1534-35

Jacques Cartier uses 2 ships to explore the St. Lawrence River. He raises a cross in the Gaspé on 24 July, claiming the land for France and King Francis I. Near Chaleur Bay he sees 40 canoes paddled by Micmac with pelts to trade. They display their wares on sticks but Cartier cautiously avoids them. The next day, a few Micmac return making signs to indicate their friendly intentions. Cartier sends 2 men to offer them knives, metal goods and a red hat for their chief.

300 Iroquois under Donnacona meet with Cartier at the intersection of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles Rivers and are given various trinkets. Donnaconna lets 2 of his sons join Cartier on his return to France. There they learn French and tell stories about he Kingdom of Saguenay, rich in gold and jewels.

1535-36

With 3 ships and Donnacona's sons, Cartier sails back to Stadacona (Quebec). The Iroquois refuse to accompany him upstream to Hochelaga (Montreal) so he and a handful of Frenchmen go alone. They climb Mont Royal where Cartier reads the Gospel to the locals. He then winters at Stadacona.

1541

The French King commissions Jean-Francois de La Rocque de Roberval to explore and colonize the St. Lawrence valley. He and Cartier sail to Hochelaga and spend the winter at Stadacona with the Iroquois in a climate of extreme mutual distrust. They establish the first French settlement in the Americas at Charlesbourg Royal and are excited to find gold but it turns out to be iron pyrite. The colony fails and the French abandon official attempts at colonization. However, fishermen continue to fish the Gulf and trade with the natives.

1543

French fisherman and merchants extend their reach into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and west to the Saguenay River.

1583

August 5: St. John’s Harbor - Sir Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland for Queen Elizabeth I

1584

March 26: Walter Raleigh granted a patent to exploit Virginia

1598

Mesgouez de La Roche is given a commercial monopoly for trade in North America and tries to create a colony on Sable Island off Nova Scotia. This fails

1600

Tadoussac founded, but does not become a permanent colony.

1603

Roche's monopoly is transferred to Aymar de Chaste who tries to establish a colony with the aim to capitalize on the fur trade and other resources. He sends out an expedition under Francois Pont-Gravé to survey the St. Lawrence. Champlain accompanies him as an observer. They follow Cartier's route to Montreal and discover that internecine war has forced the Iroquois from the area and that Montagnais and Algonquins have moved in.

1604

Aymar de Chaste, being dead, the monopoly on Quebec is given to Pierre Du Gua de Monts. Monts is a Huguenot (Protestant). Accompanied by Pont-Gravé and Champlain he searches for a place to site a new colony. The first choice is Acadia

1607

The Order of Good Cheer created in Port Royal Acadia to ward off boredom is disbanded.

1608

De Monts decides that Acadia is not where he will site his colony. He commissions Champlain to establish an habitation at Quebec.

July 3: Champlain lands at Quebec with 30 carpenters, stonemasons and artisans and builds a permanent fur-trading post at Place-Royale, thinking the spot allows him to control the St. Lawrence R. Not everyone wants him to succeed. Some of his men are bribed by Basques to kill him and steal his provisions. One of them, Antoine Natel informs and they are captured and tried. Their leader Jean Duval is hung and his head is piked.

Of the 28 men with him only 8 survive dysentry and scurvy that winter. He requests missionaries. Wishing to encourage an alliance with the Wendat, he agrees to join them in a raid against the Iroquois. He fires 2 shots during the skirmish and kills a chief, making a mortal enemy of the Six Nations.

1610

Champlain marries 12 year old Helène Boullé. Later she would visit Canada, living in Quebec for 4 years where she taught Indian children to read and write. They were especially fascinated by the mirror she hung from her sash.

1611

Jesuits arrive in Acadia

1613

Champlain begins explorations of the interior along with Etienne Brulé and Jean Nicolet.

The English expel the Jesuits from Acadia.

1615

Discovery of Lake Huron. Récollets begin mission work among the Huron.

