Montreal History

Pre 20th Century

Montreal's past is a prominent and colourful chapter in the history of Canada. It accounts for a lot of the politics of Canada today. Before the French came to Quebec, the Algonquin, Huron and Iroquois shared the area, not always peacefully. Jacques Cartier was the first European to set foot on the island of Montreal, but it wasn't until 1642 that a permanent European settlement was established and 'the mountain' was named Mont Royal, from which the city probably took its name. It soon became a major fur-trading post, a business the Iroquois wanted for themselves, and attacks on the colony occurred regularly until 1701 when a peace treaty was signed. With a burgeoning fur trade, Montreal became an exploration base and the commercial hub of France's North American empire, Nouvelle France. Many of the buildings from the period can still be seen in Old Montreal today.

However, trouble bubbled away. First the protracted French and Indian war (1754-63) marked the turning point in French influence throughout north America. This paved the way for the British to take Quebec City in 1759 and before long Montreal also fell. In 1763, Canada officially became a British colony and settlers began to pour in. However, the anti-British rebellious American colonies also had designs on the territory and took Montreal. But without French-Canadian support, they were soon forced to beat a hasty retreat from both Quebec City and Montreal.

Modern

Despite the decline of Montreal as a fur-trading player, the city continued to grow and prosper as expanding shipping and rail lines turned the city into Canada's commercial and cultural centre. Much of its diversity came from central- and eastern-European immigrants looking for work, and ethnic districts continued to expand into the 20th century; there was a particularly large influx of Jewish Europeans. This trend continued after both world wars, when immigrants flowed into the city, which had developed a reputation as something of a Gomorrah, due partially to Prohibition in the USA. Despite its seedy underbelly, a middle class began to emerge as Montreal fashioned itself into a manufacturing centre.

By the early 1950s a new mayor, Jean Drapeau, was drawing up plans that would change the face of the city. Labelled a megalomaniac by critics, Drapeau nonetheless succeeded in cleaning up the city, encouraging redevelopment and enhancing Montreal's international reputation with both the World's Fair in 1967 (which pulled in over 50 million visitors) and the Olympic Games in 1976. Apart from a five-year period in the early 60s, Drapeau remained a popular mayor until the mid-80s. Nonetheless, during this time Toronto had well surpassed Montreal as Canada's economic capital. This was in no small part due to the uncertainties stirred up by a growing Quebec separatist movement that became a dominant political cause in the 1960s. This launched the 'Quiet Revolution' that eventually gave French Quebecers more sway in industry and politics and saw the supremacy of the French language in the province.

The down side of the movement was the relocation of foreign investors to less turbulent waters. This hurt Montreal greatly, exacerbating the deep recession of the early 1990s, during which poverty was a major problem. The issue of separatism, however, failed to diminish, with referendums and the rise to political power of the separatist-leaning Parti Quebecois (PQ). Montreal's residents voted firmly to stay with Canada, although the issue is no less passionate or complex today. On the back of growing high-tech industries Montreal managed to emerge from economic hardship, and modernisation of the city took off again throughout the 1990s as the riverfront and Vieux Port area were redeveloped and enhanced.

Recent

Downtown has undergone a transformation into an alluring blend of European and North American forms, accompanied by plenty of debate on future modernisation and preservation projects. Despite the robust conjecture, the Montreal of today is altogether a more cheerful and prosperous place as the developments bring economic revival to an already culturally rich and complex city.