Etymology and original names

See also: Name of Montreal

In the Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang[41] which was "the first
stopping place" in the Ojibwe migration story as related in the seven fires
prophecy.

In the Mohawk language, the land is called Tiohtià:ke.[42][43][44][45] This is an

abbreviation of Teionihtiohtiá:kon, which loosely translates as "where the group
divided/parted ways."[44][46]

French settlers from La Flèche in the Loire valley first named their new town,
founded in 1642, Ville Marie ("City of Mary"),[15] named for the Virgin Mary.[47]

The current form of the name, Montréal, is generally thought to be derived from
Mount Royal (Mont Royal in French),[16][48] the triple-peaked hill in the heart of
the city. There are multiple explanations for how Mont Royal became Montréal. In
16th century French, the forms réal and royal were used interchangeably, so
Montréal could simply be a variant of Mont Royal.[49][50][51] In the second
explanation, the name came from an Italian translation. Venetian geographer
Giovanni Battista Ramusio used the name Monte Real to designate Mount Royal in his
1556 map of the region.[48] However, the Commission de toponymie du Québec disputes
this explanation.[50]

Historiographer François de Belleforest was the first to use the form Montréal with
reference to the entire region in 1575.[48]

History
Main article: History of Montreal
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Montreal history.
Pre-European contact

Jacques Cartier at Hochelaga. Arriving in 1535, Cartier was the first European to
visit the area.
Archaeological evidence in the region indicate that First Nations native people
occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago.[52] By the year AD
1000, they had started to cultivate maize. Within a few hundred years, they had
built fortified villages.[53] The Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, an ethnically and
culturally distinct group from the Iroquois nations of the Haudenosaunee (then
based in present-day New York), established the village of Hochelaga at the foot of
Mount Royal two centuries before the French arrived. Archeologists have found
evidence of their habitation there and at other locations in the valley since at
least the 14th century.[54] The French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga
on October 2, 1535, and estimated the population of the native people at Hochelaga
to be "over a thousand people".[54] Evidence of earlier occupation of the island,
such as those uncovered in 1642 during the construction of Fort Ville-Marie, have
effectively been removed.

Early European settlement (1600–1760)

In 1603, French explorer Samuel de Champlain reported that the St Lawrence
Iroquoians and their settlements had disappeared altogether from the St Lawrence
valley. This is believed to be due to outmigration, epidemics of European diseases,
or intertribal wars.[54][55] In 1611, Champlain established a fur trading post on
the Island of Montreal on a site initially named La Place Royale. At the confluence
of Petite Riviere and St. Lawrence River, it is where present-day Pointe-à-Callière
stands.[56] On his 1616 map, Champlain named the island Lille de Villemenon in
honour of the sieur de Villemenon, a French dignitary who was seeking the
viceroyship of New France.[57] In 1639, Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière obtained
the Seigneurial title to the Island of Montreal in the name of the Notre Dame
Society of Montreal to establish a Roman Catholic mission to evangelize natives.
Dauversiere hired Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, then age 30, to lead a group of
colonists to build a mission on his new seigneury. The colonists left France in
1641 for Quebec and arrived on the island the following year. On May 17, 1642,
Ville-Marie was founded on the southern shore of Montreal island, with Maisonneuve
as its first governor. The settlement included a chapel and a hospital, under the
command of Jeanne Mance.[58] By 1643, Ville-Marie had come under Iroquois raids. In
1652, Maisonneuve returned to France to raise 100 volunteers to bolster the
colonial population. If the effort had failed, Montreal was to be abandoned and the
survivors re-located downriver to Quebec City. Before these 100 arrived in the fall
of 1653, the population of Montreal was barely 50 people.

French authorities surrender the city of Montreal to the British after the Articles
of Capitulation was signed in 1760.
By 1685, Ville-Marie was home to some 600 colonists, most of them living in modest
wooden houses. Ville-Marie became a centre for the fur trade and a base for further
exploration.[58] In 1689, the English-allied Iroquois attacked Lachine on the
Island of Montreal, committing the worst massacre in the history of New France.[59]
By the early 18th century, the Sulpician Order was established there. To encourage
French settlement, it wanted the Mohawk to move away from the fur trading post at
Ville-Marie. It had a mission village, known as Kahnewake, south of the St Lawrence
River. The fathers persuaded some Mohawk to make a new settlement at their former
hunting grounds north of the Ottawa River. This became Kanesatake.[60] In 1745,
several Mohawk families moved upriver to create another settlement, known as
Akwesasne. All three are now Mohawk reserves in Canada. The Canadian territory was
ruled as a French colony until 1760, when Montreal fell to a British offensive
during the Seven Years' War. The colony then surrendered to Great Britain.[61]

Ville-Marie was the name for the settlement that appeared in all official documents
until 1705, when Montreal appeared for the first time, although people referred to
the "Island of Montreal" long before then.[62]

American occupation (1775–1776)

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As part of the American Revolution, the invasion of Quebec resulted after Benedict
Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga in present-day upstate New York in May 1775 as a
launching point to Arnold's invasion of Quebec in September. While Arnold
approached the Plains of Abraham, Montreal fell to American forces led by Richard
Montgomery on November 13, 1775, after it was abandoned by Guy Carleton. After
Arnold withdrew from Quebec City to Pointe-aux-Trembles on November 19,
Montgomery's forces left Montreal on December 1 and arrived there on December 3 to
plot to attack Quebec City, with Montgomery leaving David Wooster in charge of the
city. Montgomery was killed in the failed attack and Arnold, who had taken command,
sent Brigadier General Moses Hazen to inform Wooster of the defeat.