Champlain explores Huronia and agrees to join them in an expeditionary war against the Iroquois. Surprised by French firearms, they initially defeat the Iroquois but are ultimately routed. Champlain and his new allies returned to Huronia and he overwinters at Cahiague.

1616

Jan: Champlain visites Le Caron in Carhagouha and from there visits several villages of the Tobacco Nation.
May: Champlain and Le Caron return to Quebec.

The Hugeunot traders in Quebec refuse to supply the Récollets and warn the Indians not to work with them.

1617

Récollet priest Pacifique Duplessis offers schooling to Indian children.

1618

Récollet priest J. Le Caron offers schooling to Montagnais children.

1624

Champlain decides to re-build Quebec in stone, using a U-shape, separated from the river by a palisade. There are less than 100 colonists in New France. Twenty live in Acadia and the rest are in Quebec and Tadoussac. Mutual protection treaties have been signed with the Montagnais, Algonquins and Hurons against the Iroquois.

1626

Jesuit Father Philibert Noyrot proposes to Cardinal Richelieu that missionary work in New France be organized and strengthened. The firs t4 Jesuits arrive in Huronia under Father Paul Le Jeune.

1627

The Superior of the Quebec mission, Father Lalemant decides that work cannot continue with the Huguenot in power. He lobbies Cardinal Richelieu, the powerful advisor to King Louis, to annul the traders' charter. Richelieu does so, forming his own company, the Company of New France, headed by himself and composed of 100 Associates who each contribue 3,000 livres and together receive a fief running from the North Pole to Florida. The rules are: it is to form a Catholic colony, no foreign Protestants are allowed; the Company will defray the costs of running a mission, the seigneurial land system will be inaugurated and baptized Indians are entitled to French naturalization. They have a 15 year charter and a formidible budget.

There are about 100 habitants in Quebec.

1628

An English fleet moves into the St. Lawrence and is able to remain there until 1632

The first fleet sent by the Company of 100 Associates to Quebec is captured by the English.

1629

The second fleet sent by the Company of 100 Associates to Quebec is captured by the English. The English Kirke brothers seize raid up and down the St. Lawrence and seize Quebec.

1630

The third fleet sent by the Company of 100 Associates to Quebec is lost. They have now lost over 30,000 livres in 3 years.

1632

French regain Quebec by Treaty but the English burn the town before they leave.

The Company of 100 Associates loses its monopoly which is given to the de Caen family

1633

The Company of 100 Associates regain their monopoly. Champlain is sent out as Lieutenant-Governor. Over the next 18 years, the French rebuild the town with a bakery, brasserie, and forge. The Jesuits return to Huronia. The population in Acada grows steadily

1634

Trois Rivieres founded. The Jesuits are there.

1635

Jesuits open a boys' school at Quebec for Indian and French children.

Dec 25: Death of Champlain

1636

M. Charles Huault de Montmagny, the first govenor of Quebec is sent out. He orders the building of the 1st two town streets, la rue des Roches and rue Notre-Dame.

Charles Amiot arrives in Canada. He is a merchant in Quebec in 1660.

1637

Lots are provided for various concessions, including one for the Jesuit fathers.

1638

Two Montagnais families agree to settle at Sillery, west of Quebec in homes built for them by the Jesuits. The experiment draws other natives to come take a look and a few more stay.

1639

Many religious orders beg to join the Jesuits. They accept the Hospitaliers' offer to operate the Hotel-Dieu Hospiltal and the Ursulines' to open a girls's school. In Trois-Rievieres the Jesuits build a house and chapel which serves as the parish church.

Aug 1: Arrival of Marie Gouyart, Marie de l'Incarnation, an Ursuline nun sent by God to teach children in New France. She was accompanied by Madeame de Chauvigny de la Peltrie and a handful of other nuns. They founded a convent and the first girls' school in New France. She learned native languages to improve her teaching and taught everything from reading to hygiene.

