Thursday, August 17, 2017

About this Trip

For whatever reason, for each of my Magellan projects this has been one of the last things I write.

The purpose of this trip was to study the history of a French city that has never lost its identity despite British rule for hundreds of years, and even through Canada's independence. Looking back to my previous projects, I am beginning to sense a theme of appreciating minority peoples or invaded peoples that retain their identity against all odds. The Maltese kept their language and customs despite passing through the hands of the Phoenicians, Romans, Holy Roman Empire, the Knights of St. John, the French, and the British. The Dutch Jews did a poorer job at surviving invasion and persevering than the Maltese did against invaders, but even still, many refused to recant their religion and their greatest synagogues such as the famed Portuguese Synagogue still stands. The French keeping their own culture strikes a similar vein of perseverance and a refusal to assimilate completely.

A little more focus was given toward the beaver fur trade, as I am personally amazed at the wealth and prestige the colonial French city of Montreal was able to obtain so quickly through the exploitation of a small animal's valuable pelt. The business, demand, and shipping apparatus that existed to ferry pelts to the Old World for massive profits amaze me in the day that international trade was especially risky, disease-filled, and wrought with danger by both nature and covetous men.

In short, my project's intention was to study the beaver fur trade in Montreal and the French identity and culture the Quebec Province has been able to retain despite all odds.

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