Earlier in July we spent two days in Montreal, which was a great little vacation in another world only 2.5 hours from our house. I thought I’d do a quick overview of Montreal’s early history based on one of our school books, The Story of Canada by George W. Brown, Eleanor Harman, and Marsh Jeanneret, which was first published in 1950.

1535 – On Jacques Cartier’s second voyage up the St. Lawrence he reached the Indian village of Hochelaga and climbed the mountain, which he named Mont Real (Mount Royal). From there he saw the rapids and determined that he could go no further up the river.

1641 – Jesuits formed the Society of Our Lady of Montreal and the Sieur de Maisonneuve was chosen leader of the new mission. On the island of Montreal they built a settlement called Ville-Marie, which Maisonneuve governed for twenty-two years.

1660 – The Iroquois decided to attack New France (Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec) but were thwarted by a young man named Daulac who came out to fight above Montreal. Even though Daulac and his followers were all killed, their fierce fighting dissuaded the Iroquois from their plan.

1760 – Montreal surrendered to the British and New France was no more. (The Seven Years’ War officially ended with the Treaty of Paris three years later.)

1775 – An army from the Thirteen Colonies marched on Montreal and the British Governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, narrowly escaped. The Americans then besieged Quebec until the following spring when a British fleet appeared on the river. Thus ended the American attempt to capture the “fourteenth colony.”

1779 – The Royal Engineers began building canals near Montreal so small vessels could pass upstream.

1784 – A group of successful fur traders based in Montreal joined together to form the North West Company, which became the biggest rival of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

1809 – The paddle-steamer Accommodation was put into service between Montreal and Quebec.

1837 – Louis-Joseph Papineau led a rebellion against the government in Lower Canada (now the province of Quebec).

1841 – Upper Canada and Lower Canada were united under one government with the capital in Kingston (halfway between Toronto and Montreal), but within three years the capital moved to Montreal.

1849 – Rioting broke out in Montreal over the Rebellion Losses Bill and the parliament building was burned. (Parliament then met in either Toronto or Quebec until Ottawa became the seat of government in 1858.)

As you can see, there is much more to say about the history of Montreal and maybe I will get to some of it. For now this overview is a good refresher on a piece of Canadian history!