MONTREAL GROUP

coterie of poets who precipitated a renaissance of Canadian poetry during the 1920s and '30s by advocating a break with the traditional picturesque landscape poetry that had dominated Canadian poetry since the late 19th century. They encouraged an emulation of the realistic themes, metaphysical complexity, and techniques of the U.S. and British poets Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and W.H. Auden that resulted in an Expressionist poetry reflective of the values of an urban civilization. Based in Montreal, then Canada's most cosmopolitan city, the group included A.M. Klein; A.J.M. Smith, whose Book of Canadian Poetry (1943) and other anthologies contributed greatly to the raising of literary standards in Canada; Leo Kennedy; and Francis Reginald Scott; as well as two kindred spirits from Toronto, E.J. Pratt and Robert Finch. First brought together at McGill University in Montreal, these poets founded the Canadian Mercury (192829), a literary organ for young writers, and subsequently founded, edited, and wrote for a number of other influential journalse.g., the McGill Fortnightly Review and Canadian Forum. History Early settlement The site of Montreal was called Hochelaga by the Huron Indians when Jacques Cartier, a French navigator and explorer, visited it in 153536 on his second voyage to the New World. More than 1,000 Indians welcomed him on the slope of the mountain that he named Mont Ral, or Mont-Royal. More than 50 years elapsed before other Frenchmen returned, this time with Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Quebec city. Hochelaga had disappeared, replaced on the shores of the St. Lawrence by a settlement that Champlain called Place Royale. It was not until May 1642 that Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, founded today's Montreal. He built dwellings, a chapel, a hospital, and other structures, protecting the settlement against Indian attack with a stockade. He named the aggregate Ville-Marie. The community was granted its first civic charter by King Louis XIV in 1644, and Chomedey became its first governor. The first hospital, the Htel-Dieu, was founded in 1644 by Jeanne Mance and the first school for girls in 1653 by Marguerite Bourgeoys. Almost immediately a society of priests, Les Messieurs de Saint-Sulpice, took charge of education for boys. The real development of Montreal began during the first half of the 18th century. Land grants were made, and farming was developed outside the original fortifications. Colonization was initiated under the French seigniorial system, in which a landowner leased portions of his holdings to numerous farming families. For many years, Montreal was a base for explorers and traders, and by the end of the 18th century outlying settlementsSaint-Henri and Lachine to the west and Longue-Pointe and Pointe-aux-Trembles to the easthad taken root, later to become part of the city or of the Montreal Urban Community. By 1672 the population of Montreal had reached 1,500, but it did not obtain city status for another 120 years and was not incorporated until 1833. The city surrendered peacefully to British forces in 1760 and, with all of New France, became part of the British North American empire in 1763. In November 1775 Montreal was occupied by American Revolutionary forces, who retreated in the spring following the abortive siege of the city of Quebec by Benedict Arnold and thus failed to secure Canada for the new United States. In 1796 Canada's first public library was opened in Montreal, and in the following year daily postal service was established between Montreal and the United States. Evolution of the modern city In 1809 John Molsonentrepreneur, brewer, banker, and carrierlinked Montreal and Quebec by water with the first Canadian steamship. Canada's first bank, the Bank of Montreal, was founded in 1817, and the Lachine Canal, forerunner of the St. Lawrence Seaway, was started in 1821. In 1825 Molson, the Montrealer par excellence, provided his city with a splendid theatre, and gas lighting appeared by 1838. A Committee of Trade, forerunner of the Board of Trade (1842), was founded in 1822, and from 1844 to 1849 Montreal was the capital of Canada. On April 25, 1849, a mob put fire to the Parliament building, possibly on the ground that it had lost its vocation. In 1847 telegraph links were made with the cities of Quebec and New York; in 1853 a shipping service between Montreal, Liverpool, and the Continent was begun; in 1856 a railroad to Toronto opened; in 1858 a transatlantic cable to Europe was laid; and in 1861 the city's first horse-drawn tramways began operation. Fires destroyed hundreds of buildings in the early 1850s, and an economic slump provoked numerous bankruptcies in 1857. The Confederation of Canada was proclaimed in 1867, and 10 years later the city had its first labour strike and first telephone conversation with Quebec. It had its first electric lighting in 1882, electric tramways in 1892, and the first automobile along its streets and movie houses along its sidewalks in 1903. By 1900 Montreal's population reached 270,000, and it began to annex several cities, towns, and villages on its outskirts. It purchased le Sainte-Hlne (St. Helen's Island) in 1908, the site, with two neighbouring man-made islands, of Expo 67. Montreal's famous ice-hockey team, the Canadiens, was founded in 1909 (and has since won more world championships than any other professional team). In 1922 several mergers gave birth to the Canadian National Railways Company (CNR), which, like the Canadian Pacific in 1881, established its head office in Montreal. The world wars gave impetus to the economic life of Montreal, as they did to most industrial centres of North America, and in January 1947 the U.S. Congress began to consider a joint venture with Canada for building the St. Lawrence Seaway. In 1959 the need for a Montreal Metropolitan Corporation was recognized by the Quebec provincial government (which, like others in Canada, has exclusive jurisdiction over municipalities). In 1960 the Metropolitan Boulevard, a throughway encircling Montreal, was opened. In 1962 construction was started on the Mtro, supervised by engineers from the Paris Mtro; the system was inaugurated six months before the opening of Expo 67. With the growing recognition of Montreal as a major world centre following this universally acclaimed exposition, it became the first non-U.S. city to be awarded a major-league baseball franchise. Its players first took the field in 1969 as the Montreal Expos.