<P> Quebec has played a special role in French history ; the modern province occupies much of the land where French settlers founded the colony of Canada ( New France ) in the 17th and 18th centuries . The population is predominantly French - speaking and Roman Catholic , with a large Anglophone minority , augmented in recent years by immigrants from Asia . The political alienation of the Francophones from the Anglophones has been a persistent theme since the late 19th century . Tensions were especially high during the First World War . Historically , British merchants and financiers controlled the economy and dominated Montreal . The Catholic Church , in close cooperation with the landowners , led a highly traditional social structure in rural and small town Quebec . Much of that changed during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s . Quebec 's separatists , calling for an independent nation , gained strength but were narrowly defeated in two referenda . Quebec imposed increasingly stringent laws favouring the French language ; many Anglophones left , as did many of the national and international corporations that had been based in Montreal . </P>
<P> Quebec has played a special role in French history ; the modern province occupies much of the land where French settlers founded the colony of Canada ( New France ) in the 17th and 18th centuries . The population is predominantly French - speaking and Roman Catholic , with a large Anglophone minority , augmented in recent years by immigrants from Asia . The political alienation of the Francophones from the Anglophones has been a persistent theme since the late 19th century . Tensions were especially high during the First World War . Historically , British merchants and financiers controlled the economy and dominated Montreal . The Catholic Church , in close cooperation with the landowners , led a highly traditional social structure in rural and small town Quebec . Much of that changed during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s . Quebec 's separatists , calling for an independent nation , gained strength but were narrowly defeated in two referenda . Quebec imposed increasingly stringent laws favouring the French language ; many Anglophones left , as did many of the national and international corporations that had been based in Montreal . </P>
where did the first settlers of quebec come from
where did the first settlers of quebec come from
French
French