A short history of Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada it is also an island which approximately measure 50 kilometer long and 16 kilometer wide in St. Lawrence Rive with a 230 meter mountain at the center. The area today referred as Montreal was inhabited by indigenous people called Iroquois who lived there for around 8000 years. Iroquois were nomadic but adopted farming, fishing and hunting and decided to settle at the shores of St. Lawrence River which are fertile, had plenty of fish and the nearby forest had animals which they hunted. By the 14th century they had fully settled and had even built fortified villages but at around 1580 the indigenous people had left the valley.
The French in 1535 were the first Europeans to set foot on the island led by Jacques Cartier and they hoisted the French flag on top of the mountain and named the mountain Mount Royal. The original name of the island was Ville Marie but after the French colonized the island in early 1600, the name was changed to Montreal in 1642. Montreal was derived from the name mount royal which the French had given to the mountain at the centre of the island. The French colonized the island for 117 years before they were defeated by the British in 1759. The battle was fought in the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City; the British later took over the administration of Montreal. The British even after defeating the French and taking over the administration of Montreal they did not expel them. The French worked for the British Empire who was later joined by colonist from Scotland, England and Ireland. In the 19th century English speaking merchants arrived in Montreal and soon the main business language was English. The four colonists intermarried and even up to today most Montreal dwellers have their last name being either British or French. At around 1830s the majority of population was francophone but at round 1865 it was inhabited by a majority of Anglophones. On May 18, 1765 one quarter of the town was destroyed a fire.
The first bridge across the Saint Lawrence River was constructed the Scots who also founded many great industries in Montreal, Canada. In 1832 Montreal was incorporated as city and grew very rapidly after the opening of the Lachine Canal. Over the 3 centuries, immigrants from other parts of the world moved to island which led to an influx of settlements and towns in different area of the island. These towns expanded as the population grew and eventually linked with Montreal city. There were 27 towns plus the city itself as of the year 2001. The island had a population of 3.9million people as at 2000 with 1.4 million living in the city.
Legislation was passed in 2001 by the government of Quebec to merge a number of cities and towns in the province of Quebec so that it could balance budget and evenly distribute wealth. This led to a huge opposition from the Quebec liberal but the merger still went through. They said if voted in they will demerger them cities and towns. In 2003 they were elected and there are deliberating on dividing the island into 3 cities namely west, central and east.