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The Ministère de la Marine is the section of the French government that administered Canada during its last 100 years as a French colony. The Ministère de la Marine — variously described as a ministry, department, or secretariat of state — administered France’s navy, colonies and seaborne trade.

Throughout the history of New France, soldiers and hired labourers (“engagés”) who crossed the Atlantic were the primary settlers in Canada. Those young servicemen and artisans, as well as the immigrant women who wished to get married, mainly hailed from the coastal and urban regions of France. Most of the colonists arrived before 1670 during the migratory flow which varied in times of war and prosperity. Afterwards, the population grew through Canadian births. On average, Canadian families had seven or eight children in the 17th century, and four to six children in the 18th century. As a result, the population of New France was 70,000 strong by the end of the French regime.

The Conquest (La Conquête) is a term used to describe the acquisition of Canada by Great Britain during the Seven Years’ War. It also refers to the resulting conditions experienced by Canada’s 60,000 to 70,000 French-speaking inhabitants and numerous Indigenous groups. French forces at Quebec City surrendered to British forces on 18 September 1759, a few days after the crucial Battle of the Plains of Abraham. French resistance ended in 1760 with the capitulation of Montreal. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris surrendered New France to Britain. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 introduced assimilative policies that ultimately failed. They were replaced by the provisions of the Quebec Act of 1774. Although it helped spark the American Revolutionary War (1775–83), the Act also granted Canadians enviable conditions that resulted in generations of relative stability.

Gallicanism is a doctrine which originated in France in the Middle Ages and sought to regulate the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state. It underlined the independence of the French Church in terms of papal authority, but also its subordination to the royal power. It thus confirmed the supremacy of the state in public life, unlike Ultramontanism, which supported the submission of the Churches and kingdoms to the papacy.

The Treaty of Paris was signed on 19 February 1763 and ended the Seven Years’ War between France, Britain and Spain. It marked the end of the war in North America and created the basis for the modern country of Canada. France formally ceded New France to the British, and largely withdrew from the continent.

On 4 August 1701, the French concluded a peace agreement with the Five Nations Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). This brought to an end almost a century of hostilities marked by atrocities on both sides. The Haudenosaunee were permitted to trade freely and to obtain goods from the French at a reduced cost. In exchange, they pledged to allow French settlement at Detroit and to remain neutral in the event of a war between England and France. The accord assured New France superiority in dealing with issues related to the region’s First Nations. It also gave the French the freedom to expand militarily over the next half century.

Corvée, required labour. Labour demanded of HABITANTS in NEW FRANCE by seigneurs in addition to rent or for pasture rights was illegal and was suppressed by the INTENDANTS.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued after the British defeated the French at Québec City in 1759 and Montreal in 1760 (see Battle of the Plains of Abraham and Seven Years’ War). After those defeats, New France (1608-1763) was taken over by the British. The Proclamation brought the new Province of Quebec under British control.

Brandy Parliament, an assembly of 20 notables of New France, who on 10 October 1678 were asked their opinion of the sale of brandy to the Indigenous peoples. The title was bestowed in 1921 by historian W.B. Munro.

Breda, Treaty of, agreements signed 21 July 1667 at Breda, the Netherlands, between England and the Netherlands and between England and France, ending the second Anglo-Dutch War. The former treaty recognized the English conquest of Amsterdam (New York) in 1664.

Communauté des biens (community of property), term used in the legal codes of NEW FRANCE and Québec to describe the pooled assets of husband and wife. It began as part of the Coutume de Paris, introduced about 1640 and the sole legal code of the colony after 1664.

To a tremendous extent, the enslavement of Indigenous peoples defines slavery in Canada. Fully two-thirds of the slaves in the colony of New France were Indigenous. After 1750, the number of Indigenous slaves brought into French Canada began to decline. When slavery was abolished in British colonies in 1834, Black slaves far outnumbered Indigenous slaves. (See also Black Enslavement in Canada.) The enslavement of Indigenous peoples is part of a dark legacy of colonization that has had implications on generations of Indigenous peoples in Canada and throughout North America.

The Treaty of Utrecht was an agreement between Britain and France, concluded on 11 April 1713 at Utrecht in the Netherlands, as part of the series of treaties ending the War of the Spanish Succession.

The New Left was an international political movement of the 1960s, mainly of youth and students, which originated in the "Ban the Bomb" movement of the late 1950s.

A duel is a formal armed combat between 2 people in the presence of witnesses, to settle differences or a point of honour.

During the Crusades (11th-13th centuries), the European nations felt the need to identify themselves with crosses of various colours, and at the same time to reduce casualties with improved armour.

Saint-Germain, Treaty of, (1632), concluded 29 Mar 1632 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, between Great Britain and France. The agreement restored Québec and those territories in the St Lawrence region which had been captured in 1628-29 by the British, to Louis XIII.