Quebec Separatism movement has been a topic in the province for centuries. The very first attempt of Independence was during « The Rebellion of 1837 and 1838 » where Quebec was called « Lower Canada ». During that time, The Republic of Lower Canada was established by Robert Nelson who was inspired by The United States Declaration of Independence where democracy will be put in place. Indeed, this movement was also inspired by many countries who we were colonized like Haiti and many colonies in South America during the 19th century. Francophones in Lower Canada were therefore hoping to do the same with Great Britain however, the most important posts of Lower Canada were all owned by the British therefore, impossible to realize. On the side note, The Republic of Lower Canada disappeared in 1838. The British goal was to assimilate French-Speakers of Canada where many attempts were made and succeeded however, not in Quebec. An important event in the Canadian history will create the very first independent party in Quebec: Le Parti National. Canada, brand new country at the time of this event, wanted to expand the new land to the west. Many Métis, who are descendant of French and Indigenous people, were living in these areas. Louis Riel, a Métis, will defend the rights of his people and be hanged by the Canadian government in 1885. This will outraged the French-Canadians living in Quebec while satisfying others. Many will make the connection with the assimilation tactics of the British in the past and by the provincial governments of other provinces. Indeed, many French-Canadians migrated to other provinces at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. However, many school reforms were put in place by many provincial governments to make sure French wasn't spoken or learned in school like The Regulation 17 in Ontario or in The Manitoba Act of 1870. French-Canadian nationalist will be the theme aimed by Le Parti National founded by Honoré Mercier where it would be about defending the rights of French-Speakers in other provinces and in Quebec as well. As a British Dominion, Canada defends the color of Great Britain during The First World War of 1914. Mandatory enrollment was therefore essential. In Quebec, fighting for Great Britain with the historic feuds with the French-Speaking population was not possible. Around that time, Regulation 17 of 1912 where French was banned as a language in school didn't help the situation either. Anti-Conscription Crisis demonstration was held in Quebec City and four people died when the army fired on the crowd. Of course, not a lot of French-Canadians will be part of the war causing a lot of backlashes in other provinces calling them traitors. Many people believe that this event led to the separatism movement of Quebec in the province because it was putting emphasis to the big cultural differences of the French-Speaking Canadians and the English-Speaking Canadians and as this event shows, they tend to see things way differently. To avoid these differences, the Francophones in Quebec will have to assimilate like many others did in the previous year to fully be accepted in the country of Canada. The French-Canadians versus the English-Canadians will be even more obvious in the province of Quebec. It is important to point out that during the 1960's, the Quebec nationalist will appear where it will be about the French interests of the province instead of the French outside of Quebec. Due to the huge social class difference, the province was also started to be anglicized, The Anglophones held a significant amount of power when they were the minority leaving French-Speakers at the bottom of the social class. It was a system that has been present for years in the province. Many who lived in this period of time will even explain discriminatory things that happened to them. With The Quiet Revolution in the beginning of the 1960's, many problems seen by the French-Canadians will be put in front. As mentioned earlier, the difference of income between Anglophones and Francophones. With the rise of separatism in the province, the Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson will put in place a Bilingual Commission. This commission will confirm that there was an economic gap in the province. Francophones were ranked 12th out of 14 in the income scale when it comes to the ethnic groups and that the English-Speaking Canadians owned 47 % of the businesses in the province when they were the minority. This situation was similar to what happened in Lower Canada in 1837 and 1838 but of course, applied in a different context in time. The visit of the French president Charles De Gaulle in 1966 will grow the independence movement of the province even more. He will shout « Vive le Québec Libre ! » encouraging Quebecers to have the French state they always wanted. To solve the problem of the languages in Quebec and in Canada, the country will officially be bilingual in 1969 however, this will not calm the movement in Quebec. In 1974, Quebec officially became a French province with the Bill 22 which states that the French language should be used in many fields in the society such as at work, public administration and in education. The Bill 101, a similar law, will appear in 1976. For some, this Bill appeared as a way to protect a language because French is spoken by a minority group in North America by stating that the Canadian government never did a lot for the French minority. Another argument would be that many Anglophones living in Quebec are not willing to learn the French language because Canada is mostly an English-Speaking country. Similar bills were used by other countries with a similar situation. For example, by Baltic countries to protect their culture from the Russian influence or with Catalan against the Spanish language. For others, it is a discriminatory law against a minority group based on the language they spoke. They are supposed to have the same rights as the Francophones of Quebec. Canada is a bilingual country therefore, the French and the English should be equal in Quebec as well. The PQ, a separatist party will win the election in Quebec in 1976. René Lévesque, the chef of this party, promised to have a Referendum to have an independent country and this referendum will be lost in 1980 when the electors voted « No » by 59,56 %. That period in Quebec's History caused a lot of tensions between the French and the English-Quebecers which led to around 150,000 of English-Speaking Quebecers to leave Quebec for other provinces where English is the primary language. During the 1970s, an extremist group that aims the independence of Quebec will carry out a lot of terrorist attacks. Their most notorious one is the kidnapping of the British diplomat James Richard Cross and a Quebec Liberal Minister, Pierre Laporte. The British diplomat will be released while Pierre Laporte, killed. During the 1980s, the Canadian Constitution was signed by all the provinces without Quebec because René Lévesque wasn't there to do so. This will create another gap between Quebec and the rest of Canada. The independence movement will also gain more popularity when many attempts to recognize Quebec as a distinct society was a failure for the province. This recognizion would mean that Canada is composed by two nations the French and the British that led to today's Quebecers/French Canadians and Canadians. The nation status isn't and wouldn't sit well for other provinces because Quebec is just another province and many will point out that no province should be called a nation because Canada is composed of ten provinces plus three territories and everyone is equal. However, Quebecers never felt Canadian for the reasons briefly explained so far. In 1995, another Referendum occurred in the province of Quebec. The voter turnout was 93,53 % which was a record in Quebec History. The Referendum was lost by 50,58 %. Since many Francophones in the province wanted to have their own country and they represented most of the voters, some speculate that there was some corruption due to the fear of losing a province. In summary, in the past, it was about having a democracy instead of the monarchy in the colony of Lower Canada. Since the 1960s till today, it is and has been about defending their culture from the North American culture that is obviously predominantly English-Speaking where some places with minorities were not able to do so. Even with Quebec inside of Canada, the scars of the past are still present in the province and in the country no matter which provincial and federal government is in place. For example, some bills or laws can be applied in all Canadian provinces while others no, because of the cultural differences. Again, many will point out how unfair it is. I'll let you judge on that one. A lot of events spoken were briefly touched in this video but, it is more detailed in the Quebec History video. Check it out. Let me know in the comments down below: « What do you think about this movement ? ». Thanks for watching and subscribe to my channel to see more videos bye !