Settlements

Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre (1635-1945)

The spatial organization of the towns of Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre corresponds to the needs of colonial enterprise.

Roméo Terral, PhD in contemporary history and research associate at the University of the West Indies

Quebec, the Capital of New France

Under the French Regime, the city of Quebec was the administrative centre of the colony from 1608 to 1759.

Christian Blais, historian, National Assembly of Quebec

Montreal : a Town in colonial America

Both an island and a town, Montreal boasted two essential geographical features that made it an indispensable site for Indigenous peoples and, later, European colonists: the Saint Lawrence River and its tributaries and the Lachine Rapids. The former offered vital routes of communication with the interior of the continent, while the latter forced travellers to portage. However, the European town began life as a missionary project inspired by France’s Catholic Counter-Reformation.

Sylvie Dépatie, specialist of the Canadian history under the French regime

New Orleans from 1718 to 1769

Under French rule, New Orleans took only limited advantage of its position as the gateway to the Mississippi, but it quickly became a slave society following the model of Saint-Domingue.

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