Montérégie () is an administrative

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

in the southwest part of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It includes the cities of Boucherville,

Brossard Brossard (, , ) is a municipality in the Montérégie region of Quebec, Canada and is part of the Greater Montreal area. According to the 2021 census, Brossard's population was 91,525. It shares powers with the urban agglomeration of Longueuil ...

Châteauguay Châteauguay ( , , ) is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, located both on the Chateauguay River and Lac St-Louis, which is a section of the St. Lawrence River. The population of the city of Châteauguay at the 2021 Cen ...

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly ac ...

Saint-Hyacinthe Saint-Hyacinthe (; French: ) is a city in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. The population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 57,239. The city is located in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality of the Montérég ...

, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Vaudreuil-Dorion. The region had a population of 1,507,070 as of the 2016 census and a land area of , giving it a population density of 135.4 inhabitants/km² (350 per sq. mi.). With approximately 18.5% of the province's population, it is the second most populous region of Quebec after

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. The majority of the population lives near the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

, on the south shore of

. Montérégie is known for its vineyards, orchards, panoramas, products, and the Monteregian mountains. The region is both

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

(second in terms of population in Quebec) and rural. The regional economy is based on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

and the production of

goods and services Goods are items that are usually (but not always) tangible, such as pens, physical books, salt, apples, and hats. Services are activities provided by other people, who include architects, suppliers, contractors, technologists, teachers, doc ...

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

also makes up a significant portion of the economy.

History

Jacques Cartier named Mont Royal in October 1535. Samuel de Champlain built several forts to protect the colonists against the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

from south of the Great Lakes, and against the English, who were colonizing

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

to the southeast. The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

comes from the Latinized form of Mount Royal, ''mons regius''. Montérégie is named for the Monteregian Hills, which are, in turn, named for ''Mont Royal'' (English: Mount Royal). The term for naming the set of hills in the St. Lawrence Plain was originally created in 1903 in English by geologist

Frank Dawson Adams Frank Dawson Adams (September 17, 1859 – December 26, 1942) was a Canadian geologist. Early life and education Frank Dawson Adams was born into a prosperous, middle-class family in Montreal, Quebec. Adams attended the High School of Montr ...

to designate a new petrographic province. Mount Royal on Montreal Island, although outside the Montérégie region, is one of the Monteregian Hills. In addition to Mount Royal, two other Montérégie hills are not located in Montérégie: Mount Mégantic, in

Estrie Estrie () is an administrative region of Quebec that comprises the Eastern Townships. ''Estrie'', a French neologism, was coined as a derivative of ''est'', "east". Originally settled by anglophones, today it is about 90 per cent francophone. Angl ...

, and the hills of Oka, in the Lower Laurentians. Montérégie was populated by the St. Lawrence Iroquoian people when the French began to colonize here in the early 16th century. Later colonists found their villages abandoned, and the area controlled as hunting grounds by the nations of the Iroquoian Confederacy based south of the Great Lakes. Some of the later battles among the European-Canadians that decided the destiny of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

took place in Montérégie. For instance, in the 1830s, ethnic French patriots rebelled against British government troops. The Province of Canada (also called a United Canada ( French: ''Canada-Uni'')) was formed through the Union Act in 1840 and February 1841, from the former provinces of Lower Canada and

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

. Originally, the administrative territory of the Montérégie parishes were taken from the territory of the canonical Diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil.

Subregions

The Montérégie has three administrative subregions, each consisting of its own

regional county municipalities The term regional county municipality or RCM (''french: municipalité régionale de comté, MRC'') is used in Quebec, Canada to refer to one of 87 county-like political entities. In some older English translations they were called county r ...

(RCM) or equivalent territories. The territorial administration of the region was conducted by three regional conferences of elected officers (french: Conférences régionales des élus) (CRE) separate and independent in their territory: *

, * Montérégie-Est (eastern RCMs) and * Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent (western RCMs). Each sub-region was organized in the same way as other administrative regions of Quebec.

Regional county municipalities

There are 14

in Montérégie. In 2021, Brome-Missisquoi and La Haute-Yamaska transferred to

Montérégie-Est

As of 2021, there are seven RCMs in Montérégie Est. Its seat is McMasterville, and the president is Arthur Fauteux. Its territory occupies and there are 656,287 inhabitants, with a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

of 92.1/km² (238.6/sq mi).

Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent

There are five RCMs in Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent. Its seat is Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, and its president is Yves Daoust. Its territory occupies and there are 435,436 inhabitants, with a population density of 116.8/km² (302.6/sq mi).

Equivalent territory

Native Reserves

The population of both of these reserves are majority-

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans * Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people * Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...

, one of the historic Five Nations of the ''Haudenosaunee'', or Iroquois League.

Kahnawake The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (french: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Queb ...

was established south of Montreal in 1719 as a mission village.

Akwesasne The Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne ( ; french: Nation Mohawk à Akwesasne; moh, Ahkwesáhsne) is a Mohawk Nation (''Kanienʼkehá:ka'') territory that straddles the intersection of international (United States and Canada) borders and provincial (Ont ...

was established upriver by Mohawk leaders and their families in the mid-18th century, accompanied by French Jesuit missionaries. Akwesasne spans the boundaries of Canada and the United States, extending across the St. Lawrence River into New York State, where it is referred to as the St. Regis Reservation. *

Major communities

* Beloeil * Boucherville *

* Candiac * Chambly *

* La Prairie

* Mont-Saint-Hilaire *

Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada, on the south bank of the Saint Lawrence River just east of Montreal. It lies on the west flank of Mont Saint-Bruno, one of the Monteregian Hills. Th ...

* Saint-Constant *

* Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu * Saint-Lambert

* Saint-Lazare * Sainte-Catherine * Sainte-Julie * Salaberry-de-Valleyfield *

Sorel-Tracy Sorel-Tracy (; ) is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada and the geographical end point of the Champlain Valley. It is located at the confluence of the Richelieu River and the St. Lawrence River, on the western edge of Lac Saint-Pierre, downstr ...

* Varennes * Vaudreuil-Dorion

References

External links

Portail régional de la Montérégie
Official website
Site officiel de la CRÉ de Longueuil

Site officiel de la CRÉ de la Montérégie-Est

Site officiel de la CRÉ de la Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent

Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de la Montérégie
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