Pays d'en Haut

Coordinates: 45°33′00″N 78°34′26″W / 45.550°N 78.574°W / 45.550; -78.574
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Pays-d'en-Haut.

Pays d'en Haut
Territory of New France
1610–1763
Flag of Pays d'en Haut
Flag

Pays d'en Haut in New France on a map by Jacques Nicholas Bellin in 1755
CapitalQuebec
History 
• Established
1610
10 February 1763

The Pays d'en Haut (French: [pɛ.i dɑ̃ o]; Upper Country) was a territory of New France covering the regions of North America located west of Montreal. The vast territory included most of the Great Lakes region, expanding west and south over time into the North American continent as the French had explored. The Pays d'en Haut was established in 1610 and depended on the colony of Canada until 1763, when the Treaty of Paris ended New France, and both were ceded to the British as the Province of Quebec.[1]

History

Wendake
.

By 1660, France started a policy of expansion into the interior of

Médard Chouart des Groseilliers reached the western end of Lake Superior, where priests founded missions, such as the Mission of Sault Sainte Marie in 1668. In 1671, Father Jacques Marquette established a French mission at Michilimackinac that would over the next half century become a waypoint for exploration, a place for diplomatic relations with natives, and a commercial center for fur trade. On 17 May 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began the exploration of the Mississippi River, which they called the Sioux Tongo (the large river) or Michissipi. They reached the mouth of the Arkansas River, and then returned upstream, having learned that the great river ran towards the Gulf of Mexico and not towards the Pacific Ocean
as they had presumed.

Northern expansion

In what are today

Prairies, various trading posts and forts were built such as Fort Kaministiquia (1679), Fort Frontenac (1673), Fort Saint Pierre (1731), Fort Saint Charles (1732) and Fort Rouillé
(1750).

Southern expansion

In 1701,

mouth
of the river.

Settlements

The French settlements in the Pays d'en Haut south of the Great Lakes were

Pays des Illinois, which was part of Louisiana. By 1773, the population of Detroit was 1,400. By 1778, its population was up to 2,144.[2]

Protecting the Pays d'en Haut were four

forts: Fort Presque Isle (1753), Fort Le Boeuf (1753), Fort Duquesne (1754), and Fort Machault
(1754).

Recent terminology

Today, the term

Laurentides region of Quebec, north of Montreal. It is the traditional name of a larger area in the hills northwest of Montréal, centred on upper portions of Rivière du Nord (Laurentides) river. Its settlements were founded well after the original meaning of the name had become obsolete. The series Les Belles Histoires des pays d'en haut
takes place in that area.

See also

References

  1. ^ Virtual Museum of New France – Population of Pays d’en Haut and Louisiana
  2. ^ Jacqueline Peterson, Jennifer S. H. Brown, Many roads to Red River (2001), p. 69

Further reading

  • Jaenen, Cornelius J., ed. (1996). The French Regime in the Upper Country of Canada During the Seventeenth Century. Toronto:
    ISBN 0969342578
    .

45°33′00″N 78°34′26″W / 45.550°N 78.574°W / 45.550; -78.574

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