Canada Hall
Place de la
Nouvelle-France
France and Great Britain vied for control of the lucrative fur trade
and fought periodically for supremacy of North America. Both powers also
sought alliances with Native people: the French had allied themselves with
the Hurons and the British with the
Iroquois.
The towns of New
France had to provide defence
for the colony's inhabitants. Stone walls, earthworks and wooden palisades
were erected around major sites like Quebec, Louisbourg
and Montreal.
To enter into the New France town square, you pass through the fortified
wall that protected urban dwellers from enemy attack.
Between 1713 and 1744, New France enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace, population growth and economic development. Even during prosperous times, it continued to be an agrarian society, with approximately eighty percent of the population living in the countryside. Quebec and Montreal remained small, with a combined population of less than 10,000 inhabitants.
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View a low-resolution Quicktime VR
panoramic movie of the town square (163K), or
a multi-node movie (652K) in which you
can move from the square into some adjacent exhibit areas by positioning
your cursor and clicking.
These movies can be viewed with any Quicktime player, but are best viewed using Apple's Quicktime VR Player. If you wish to download the Quicktime VR Player (for Macintosh, Windows 3.1, or Windows 95) click on the logo:
Most towns were located at strategic points on the banks of rivers
and lakes. Port towns, like Montréal, Québec and Louisbourg
were centres of military, administrative, and commercial activity.
Adjacent to markets and public squares could be found colonial offices,
military fortifications, warehouses, churches, missions, schools, and
artisans' workshops.
