In 1535 the French explorer Jacques Cartier was the first European known to land on Montréal Island. The city of Montréal (at first also called Ville Marie) was founded in May 1642 as a missionary colony. The city's founder and first governor, Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, settled along the Saint Lawrence with some 40 colonists. After difficult beginnings, the city prospered as the fur-trading center of the French colony of New France and became the gateway to the western interior. By 1760 the city's population of French origin had reached about 4,000.

In 1760 Montreal surrendered to British forces that were completing their conquest of Canada during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). In the wake of the British conquest a small group of enterprising merchants, mostly Scots, took over the fur trade. Their ventures grew into the North West Company, which built a powerful fur-trading empire reaching to the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

By then Montreal already had a new role as commercial centre for the provinces of Lower Canada (now Quebec) and Upper Canada (now Ontario). The port of Montréal became a major transhipment point on the naval route between Britain and the Great Lakes, fueling rapid growth of the city. In 1844 the city became the capital of Canada, but it lost this position in 1849 after riotous crowds burned the buildings of Parliament, Canada's legislature.

By the mid-19th century Montreal was Canada's leading manufacturing centre, producing a vast array of durable and consumer goods. It also emerged as the national railway hub and maintenance centre with the establishment of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada (1852) and the Canadian Pacific (1881). Montreal was then the commercial, industrial, and financial metropolis of the country.

Population grew accordingly, reaching 216,650 in 1891 and double by 1911. New suburban municipalities sprang up on the island, most of which were annexed to the city between 1883 and 1918. Job prospects attracted many rural French Canadians, and the ethnic majority shifted again: by 1911 Francophones were 63.5 percent of the city's population. With new immigration at the beginning of the 20th century, Montreal also became a more cosmopolitan city.

Fundamental changes were taking place. Montréal had thrived as the link between Britain and Canada, but the growing integration of Canada into the North American economy was of more benefit to Toronto. But Montreal in some ways experienced a renewal starting in 1960. New public buildings dotted the landscape. Montreal strengthened its role as the North American centre of French-language creative arts and became an international capital of French culture.

The transformation of Montreal was influenced by the Quiet Revolution-a period when Francophones improved their economic and political power in Quebec province. In 1969 the provincial government adopted a law requiring French instruction for most children, and later legislation required all public signs to be primarily in French. Today Montreal is still a bilingual city, but the primary language is now French.

The language question became important again in the late 1990s. Some Anglophone spokespersons have asked the government to ease the language laws, whereas some Francophones have pressed for stronger legislation limiting the use of English. The provincial government has decided to maintain the existing rules, backed by public opinion polls strongly favoring the status quo

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