Also 3 nursing nuns from Dieppe for whom the Hotel-Dieu was built. A smallpox epidemic breaks out and so many patients die that Indians refuse to come to the house of death.

1640

A fire destroys the Jesuit church and residence. The Jesuits move into temporary residences.

1641

Place-Royale has 241 inhabitants. The 100 Associates take residence in the only stone building: Champlain’s. The natives around Tadoussac invite the Jesuits to visit. They refuse to come to Sillery and Father LeJeune has to admit that none of the natives actually stay year-round in the village. He decides to send fathers to native villages where they stay for a couple of weeks before moving to the next.

The Iroquois trade for guns and soon have enough for all their warriors.

1642

Montreal settled at Ville Marie by the Société Notre-Dame-de-Montreal devoted to trade and converting pagans to Catholicism. It succeeded with the former and failed with the latter. The Jesuits are there as well, celebrating mass in the fort.

The Ursulines add a boarding school to their convent.

1643

Louis XIV crowned King of France.

1644

1645

The 100 Associate's monopoly is transferred to the Compagnie des Habitants. Only permanent colonists could profit from the fur trade, and only as long as they sold their furs through the storehouse in Quebec. Their prosperity now wholly dependant on the fur trade the Company hurriedly acquired a fleet and established a trade network in Europe.

1646

The deterioration of relations with teh Five Nations led to outbreaks of war.

1647

Pierre Tourmente arrives in Quebec and soon after construction begins on the priest’s house and new church for the Jesuits, a brewery and oven in Sillery and the foundations for a new administrative building in Quebec City, followed by a church.

A new form of governemnt is set up with a Council under the Governor General. Commoners are not allowed to sit in Council. The Governor was also the only judge

1648

1649

Destruction of Ste. Marie

1650

Destruction of Huronia and with it, the French fur-trading network which must be re-created by direct contact with FIrst Nations in the interior. The role of the coureurs des bois escalates. The Iroquois dominate the land between Trois Rivieres, Sault Ste. Marie and the Mississippi.

Father Lalemant builds a Jesuit college across the street from his church. It becomes the school for all the town's elite.

1651

Iroquois attacks and famine lead to the desertion of Ste. Marie II
Quebec City has a dozen buildings: 2 residences, a forge, a brasserie, a bakery, the Jesuit store and 100 Habitants store.
The Jesuits add a boarding school to their school for boys.

A new system of justice is established.

1652

The Company is accumulating debts, so they begin leasing fur trade rights to merchants for cash, but on the whole they are in an economic hole that gets steadily deeper over the next generation.

1654

The Jesuits in Montreal begin celebrating mass at the Hotel Dieu chapel.

1655

Charles Boivin designs the Ursuline chapel

1657

Arrival of the Sulpicians.

1658

Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, open a school in Montreal. Due to a lack of facilities she teaches boys and girls together.

1659

Arrival of Msgr. Francois de Laval as vicar apostolic He will become the colony's first bishop. One of his goals was the recruitment of priests to minister to the French so that the Jesuits could devote themselves to the natives.

1660

Publication of Francois Gendron: Quelques particularites du pays des Hurons en la Nouvelle France. He was their surgeon. He notes the land : is pretty, with large fields cultivated and growing corn whose ears are almost as long as your arm, from whose large, well developed kernels the natives get an oil very sweet and excellent to season their food, not having butter. One sees, also, mountains and little hills covered with fruit trees of all sorts, very pleasant and tasty.

King's Minister Colbert decides the French should compete with the English in Newfoundland and sets up a colony at Placentia about 100 km from St.John'. There the natural harbour is deep, sheltered and defensible. They can accomodate many ships and because the bay is ice-free they can sail for Europe a month earlier than competitors. The English respond by stepping up colonization.

