New France (with Photos of Quebec City)

In Quebec, most residents prefer to speak French, which along with English is one of Canada's two official languages, so it's not exactly shocking to learn that at one time the region was called New France.

After Great Britain won Canada from France in the Seven Years War, they renamed it the Province of Quebec with the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

Hoping to avoid rebellion, the Brits allowed the overwhelming majority of French Canadians to keep many traditions, including not only their language but French culture, civil law traditions and Roman Catholic religion, rather than forcing them to conform to British mores.

The plan worked quite well, and while for the most part Canada is a fully independent, self-governed country, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II surprisingly reigns as Queen of Canada (and also of Australia, New Zealand and a dozen other smaller countries, including several in the Caribbean).

It occured to me this morning that our vacation in New England and Canada brought us in contact with the six European cultures which provided the political, economic, legal and social foundations upon which the United States of America was built.  I previously wrote about this under E Pluribus Unum.

Before the cruise, we'd been to Pennsylvania, where many Germans began settling in the late 1600's.  They became known as Pennsylvania Dutch, somewhat confusing because the name actually refers to Deutsch (German) rather than people from Holland.

At Valley Forge, Baron von Steuben introduced German discipline and efficiency to our military, turning losers into winners.

New York was initially the Dutch (as in the Netherlands) city of New Amsterdam. In fact, the area from Pennsylvania to Cape Cod, including most of New York, Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey, was at one time the Dutch Colony of New Netherland.

The Dutch were great ship builders, explorers and traders, and in their Golden Age of the 1600's, the Netherlands became the richest country in the world.

I attribute much of what our country became economically to Holland, even if that connection has been overshadowed by the military victories of the British, who changed New Amsterdam to New York in honor of the Duke of York, King James II of England.

It goes without saying that we spent much of our time in New England, but I'll say it anyway.

For the most part, we speak English, which has further become the most common language for business and success throughout the world, including in the fast growing economies of China and India.

We owe much of our government system, including our Constitution based to some extent on the groundbreaking Magna Carta, two houses of legislature plus an executive branch, and our legal system based on common law to the foundations laid by the Brits.

Our voyage took us through Nova Scotia (New Scotland) where many Scottish and Irish migrated as part of British expansion, although of course immigrants didn't only go to places subsequently named for them. Since I was a boy who cheered for the Lakers against the Boston Celtics, I've known many Bostonians claim roots in Ireland, as do plenty of New Yorkers, as portrayed in an excellent period movie, Brooklyn, which Julie and I happened to watch before going on this trip,

We had a similar encounter with these cultures and more in the Southern Caribbean earlier in the year, but I seem to have already gotten very far off topic.

Upon debarking from Caribbean Princess, our plan had been to return to charming Petit-Champlain if it was sunny, but when the day broke cold and misty, we instead enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on board and then hiked directly to the beautiful historic railroad station to catch the train to our next stop, Montreal.

While planning our trip we had tried to book return air from Quebec City, but we found it would cost half as many air miles to fly nonstop from Montreal on Monday as to return on an early Saturday flight from Quebec City with a lousy itinerary, so we opted to spend a couple of nights in Montreal.

That would prove to be a great decision.  On the scenic train ride, I wondered if the city would live up to my fond memories from forty years ago.