Wooster left Hazen in command on March 20, 1776, as he left to replace Arnold in
leading further attacks on Quebec City. On April 19, Arnold arrived in Montreal to
take over command from Hazen, who remained as his second-in-command. Hazen sent
Colonel Timothy Bedel to form a garrison of 390 men 40 miles upriver in a garrison
at Les Cèdres, Quebec, to defend Montreal against the British army. In the Battle
of the Cedars, Bedel's lieutenant Isaac Butterfield surrendered to George Forster.

Forster advanced to Fort Senneville on May 23. By May 24, Arnold was entrenched in
Montreal's borough of Lachine. Forster initially approached Lachine, then withdrew
to Quinze-Chênes. Arnold's forces then abandoned Lachine to chase Forster. The
Americans burned Senneville on May 26. After Arnold crossed the Ottawa River in
pursuit of Forster, Forster's cannons repelled Arnold's forces. Forster negotiated
a prisoner exchange with Henry Sherburne and Isaac Butterfield, resulting in a May
27 boating of their deputy Lieutenant Park being returned to the Americans. Arnold
and Forster negotiated further and more American prisoners were returned to Arnold
at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, ("Fort Anne") on May 30 (delayed two days by
wind).

Arnold eventually withdrew his forces back to the New York fort of Ticonderoga by
the summer. On June 15, Arnold's messenger approaching Sorel spotted Carleton
returning with a fleet of ships and notified him. Arnold's forces abandoned
Montreal (attempting to burn it down in the process) prior to the June 17 arrival
of Carleton's fleet.

The Americans did not return British prisoners in exchange, as previously agreed,
due to accusations of abuse, with Congress repudiating the agreement at the protest
of George Washington. Arnold blamed Colonel Timothy Bedel for the defeat, removing
him and Lieutenant Butterfield from command and sending them to Sorel for court-
martial. The retreat of the American army delayed their court martial until August
1, 1776, when they were convicted and cashiered at Ticonderoga. Bedel was given a
new commission by Congress in October 1777 after Arnold was assigned to defend
Rhode Island in July 1777.

Modern history as city (1832–present)

See also: Municipal history of Quebec

View of Lachine Canal in 1826, a year after it opened. It bypassed the rapids west
of the city, linking Montreal with other continental markets.
Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832.[63] The opening of the Lachine Canal
permitted ships to bypass the unnavigable Lachine Rapids,[64] while the
construction of the Victoria Bridge established Montreal as a major railway hub.
The leaders of Montreal's business community had started to build their homes in
the Golden Square Mile from about 1850. By 1860, it was the largest municipality in
British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada.
[65][66]

In the 19th century, maintaining Montreal's drinking water became increasingly

difficult with the rapid increase in population. A majority of the drinking water
was still coming from the city's harbour, which was busy and heavily trafficked,
leading to the deterioration of the water within. In the mid-1840s, the City of
Montreal installed a water system that would pump water from the St. Lawrence and
into cisterns. The cisterns would then be transported to the desired location. This
was not the first water system of its type in Montreal, as there had been one in
private ownership since 1801. In the middle of the 19th century, water distribution
was carried out by "fontainiers". The fountainiers[clarification needed] would open
and close water valves outside of buildings, as directed, all over the city. As
they lacked modern plumbing systems it was impossible to connect all buildings at
once and it also acted as a conservation method. However, the population was not
finished rising — it rose from 58,000 in 1852 to 267,000 by 1901.[67][68][69]

Political protests from Tories led to the burning of the Parliament Buildings in
Montreal in 1849.
Montreal was the capital of the Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849, but lost its
status when a Tory mob burnt down the Parliament building to protest the passage of
the Rebellion Losses Bill.[70] Thereafter, the capital rotated between Quebec City
and Toronto until in 1857, Queen Victoria herself established Ottawa as the capital
due to strategic reasons. The reasons were twofold. First, because it was located
more in the interior of the Province of Canada, it was less susceptible to attack
from the United States. Second, and perhaps more importantly, because it lay on the
border between French and English Canada, Ottawa was seen as a compromise between
Montreal, Toronto, Kingston and Quebec City, which were all vying to become the
young nation's official capital. Ottawa retained the status as capital of Canada
when the Province of Canada joined with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to form the
Dominion of Canada in 1867.[citation needed]

An internment camp was set up at Immigration Hall in Montreal from August 1914 to
November 1918.[71]