Editing Quebec City (section)

=== French regime (1500s–1763) ===
Quebec City is one of the oldest European settlements in [[North America]] and the only fortified city north of [[Mexico]] whose walls still exist.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CBC.CA – Seven Wonders of Canada – Your Nominations – Old Quebec City, Quebec |url=https://www.cbc.ca/sevenwonders/wonder_quebec_city.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401022236/https://www.cbc.ca/sevenwonders/wonder_quebec_city.html |archive-date=1 April 2019 |access-date=31 March 2019 |website=www.cbc.ca}}</ref> While many of the major cities in [[Latin America]] date from the 16th century, among cities in Canada and the United States, few were created earlier than Quebec City ([[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]], [[Harbour Grace]], [[Port-Royal (Acadia)|Port Royal]], [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]], [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], and [[Tadoussac]]).
[[File:Jacques Cartier rencontre les indiens de Stadacone, 1535.jpg|left|thumb|Depiction of [[Jacques Cartier]]'s meeting with the indigenous people of [[Stadacona]] in 1535]]

It is home to the earliest known French settlement in North America, [[Charlesbourg-Royal|Fort Charlesbourg-Royal]], established in 1541 by explorer [[Jacques Cartier]] with some 400 persons but abandoned less than a year later due to the harsh winter and resistance of indigenous inhabitants to colonial incursion on their land.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Charlesbourg Royal National Historic Site of Canada |url=https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=16661 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028235615/https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=16661 |archive-date=28 October 2021 |access-date=6 October 2018 |website=www.historicplaces.ca |publisher=Parks Canada |language=en}}</ref> The fort was at the mouth of the [[Rivière du Cap Rouge]], in the suburban former [[Cap-Rouge, Quebec City|town of Cap-Rouge]] (which merged into Quebec City in 2002).

Quebec was founded by [[Samuel de Champlain]], a French explorer and diplomat, on 3 July 1608,<ref name="WDL1">{{Cite web |title=View of Quebec, Capital of Canada |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/224 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028235552/https://www.wdl.org/en/item/224/nearest-items.json?limit=25 |archive-date=28 October 2021 |access-date=11 February 2013 |publisher=[[World Digital Library]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Moss |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_CJBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT334 |title=The Recent Archaeology of the Early Modern Period in Quebec City: 2009 |date=2 December 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351193337 |pages=334 |language=en |access-date=30 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028235557/https://books.google.com/books?id=_CJBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT334 |archive-date=28 October 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> and at the site of a long abandoned [[Laurentian language|St. Lawrence Iroquoian]] settlement called [[Stadacona]]. Champlain, who came to be called "The Father of [[New France]]", served as its administrator for the rest of his life.

The [[name of Canada|name "Canada"]] was given to the colony that developed around the settlement at Quebec. Although the [[Acadia]]n settlement at [[Port-Royal (Acadia)|Port-Royal]] was established three years earlier, Quebec came to be known as the cradle of North America's [[French language|Francophone]] population. The location seemed favourable to the establishment of a permanent colony.

[[File:Plaque des premiers colons de Quebec.jpg|thumb|left|Plaque honouring the first settlers of Québec City. (affixed to back of monument to {{ill|Guillaume Couillard (settler)|fr|Guillaume Couillard|lt=Guillaume Couillard}}, which accompanies those to [[Louis Hébert]] and [[Marie Rollet]]). [[Parc Montmorency]], [[Québec City]].]]

The population of the settlement remained small for decades. In 1629 it was [[surrender of Quebec|captured by English privateers]], led by [[David Kirke]], during the [[Anglo-French War (1627–1629)|Anglo-French War]].<ref name="kirkbio">[http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=368&PHPSESSID=5741tch9j1hgc3ki456h1e5uv7 "KIRKE, SIR DAVID, adventurer, trader, colonizer, leader of the expedition that captured Quebec in 1629, and later governor of Newfoundland"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200917104640/http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=368%2F |date=17 September 2020 }}, ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''</ref> Samuel de Champlain argued that the English seizing of French lands was illegal as the war had already ended, and worked to have them returned to France. As part of the ongoing negotiations following the end of the Anglo-French War, in 1632 the English king [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] agreed to return captured lands in exchange for [[Louis XIII of France|Louis XIII]] paying his wife's [[dowry]].<ref name=kirkbio /> These terms were signed into law with the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1632)|Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye]]. The colonies of [[Canada (New France)|Canada]] and [[Acadia]] were returned to the French [[Company of One Hundred Associates]].<ref name=kirkbio />

In 1665, there were 550 people in 70 houses living in the city. One-quarter of the people were members of religious orders: secular priests, Jesuits, Ursulines nuns and the order running the local hospital, Hôtel-Dieu.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morison |first=Samuel Eliot |title=The Oxford history of the American people. |publisher=Mentor |year=1972 |isbn=0-451-62600-1 |location=New York |pages=150 |oclc=7384608}}</ref>

Quebec was the headquarters of many raids against [[New England]] during the [[French and Indian Wars]]. In 1690 the city [[battle of Quebec (1690)|was attacked by the English]], but was successfully defended. In the last of the conflicts, the [[French and Indian War]] ([[Seven Years' War]]), Quebec was captured by the British in 1759, and held until the end of the war in 1763. In that time many battles and sieges took place: the [[Battle of Beauport]], a French victory (31 July 1759); the [[Battle of the Plains of Abraham]], in which British troops under General [[James Wolfe]] defeated the French General [[Louis-Joseph de Montcalm]] on 13 September 1759, and shortly thereafter took the city after a short siege. A French counterattack saw a French victory at the [[Battle of Sainte-Foy]] (28 April 1760) but the subsequent second [[Siege of Quebec (1760)|Siege of Quebec]] the following month however saw a final British victory.[[File:PlainsOfAbraham2007.jpg|thumb|left|After a campaign of three months British forces captured Quebec City after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.]]

France ceded [[New France]], including the city, to Britain in 1763,<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 October 1763 |title=George R, Proclamation, 7 October 1763 (Royal Proclamation) |url=https://primarydocuments.ca/royal-proclamation-1763/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401032305/https://primarydocuments.ca/royal-proclamation-1763/ |archive-date=1 April 2019 |access-date=31 March 2019 |website=PrimaryDocuments.ca |language=en-CA}}</ref> when the [[French and Indian War]] officially ended.

At the end of French rule, Quebec was a town of 8,000 inhabitants, surrounded by forests, villages, fields and pastures. The town was distinguished by its monumental architecture, fortifications, and affluent homes of masonry and shacks in the suburbs of Saint-Jean and Saint-Roch. Despite its urbanity and its status as capital, Quebec remained a small 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.