Six thousand years ago, natives settled in the Saint Lawrence River Valley. By the 1500's, different groups of natives lived there. The English and French have long histories with Quebec. Cartier, a Frenchman, explored Quebec and the Saint Lawrence Region in 1535. In 1608, another Frenchman, Champlain, founded the first permanent French settlement and trading post, calling it Quebec. The English army, in 1628, attacked Quebec and captured the settlement in 1629. In 1632, France regained Quebec. In 1759, Quebec came …showed first 75 words of 769 total…

…showed last 75 words of 769 total…spoken by eighty percent of the people. Due to the large percentage of people with French backgrounds, Bill 101 was passed in Quebec in 1977. This bill made French the official language. In 1980 a referendum was held on whether Quebec should separate from Canada. This referendum as well as a 1980 referendum did not pass. French separatists have remained stubborn in their belief that Quebec should be separate from Canada and hold very strong views on this issue.