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Quebec City Information
Québec, carved into the bluffs overlooking the St. Lawrence River by the forces of time and history, is a complex city. Capital of the province, it is the only walled city north of Mexico. It can almost be divided by a line into the old and the new. Twentieth-century Québec, extending up the hill beyond the Parliament Buildings, is shut off from the winding streets and 17th-century buildings of Upper and Lower Town by aging walls. A European bastion, it also is a profoundly French city.
In 1608 Samuel de Champlain, realizing the strategic importance of the site--not only would the cliffs provide an impregnable fortress for a settlement, but they also would protect ships anchored in the deep waters of the St. Lawrence River--built an abitation, or trading post, by the river at the foot of Cap Diamant. The city of Québec was established.
A growing base for trade and exploration of the interior continent, Québec expanded in the only direction possible--up the cliff. Lower Town, or Basse-Ville, the city's mercantile district, was to be protected by Haute-Ville, the Upper Town, built on the cliff above it.
The French colony prospered in the 1600s, becoming the center of New France and enjoying a brisk trade with its mother country, which was at peace with rival England 1629-32. The tranquility ended in 1690 with a British attack on the city; it was the first of several to come.
Québec was successfully defended for 6 decades due to its natural defenses as well as the protective wall and fortifications built by Chassegros de Léry around Upper Town in 1720. In 1759, however, Québec fell to Britain.
The siege of the city culminated early on Sept. 13, when British general James Wolfe and his troops scaled sheer cliffs to reach the Plains of Abraham (known today as National Battlefield Park or Parc national des Champs-de-Bataille) above fortified Québec. They surprised and defeated the Marquis de Montcalm and his troops in about 20 minutes. With the peace treaty in 1763, France lost the province to Great Britain.
The French city became English, but in name only; in culture and tradition Québec remained French. Acceding to this fact, Britain passed the Québec Act in 1774, which allowed the French to worship in their native Roman Catholic Church rather than forcing them to attend the English Anglican Church.
A year later an American invasion challenged British troops to defend the city. The British were successful in defeating the attackers, whose New Year's Eve assault was spearheaded by generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold.
During the last of the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, Québec was a shipbuilding and wheat and lumber trading center. City walls and other defenses were refortified. By 1880 most English-speaking settlers had moved to Montréal, the United States or elsewhere, leaving Québec the predominantly French-speaking city it is today.
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