Quebec City
Quebec City | |
|---|---|
| Ville de Québec (French) | |
 Logo | |
| Nicknames: | |
| Motto: Don de Dieu feray valoir ("I shall put God's gift to good use"; the Don de Dieu was Champlain's ship) | |
 Interactive map of Quebec City | |
  Quebec City Location in Quebec  Quebec City Location in Canada  Quebec City Quebec City (North America) | |
| Coordinates: 46°48′50″N 71°12′29″W / 46.81389°N 71.20806°W[2][3] | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Quebec |
| Region | Capitale-Nationale |
| Metropolitan community | Communauté métropolitaine de Québec |
| Agglomeration | Agglomeration of Quebec City |
| Historic countries | Kingdom of France Kingdom of Great Britain |
| First settled | 11 October 1535, by Jacques Cartier |
| Founded | 3 July 1608, by Samuel de Champlain |
| Constituted | 1 January 2002 |
| Incorporated | 1832[4] |
| Boroughs | |
| Government | |
| • Type | Quebec City Council |
| • Mayor | Bruno Marchand |
| • MPs | List
|
| • MNAs | |
| Area | |
| 452.30 km2 (174.63 sq mi) | |
| • Land | 453.38 km2 (175.05 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 442.85 km2 (170.99 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 3,499.46 km2 (1,351.15 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 98 m (322 ft) |
| Population (2021)[6] | |
| 549,459 (12th) | |
| • Density | 1,214.8/km2 (3,146/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 733,156 (8th) |
| • Urban density | 1,655.5/km2 (4,288/sq mi) |
| • Metro | 839,311 (7th) |
| • Metro density | 239.8/km2 (621/sq mi) |
| • Pop 2016–2021 |  4.1% |
| Demonym | Québécois or Québécois de Québec (to distinguish residents of the city from those of the province) |
| GDP (Nominal, 2021) | |
| • Metro | CA$52.56 billion (US$42.04 billion) |
| • Per capita | CA$62,212 (US$49,769.6) |
| Time zone | UTC−05:00 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−04:00 (EDT) |
| Postal codes | |
| Area codes |
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| Website | www |
Official name | Historic District of Old Quebec |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iv, vi |
| Designated | 1985 (9th session) |
| Reference no. | 300 |
Region | Europe and North America |
Quebec City[a] (French: Ville de Québec) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459[13] and the Quebec City census metropolitan area (including surrounding communities)[14] had a population of 839,311.[15] It is the twelfth-largest city and the seventh-largest metropolitan area in Canada. It is also the second-largest city in the province, after Montreal. It has a humid continental climate with warm summers coupled with cold and snowy winters.
Explorer Samuel de Champlain founded a French settlement here in 1608, and adopted the Algonquin name. Quebec City is one of the oldest European settlements in North America. The ramparts surrounding Old Quebec (Vieux-Québec) are the only fortified city walls remaining in the Americas north of Mexico. This area was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as the "Historic District of Old Québec".[16][17]
Name and usage
[edit]Common English-language usage distinguishes the city from the province by referring to the former as Quebec City.[18]
According to the Government of Canada, the Government of Quebec, and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, the names of Canadian cities and towns have only one official form. Thus, Québec is officially spelled with an accented é in both French and Canadian English.[19][20][21] However, province names can have different forms in English and French. As a result, in English, the federal government style distinguishes the city and province by spelling the city with an acute accent (Québec) and the province without one (Quebec). The government of Quebec spells both names "Québec", including when writing in English.[22]
In French, the two are distinguished in that province names including Quebec generally take definite articles, while city names do not. As a result, the city is Québec and the province is le Québec; "in Quebec City" is à Québec and "in the province of Quebec" is au[b] Québec; and so forth.[23]
The Algonquian people had originally named the area Kébec, an Algonquin language[c] word meaning "where the river narrows", because the Saint Lawrence River narrows by the promontory of Quebec and its Cape Diamant.
History
[edit]French regime (1500s–1763)
[edit]Quebec City is one of the oldest European settlements in North America and the only fortified city north of Mexico whose walls still exist.[24] 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, Harbour Grace, Port Royal, St. Augustine, Santa Fe, Jamestown, and Tadoussac).
It is home to the earliest known French settlement in North America, 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.[25] The fort was at the mouth of the Rivière du Cap Rouge, in the suburban former 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,[26][27] and at the site of a long abandoned 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 "Canada" was given to the colony that developed around the settlement at Quebec. Although the Acadian settlement at Port-Royal was established three years earlier, Quebec came to be known as the cradle of North America's Francophone population. The location seemed favourable to the establishment of a permanent colony.
The population of the settlement remained small for decades. In 1629 it was captured by English privateers, led by David Kirke, during the Anglo-French War.[28] 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 agreed to return captured lands in exchange for Louis XIII paying his wife's dowry.[28] These terms were signed into law with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The colonies of Canada and Acadia were returned to the French