The first Europeans to establish a lasting foothold were the French in the St. Lawrence Valley over three hundred years ago. In fact, the very name Canada (Kanata) was borrowed from the Iroquois and the inhabitants of the French colony became known as Canadiens.

As time passed these settlers became increasingly rooted in the St. Lawrence Valley. They developed new patterns of land survey and land tenure, new farming methods and new attitudes to life, as the traditions and memories of France gradually faded.

By the time the British conquered Canada in 1760 the 60,000 French settlers had become truly North Americans with their own incipient nationalism. That nationalism expressed itself in militant forms both in the Rebellion of 1837 and in the separatist crisis of the early 1970s. They represent a long tradition of Quebec nationalism.