-
1500
Animism
Amerindians were animists, meaning they believed that all living and inanimate objects were immortal and had souls. This affected how they treated nature. For example, when they killed animals, they said prayers and took special care of them, because they believed that it had given itself to them. -
1500
Shamanism
The shaman was the intermediate between the people and the spirits they wanted to contact. The shaman was also able to explain what a dream meant if the dreamer didn't understand. They were considered to have special access to the spiritual world and to have a clearer understanding of it. However, shaman could not make decisions for the group, just like chiefs. -
Royal Absolutism
Until 1663, royal absolutism was in place in France and in New France, meaning that the King had been given his power by God, and he was the only ruler. He represented God on Earth. It also entailed the appointment of a governor and intendant. The king mainly exerted control over the colony by granting monopolies to charter companies. -
Liberalism
At this time, liberal ideas were spreading via the press, which lead to British merchants and French Canadian professionals to make political demands. Both groups requested a legislative assembly, an elected parliament that would allow the people to be represented in the government. The British Merchants wanted it to be completely English-speaking and for French-Canadians to be excluded, because in Great Britain, one had to take the Test Oath to participate. -
The Quebec Mercury
The Quebec Mercury was a newspaper that represented the ideas that the British representatives wanted. It promoted the joining of Upper Canada and Lower Canada in order to make the French Canadians a minority as well as the elimination of French civil law. It promoted British laws and the English language. -
Le Canadien
Le Canadian was a french newspaper that defended the interests of the French Canadians. The main idea it promoted was reform liberalism, which would be done through the establishment of a responsible government. -
Anticlericalism
The people who continued to follow a liberal ideology instead of Ultramontanism adopted Anticlericalism, the belief that the Church shouldn’t meddle in political life, or censor cultural and intellectual life. This view was opposed to Ultramontanism. This lead to the opening of the Institut Canadien de Montreal. -
Ultramontanism
Ultramontanism was the ideology where the Catholic Church dominates in every way, including political power. The Church enacted certain education laws, such as the School Act, which established a denominational school system. This meant that schools boards were of a particular religion. The Church was involved in all levels of education and imposed its values. -
L'Institut Canadien de Montreal
This building was opened by young professionals and intellectuals who believed in Anticlericalism. It was a place for intellectual discussion of liberal ideas. The people there wanted the separation of Church and state. -
Capitalism
Industrialization resulted in capitalism. This happened because rich businesspeople opened factories and had people work there for very minimal salaries. This resulted in most of the profit going to them. The rich therefore got richer and the poor got poorer. It resulted in the division of cities by socioeconomics, culture and language. For example, Little Italy. -
Canadian Imperialism
Imperialists were people who saw Canada as part of the British empire and wanted an English way of life. During World War 1, imperialists wanted conscription as they wanted to help their mother country and the nationalists wanted voluntary participation. -
Feminism
Women from the British business class and French Canadian bourgeoisie formed charitable organizations, as they wanted to be involved in health and education. They followed the traditional view of women as wives and mothers. But these associations were limited, because women couldn't vote. So, women added feminist views to their demands. The Catholic Church and nationalists were against this. -
Cooperatism/Caisse Populaire Desjardin
In order to acquire the money needed for agriculturalism, French Canadians used cooperatism, which allowed for the pooling of funds. An example of this is Caisse Populaire Desjardins. -
Church conservatism
The Catholic Church promoted traditional values in order to promote the preservation of French Canadian culture. In the 1920s, the Church published letters in which they condemned mass culture, such as dancing, movies and theatres. The Church tried to close theatres, keep Sunday as a holy day, and banned some films. -
Agriculturalism
Industrialization posed a problem for French Canadian nationalists. French Canadians were leaving the countryside to go work in factories in the United States. Agriculturalism surfaced, the idea of returning to the land and having a traditional way of life. Later, this required the colonization of new regions and modernization of agriculture, leading to cooperatism. -
Socialism, Communism and Fascism
All three of these ideologies were against capitalism. Socialists were against the distribution of wealth in the hands of few and private ownership. Communism wanted to end social classes and capitalism. Fascism wanted to restore traditional order through authoritarian means an all powerful leader, military way of life. -
Refus Global
After the Second World War, society continued to secularize. People supported the separation of Church and state as opposed to traditionalism, which was supported by the Duplessis government and nationalists. The main critics of traditionalism were intellectuals, and they published the Refus Global, which denounced the Church. Pierre-Elliott Trudeau and Gerard Pelletier also denounced traditionalism. -
Americanism
After the Second World War, Canada and Quebec were very prosperous, so people had more money to spend on a better way of life. Many of these purchases lead to the influence of American culture on Quebec. For example, people bought television sets, saw dances, listened to music and saw theatre shows, and these forms of mass culture all contributed to Americanism. -
Interventionism
After the death of Duplessis in 1959, the liberal government took power, and the government began intervening in society. Education was affected, as school attendance was made free and obligatory up to the age of 15 and the Ministry of Education was created. -
Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ)
The Front de Liberation du Quebec was an example of an independentist group that was more radical. They believed that the only way to gain independence is through military action -
Formation of the Parti Quebecois
In the 1960s, there were two main political organizations that promoted the ideas of Quebec Nationalism. The first was the Rally for National Independence (RIN). The other was the Sovereignty Association Movement, founded by Renee Levesque. In 1968, the two combined to form the PQ. -
Aboriginalism
Aboriginal people began to assert the concept of a nation. This began when large hydroelectric projects required the flooding of traditionally Aboriginal lands. The First Nations people wanted the government to recognize their rights, so the government signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, which promised to consult the Inuits and Innus. -
1st referendum
The PQ held 2 referendums,a public vote to obtain permission from the quebec population to negotiate independence with the canadian government. The first referendum was not official independence, Quebec would still be a part of Canada for certain things. -
Neoliberalism
In the 1980s and 1990s, the government decided to privatize many companies. The Neoliberalism ideology emerged the idea that the government should not intervene in the economy and let it function on its own. -
2nd Referendum
This referendum was to gain permission from the quebec population to fully separate from Canada but it failed like the first one.
