The territory of Quebec is extremely rich in resources in its coniferous forests, lakes, and rivers—pulp and paper, lumber, and hydroelectricity are still some of the province's most important industries. The extreme north of the province, now called Nunavik, is subarctic or arctic and is home to the Inuit nation.
The vast territory of Quebec is divided into 17 administrative regions. Inside the regions, there are municipalities and regional county municipalities (RCMs).
During the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 to discuss political union, Sir John A. Macdonald, who later became Canada's first prime minister, talked of 'founding a great British monarchy, Officials at the Colonial Office in London, however, opposed this potentially 'premature' and 'pretentious' reference for a new country. They were also wary of antagonizing the United States which had emerged from the American Civil War as a formidable military power with unsettled grievances because of British support for the Confederate cause.
In response to terrorism during 1960, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared martial law using the War Measures Act. A Federal government inquiry later revealed that under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's demand, some RCMP agents infiltrated the group and pushed them towards terrorist actions in order to gain evidence of the groups willingness to commit terrorist acts.
Canada's largest province, occupies a vast territory (nearly three times the size of France), most of which is very sparsely populated. More than 90 percent of Quebec's area lies within the Canadian Shield, a large part of which was historically referred to as the Ungava Region.
Notable Acadians include singer Angele Arsenault, writer Antonine Maillet, boxer Yvon Durelle, former Governor General Roméo LeBlanc, and former New Brunswick premier Louis Robichaud, who was the first Acadian premier and who was responsible for modernizing education and the government of New Brunswick in the mid-20th century.
The Québécois people, a people also found in small minorities of Canada and of the United States, consider Quebec their homeland. The Québécois are the largest population of French speakers in the Americas. Most French Canadians live in Quebec, though there are other concentrations of francophones throughout Canada with varying degrees of ties to Quebec. (The Acadians of the Canadian Maritimes consider themselves an entirely separate group.)
Basque fishermen from southern Europe began fishing the Grand Banks off Newfoundland as early as the 15th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries English and French colonials established settlements in eastern Canada largely to support fishing or fur trade. French settlement began with Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, first in Acadia in 1604, then Québec in 1608.