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Quebec City in the Province of Quebec, Canada
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Quebec City (French: Ville de Québec, or simply Québec) is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec, making it the seat of the
provincial Crown. It is the second largest city in the province, after Montreal. Quebec City's Old Town (Vieux-Québec) is the only
North American fortified city north of Mexico whose walls still exist, and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as
the "Historic District of Old Quebec". It is also one of the oldest cities in North America (founded in 1608). The city has a population
of 528,595, and the metropolitan area has a population of 717,600 (2005).
Quebec City is internationally known for its Summer Festival, Winter Carnival and the Château Frontenac, a historic hotel which dominates
the city skyline. The chief of Parliament, the National Assembly of Quebec (provincial parliament), the Musée national des beaux-arts
du Québec (National Museum of Fine Arts) and the Musée de la civilisation (Museum of Civilization) are found within or near Vieux-Québec.
Among the tourist attractions near the city are Montmorency Falls and the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in the town of
Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
Quebec Tourism Guide
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Quebec Tourism Guide
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HISTORY
Etymology
The narrow width of the river as it enters the towns of Quebec and Lévis, on the opposite bank, provided the name given to the city,
Kébec being the Algonquin word meaning "where the river narrows".
Early history: from Stadacona to Seven Years War
Quebec City is one of the oldest European settlements in North America. While many of the major cities in Mexico date from the sixteenth
century, among cities in the U.S. and Canada only St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Port Royal, Nova Scotia, St. Augustine, Florida,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Tadoussac, Quebec were created earlier than Quebec. However Quebec City is the first to have been founded with
the goal of receiving permanent settlement, and not as a commercial outpost, and therefore is considered to be the first European-built
city in non-Spanish North America. Québec was founded by Samuel de Champlain on 3 July 1608 at the site of a long abandoned St. Lawrence
Iroquoian settlement called Stadacona. It was to this settlement that the name "Canada" refers. Although called the cradle of the
Francophone population in North America, the Acadian settlement at Port-Royal antedates it. The place seemed favourable to the
establishment of a permanent colony.
Before Champlain, French explorer Jacques Cartier built a fort at the site in 1535, where he stayed for the winter before going back to
France in spring 1536. He came back in 1541 with the goal of building a permanent settlement. This first settlement was abandoned less
than one year after its foundation, in the summer 1542, due in large part to the hostility of the natives combined with the harsh living
conditions during winter.
At the end of French rule in 1763, the territory of present-day Quebec City was a world of contrasts. Forests, villages, fields and
pastures surrounded the town of 8 000 inhabitants. The town distinguished itself by its monumental architecture, fortifications, muddy
and filthy streets, affluent homes of masonry and shacks in the suburbs St-Jean and St-Roch. Despite its urbanity and its status as capital,
Quebec City remained a small colonial city with close ties to its rural surroundings. Nearby inhabitants traded their farm surpluses and
firewood for imported goods from France at the two city markets.
Quebec City was captured by the British in 1759 and held until 1763. It was the site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham during the
Seven Years' War, in which British troops under General James Wolfe defeated the French general Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and took the
city. France later ceded New France to Britain.
British rule
During the American Revolution, revolutionary troops from the southern colonies assaulted the British garrison in an attempt to 'liberate'
Quebec City now known as the Battle of Quebec. The defeat of the revolutionaries from the south put an end to the hopes that the peoples
of Quebec would rise and join the Revolution. Major General Isaac Brock fortified Quebec City by strengthening the walls and building an
elevated artillery battery before the War of 1812.
In 1840, after the Province of Canada was formed, the capital was shared between Kingston, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec City
(from 1852 to 1856 and from 1859 to 1866). In 1867, Ottawa (which was chosen to be the permanent capital of the Province of Canada)
was chosen to be the capital of the Dominion of Canada. The Quebec Conference on Canadian Confederation was held here.
20th and 21st centuries
In World War II, two conferences were held in Quebec City. The first one was held in 1943 with Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(the United States' president), Winston Churchill (the United Kingdom's prime minister), William Lyon Mackenzie King
(Canada's prime minister) and T.V. Soong (China's minister of foreign affairs). The second one was held in 1944, and was attended by
Churchill and Roosevelt. They took place in the buildings of the Citadelle and of nearby Château Frontenac. A large part of the D-Day
Landings plans were made during those meetings.
Capital
Throughout its nearly four hundred years of existence, Quebec City has served as a capital:
- from 1608 to 1627 and 1632 to 1763, it was capital of French Canada and all of New France,
- from 1763 to 1791, it was the capital of the Province of Quebec,
- from 1791 to 1841, it was the capital of the Province of Lower Canada,
- from 1852 to 1856 and from 1859 to 1866, it was capital of the Province of Canada,
- from 1867 to today, it has been capital of the Province of Quebec.