1663

The Compagnie des Habitants falters, the Compagnie des Cents Associés gives up its seigneury and Louis XIV, on the advice of Jan-Baptiste Colbert brings in sweeping reforms. Over the next 30 years they will step up colonization (3% nobiles, 8% bourgeois, 89% commoners, mostly Catholic). They come on 3-year contracts and many return when their contract expires. 80% are men, ususally under 24 and only 57% can sign their names.

Acadia has become largely English speaking although it retains a large French-speaking population. In all North America has around 90,000 Europeans of whom 3000 are French. 42% of the French were Canadina born and only 1 in 6 was a woman.

1664

Pierre Boucher publishes a book about Quebec.

1666

The Sulpicians take charge of the boys schooling in Montreal

1670

Creation of the Hudson's Bay Company to control the fur trade from the north and direct it to Britain.

1672

Death of Marie de l"incarnation

1676

There are 300 beggars in town. Quebec's Sovereign Council passes an ordinance forbidding begging without a licence. The penalty is corporal punishment. But life is hard. A drought, a frost, caterpillars, all can destroy a family's crops, leaving them destitute.

1682

LaSalle reaches the mouth of the Mississippi river

1685

Arrival of naval surgeon Michel Sarrazin. He collected and categorized Canadian plants and became surgeon-general to the colonial troops.

1686

French attack Hudson's Bay Co. trading posts along James Bay.

The Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame open a girls' school in Quebec. The Montreal boys school becomes independant and comes under the care of the Freeres Roullier.

1688

To combat the problem of begging a Board is established in every town and parish to evaluate each beggar and decide if they truly need assistance and to supply it using money collected by donation. Wastrels are to be turned away, forced to work or imprisoned. Foundlings and child beggars are contracted to families as workers for their keep. They are often abused and have a mortality rate 3 times that of other children.

A school is opened in Lower Town, Quebec

1689

A "bread police is established in Quebec to ensure that the price and weight of bread is maintained.

War in Europe.

1690

Henry Kelsey visits the plains

1692

Bishop de Saint-Vallier founds the Quebec General Hospital where the disabled and elderly receive care. They also set aside a ward for homeless women to prevent them turning to prostitution.

1694

A hospital is set up in Montreal for crippled and elderly men and orphaned boys.

1700

The Seminaire opens a boys' school in Upper Town, Quebec

1701

Permanent peace is established with the Iroquois.

1721

A musketeer lining up for the annual Corpus Christi parade in Montreal accidentally fires his gun toward the church. the roof catches fire, flames spread from one cedar roof to the next travelling up both sides of each street until 125 houses are burned to ashes. Intendant Bégon issues new building codes. Houses must be stone, roofed with clay or slate. When the shingles prove unavailable, he modifies the code to a double covering of boards.

1725

A boarding scholl for girls is set up at the General Hospital, Quebec.

1726

Fire spreads in Quebec City. Intendant Dupuy sets out new building regulations forbidding wooden houses, cedar shingles and mansard roofs. All homes must have cellars. Chimneys required firewalls that projected above the roof.

1727

Intendant Dupuy orders that no-one be allowed to teach unless approved by the bishop of Quebec or the archdeacon.

1731

La Vérendryes explores the area west of Lake Superior.

1737

There is a food shortage in Canada. People starve. Some eat the buds off the trees and potatoes which at that time were not considered fit for human consumption.

1738

Famine in Quebec

1739

1744

Famine in Quebec. Bishop de Pontbriand draws up a list of all the poor and distributes their care among the various religious communities. He himself donates 80 loaves of bread per week to feed the poor.

1749

Peter Kalm, the Swedish botanist visits New France and finds that opular drinks include coffee and chocolate, imported from teh Antilles whereas tea is a luxury no-one can afford. Salt was common while in Europe it was heavily taxed. Bread formed a large part of the diet and dairy products were scarce.

1751

Famine in Quebec
Over the next few years iron stoves begin to replace fireplaces for cooking.

1757

Montcalm tries to convince the habitants of Quebec to eat the 3000 surplus horses. Horse meat is a traditional part of French cuisine.

1759

Battle of Quebec