history of Quebec City

The history of Quebec City extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants being the First Nations peoples of the region. The arrival of French explorers in the 16th century eventually led to the establishment of Quebec City, in present-day Quebec, Canada. The city is one of the oldest European settlements in North America, with the establishment of a permanent trading post in 1608. French rule French explorer Jacques Cartier was the first European to ascend the St. Lawrence Gulf, claiming "Canada" for France (and the coming addition of a newly founded "Acadie" – known today as the Province of Nova Scotia) to create a dominion known as New France. Cartier and his crew first visited in the 1535 an Iroquois settlement of 500 persons called Stadacona, in a site located in present-day Quebec City. He came back in 1541 with some 400 persons to establish Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, the earliest known French settlement in North America (whose site is located in the former town of Cap-Rouge, which merged into Quebec City in 2002). The fort was abandoned a year later in large part due to the hostility of the natives combined with the harsh winter. After 1543 there were still fur trading activities in the area but it was only 60 years later, on 3 July 1608, that Quebec City (intended as a permanent trading post) was established, on the top and on the foot of Cape Diamant by Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua de Mons. By the time Champlain came to this site, the Iroquois population had disappeared and been replaced by Innu and Algonquins. Champlain and his crew built a wooden fort which they called "l'habitation" within only a few days of their arrival.