the Huron pretty much ceased to exist as a nation after those wars. The Iroquois were finally able to obliterate their old enemy during this war with the help of the English.
Anyone who has read about any of that conflict will know it was brutal and nasty, especially during the wood land campaigns where the British learned the dangers of marching single file through the forest the hard way. But gradually their superior firepower and numbers began to tell, until all that was left was to invade Quebec City.
That turned out to be easier said then done. It wasn't until the forces of General Wolfe discovered a path from the St. Lawrence River leading up the cliffs to the Plains of Abraham outside the city that they were able to win the day. On September 13th 1759 the British army under the command of Wolfe defeated the army of New France under Louis Montcalm giving England control of the majority of North America.
In 1763, when a treaty was signed between France and England officially ceding the territory from the one nation to the other, the colony should have in theory become Protestant, English-speaking, and subject to British civil law. But showing unusual prescience regarding trouble in the colonies, the decision was taken by the British government to not tamper with the social and civil structures already in place.
Article comments
1 - professays
I would like to see independent Quebec. I am sure it will be a self-sufficient, successful state with original culture and way of life. Besides it will live up the regional policy as it is very much boring at present.
2 - Valery Dawe
It would sure be a itsy bitsy state as most of the real estate in the province belongs to the First Nations: the original cultures.
3 - Valery Dawe
I should also have mentioned that Harper's stroking of Quebec is just another ignorant redneck's attempt to further undermine aboriginal human rights.
4 - Bliffle
Quebec separatism is a mad scheme. People have to learn how to solve their problems with neighbors without erecting new borders and preparing armies. Separatism is failure and anarchy. And the nutty idea of a nation within a nation is a copout, a refusal to face reality and deal with real problems while announcing lofty ideals.
Oh, and the hyperlink on the BC frontpage is flawed: it calls out "hhttp:..." instead of "http:...". It has to be changed manually.