History

It is not possible to understand the current political situation of Québec and the reasons for the existence of its strong independence movement without a solid knowledge of its history. Many English language resources you will find on the Internet (type "Canada" or "Canadian" and "History" in Google) present a very superficial overview of Canadian history as it is understood and promoted by Canadian nationalists and unionists who defend the point of view of Ottawa, even when it is morally wrong or supported by logically flawed arguments and/or factually incorrect assertions.

In the view of this minority of interested individuals and their paid or fooled followers, is implied the notion that "modern" Canada was born with the "confederal" regime of 1867. The most important events of the history of Québec (and therefore also Canada) which occurred before 1867 are sketched out in a manner that pays no respect to the facts which make it possible to understand the nature of the conflict between Québec and the federal state and also completely misrepresents the thesises defended by both the advocates of constitutional reforms and the advocate of secession. Québec, it is said, is only a province like the others, and it is therefore wrong to suggest the idea and even worst to ask for a special arrangement between Québec and the federal state. The equality of provinces is therefore placed above and made in opposition to the equality of nations. In simple terms, their view is the history written by the victor.

Below is a list of on line English language resources that present elements of the history of Québec in a manner which does not completely make abstraction of, obfuscate, or misrepresent certain facts which the adversaries of the Québec nationalists simply ignore or choose to ignore because of they are incompatible with their political preference.

We do not claim these external resources to be free of inaccuracies, errors or partisan opinions. With this page, we only wish to point out some external resources on the history of Québec which are not completely biased in favour of the thesises defended by the federal government and political parties waging war to Québec's nationalists, both the secessionists and the reformists.

Visitors to this site are expected to exercise judgement in order to figure out what is true and what is false and what is a fact and what is a point of view.

History of Québec

General

• 1524-2006: From New France to Modern Québec, by Patrick Couture, in Chez Cousture's Website
• Quebec History, by Claude Bélanger, history professor at Marianopolis College in Montreal
• The History of Quebec and Canada 414 course, what Quebecers learn of the history of Quebec and Canada at age 16
• Timeline of Québec history at Wikipedia.org

French rule (1534-1760)

• New France: 1524-1763, by Patrick Couture, in Chez Cousture's Website
• Virtual Museum of New France, in Canadian Museum of Civilization
• The Jesuit Relations and the history of New France, in Library and Archives Canada
• Our Huguenots Ancestors, by Michel Barbeau, in La page de généalogie de Michel Barbeau
• The Basques in New-France, by Mario Mimeault, Center for Basques Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, Issue 49, 1994b
• A Soldier's Account of the Campaign on Quebec, 1759, by Robert Henderson, The Seven Years War Website

British rule (1760-1931)

• Royal Proclamation (1763), by Claude Bélanger
• Lower Canada and the British Regime, by Patrick Couture
• Quebec Act, by Claude Bélanger
• Constitutional Act, by Claude Bélanger
• Notes of Alexis de Tocqueville in Lower Canada
• The 1837 Rebellions on EduNET
• Civil War in Lower Canada, Intermountain History Group
• Documents on the Proposed Union of Upper and Lower Canada (1822), by Claude Bélanger
• Report on the Affairs of British North America

Federal Dominion (1867 - 1931)

• Province of Québec, by Patrick Couture
• Québec and the Confederation Project, by Claude Bélanger
• Québec and Federal Elections
• Confederation Debates and Provincial Autonomy
• How Others Have Viewed French Canadians and Quebec

Federal Dominion rule (1931 - Now)

This history of modern Québec is still being written right now. As one can imagine, much remains to be studied and analyzed.

• History of Modern Québec, by Patrick Couture
• The Quiet Revolution, by Claude Bélanger
• Jean Lesage and the Quiet Revolution (1960-1966), Claude Bélanger
• Chronology of the October Crisis, 1970, and its Aftermath, by Claude Bélanger
• Documents on the October Crisis
• The Language Laws of Québec
• Read the section dedicated to Québec studies

Diaspora

Franco-American

• Franco-American History Resources, Marianopolis College
• Revéil - Waking Up French, The Repression and Renaissance of the French in New England, a documentary film by Ben Levine

Amerindian & Inuit

• Read the section dedicated to the 11 first nations of Québec

Black community

• Some Missing Pages: The Black community in the history of Québec and Canada

Immigration

Irish immigration

• The Irish in Quebec
• The Irish in Canada
• Personal Genealogy Site of Janice L. Copeman from Shannon, Québec

Scottish immigration

• Hebridean Scots of the Province of Quebec

Historical figures

• Read the section dedicated to historical figures

Quebec French

Quebec French is a variety of the French language that came to be distinct from the French of France in essentially the same way in which the English of America came to be distinct from the English of England.

• History of the French language in Québec
• Quebec French (Wikipedia)

Political institutions

From the web site of the Directeur des élections du Québec (Chief electoral officer of Québec):

• A short history of the institution'
• Right to vote of Québec women
• History of the electoral map of Québec
• Permanent list of electors

Warning : the word "democracy" is used liberally to refer to the elective institutions of Québec in general.

Legal institutions

• http://www.hst.ulaval.ca/Profs/Dfyson/Legis.htm

Independence movements in History

• Read the section dedicated to other independence movements

History of the Acadians

• Acadian History Resources
• History of the Acadians
• Acadian History
• The Acadian Odyssey

History of the Métis

• The Métis National Council
• History of the Métis People
• The Other Métis
• Métis History (no sources)
• Native Languages of the Americas: Michif
• The Metis Nation

History of imperialism

• History of Imperialism (World Wide)
• European Imperialism and Regional Responses
• CasaHistoria: Imperialism
• Questia Library: Colonialism
• Questia Library: Imperialism
• Questia Library: British Imperialism
• Questia Library: Colonial America
• Anti-Imperialism in the United States
• U.S. Interventionism: Some Notes
• An Online History of the United-States: The Age of Imperialism

Genealogy

• Exhaustive list of Genealogy Links
• American-French Genealogical Society
• Genealogy of New France in North America

Straight from the Archives

• Documents relating to the constitutional history of Canada, 1759-1791, selected and edited with notes by Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty, Ottawa, 1918.
• Private diary of Gen. Haldimand, by Frederick Haldimand (bilingual)
• The historical and miscellaneous literature of Quebec, 1764 to 1830, by Benjamin Sulte, Ottawa, 1897
• A Biographical sketch of the Hon. Louis Joseph Papineau : speaker of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 1838
• Tuttle's popular history of the Dominion of Canada : with art illustrations from the earliest settlement of the British-American colonies to the present time, together with portrait engravings and biographical sketches of the most distinguished men of the nation, by Charles Richard Tuttle, Montreal, Downie, 1877.

Journals of the Parliament of Lower Canada

• Journal of the House of Assembly, Lower-Canada (1793-1837)
• Journals of the Legislative Council of the province of Lower Canada (1802-1837)
• Journals of the Special Council of the province of Lower Canada (1838-1841)

See also

In this site

• Compare with the History written by the victor
• French language historical resources
• See a list of books on the History of Québec