Prior to European colonisation there was on an island a Iroquois village called Hochelaga. The Island was first visited in 1534 by Jacques Cartier who named the moutain on the island, Mont-Royal. Paul de Chomedey, sieur De Maisonneuve, along with 40 colonists, visited the island in May of 1642 and he founded the city of Ville-Marie. Its history began mainly as a fur-trading post whereas Quebec was the capital of New France (or commonly called Canada). It became the fur-trading centre of New France and the gateway to the Western part of the continent (well Ontario mainly, if you will). It started to grow as a city and had about 4000 French residents in 1670. It became a city, yet not as important as Quebec.
After Quebec was captured by the troops of General James Wolfe in September of 1759, the British moved on for Montreal. Montreal surrendered without a fight in 1760. Scots, instead of the French were now doing the fur trade and out of it grew the North West Company (which merged with the Hudson's Bay Company latter; see two weeks ago). During the American Revolution it was captured by the Americans before they were forced back by Canadian troops at Quebec City out of the colony and back into the Thirteen Colonies.
In 1833, the city was incorporated and elected its first mayor: Jacques Viger. Its city charter expired in 1836 but it got it renewed in 1840. The City became the Capital of Unified Canada, from 1844 to 1849 when rioters burnt down Parliament. By the 1850s, Montreal was the commercial, industrial and financial centre of Canada. Between the 1880s and the early 1900s, suburbs were added on to Montreal. There was over half a million people by 1911. The population had, since the conquest been mainly of British decent but around 1911, after many rural French Canadians came to the city and shifted the majority back to French dominance (in number, not in power). That and a large amount of immigration from Europe helped the city's economy. During the Great Depression the economy sank really low, as it did in most of the world. It got much better during World War II. After the war, Toronto was catching up with Montreal and by the 1960s, Toronto had surpassed Montreal as leading commercial, financial and economical centre of Canada. Montreal's unemployment rose due to this but many things happened in Montreal in the '60s: The building of the Subway in 1966, the Exposition '67, and won the bid for the 1976 Olympic Games.
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