<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Quebec has played a special role in French history; the modern province occupies much of the land where French settlers founded the colony of Canada (New France) in the 17th and 18th centuries . The population is predominantly French - speaking and Roman Catholic, with a large Anglophone minority, augmented in recent years by immigrants from Asia . The political alienation of the Francophones from the Anglophones has been a persistent theme since the late 19th century . Tensions were especially high during the First World War . Historically, British merchants and financiers controlled the economy and dominated Montreal . The Catholic Church, in close cooperation with the landowners, led a highly traditional social structure in rural and small town Quebec . Much of that changed during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s . Quebec's separatists, calling for an independent nation, gained strength but were narrowly defeated in two referenda . Quebec imposed increasingly stringent laws favouring the French language; many Anglophones left, as did many of the national and international corporations that had been based in Montreal . </P> <P> Aboriginal settlements were located across the area of present - day Quebec before the arrival of Europeans . In the northernmost areas of the province, Inuit communities can be found . Other aboriginal communities belong to the following First Nations: </P>

Where did the first settlers of quebec come from