colony · North America and Oceania
Province of Quebec
Origins
After the British conquest of New France in 1759 to 1760, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 ceded Canada to Britain, and the Royal Proclamation of that year organised the St Lawrence settlements as the Province of Quebec. Its first civil governor, James Murray, soon found that plans to anglicise the French-speaking Catholic population were impractical.
Rule and society
The Quebec Act of 1774 extended the province into the Ohio country, allowed Catholics to hold office, kept the seigneurial system and French civil law, and recognised the Church's right to collect tithes. Government lay with a governor and appointed council, with no elected assembly. The economy rested on farming and the fur trade out of Montreal. American forces invaded in 1775 but failed to take Quebec City.
Decline and legacy
The arrival of thousands of Loyalists after 1783 created pressure for English law and representative government. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into Lower Canada and Upper Canada, each with an elected assembly.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (4)
- Province of Quebec was a colony of Kingdom of Great Britain1763 CE – 1791 CE
- Province of Quebec was part of British Empire1763 CE – 1791 CE
- Upper Canada split from Province of Quebec1791 CE
- Lower Canada split from Province of Quebec1791 CE
More states of North America and Oceania →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Province of Quebec. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/province-of-quebec
- MLA
- “Province of Quebec.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/province-of-quebec. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Province of Quebec.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/province-of-quebec.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Province of Quebec’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/province-of-quebec (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