It is also the principal city of the Agglomeration of Quebec City, the Greater Quebec City Area, the administrative region of
Capitale-Nationale, and the Quebec City Area.
Nomenclature in Canada's official languages
The proper name of the city is Québec (with an acute accent), in both official languages of Canada (English and French). This name is
used by both the federal and provincial governments. The acute accent differentiates between the official English name of the city,
Québec, and the constitutional English name of the province, Quebec.
In unofficial English texts, it is not uncommon for the accent to be dropped and for Québec to be informally referred to as "Quebec City".
In French, names of geographical regions such as provinces and countries are typically preceded by articles whereas city names are not
(unless it is part of the name, such as "La Malbaie"). As a result, the province is called le Québec ("in Quebec" = au Québec,
"from Quebec" = du Québec) while the city remains simply Québec ("in Québec City" = à Québec, "from Québec City" = de Québec). Where
context requires further differentiation, words such as "la ville de Québec" and "la province de Québec" can be used (taking care not
to capitalize the word "ville").
The name of the municipal corporate body instituted to govern Québec is Ville de Québec, in both English and French. This naming
convention applies to all municipal corporations in the province (e.g. Ville de Montréal is the corporate body governing Montréal, etc.)
Thus, where "Ville de ..." is capitalized, it means the corporate body and it is not part of the toponym (Montréal, Québec). In the
English section of Ville de Québec's official website, the city is variously referred to as "Québec" and "Québec City" (with an accent)
whereas the corporate body is referred to as "City of Québec".
Residents of Québec are called, in French, Québécois (male) or Québécoise (female). To avoid confusion with Québécois/e meaning an
inhabitant of the province, the term Québécois/e de Québec for residents of the city is sometimes used. In English, the terms Quebecer
(or Quebecker) and Québécois/e are common.
Also, Quebec City is sometimes referred to as "la capitale nationale" ("the national capital"). The government officially named it this
way under the Union Nationale party. The provincial administrative region where the city is situated bears the name Capitale-Nationale
(capitalized). The word national is the adjective for the noun nation used in its normal basic sense and refers to Quebec as a nation
within the country of Canada, and has no indication of sovereignty.
Geography and climate
Quebec City is located in the Saint Lawrence River valley, on the north bank of the Saint Lawrence River near its meeting with the
St. Charles River. The region is low-lying and flat. The river valley has rich, arable soil, which makes this region the most fertile
in the province. The Laurentian Mountains lie to the north of the city.
Upper Town lies on the top of Cap-Diamant (Cape Diamond) promontory. A high stone wall surrounds this portion of the city. The Plains
of Abraham are located near the edge of the promontory. Lower Town is located at shore level, below Cap-Diamant.
Climate
Quebec City has a humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dfb) characterized by cold and snowy winters, warm and rather
humid summers, and ample precipitation throughout the year. Quebec City is one of the snowiest cities in Canada and is almost guaranteed
a white Christmas. The prolonged winter season and ample snowfall led to the idea of establishing the Quebec Winter Carnival. The
transitional seasons, spring and autumn, are rather short, although autumn produces spectacular foliage colors. The summer is the sunniest,
and paradoxically, the wettest time of year.
Demographics
According to the last (May 2000) census, there were 682,757 people residing in Quebec City, of whom 48.2% were male and 51.8% were female.
Children under five accounted for approximately 4.7% of the resident population of Quebec City. This compares with 5.2% in the province of
Quebec, and 5.6% for Canada overall.
While Montreal is considered by many to be a bilingual city, with many of its residents having a working knowledge of both French and
English, Quebec City and its surrounding region is largely Francophone. The large majority of city residents are native French-speakers.
In mid-2001, 13.0% of the resident population in Quebec City was of retirement age (65 and over for males and females) compared with 13.2%
in Canada. The average age is 39.5 years of age compared to 37.6 years of age for Canada as a whole.
In the five years between 1996 and 2001, the population of Quebec City grew by 1.6%, compared with an increase of 1.4% for the province of
Quebec as a whole. Population density of Quebec City averaged 216.4 people per square kilometre, compared with an average of 5.3, for the
province of Quebec as a whole.
At the time of that May 2001 census, the population of the Quebec City authority was 682,757, but was 710,700 when encompassing the
Greater Quebec City Area, compared with a resident population in the province of Quebec of 7,237,479 people.
According to the 2001 census, over 90% of the population was Roman Catholic, along with small Jewish and Protestant populations.
Source: Wikipedia
Quebec Tourism Guide
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