Episode 1 of 3
Naming and Economic Purpose
- When
- 1642
- Where
- Island of Montreal
The settlement was named for the Virgin Mary and established as a fur trading post.
French settlers from La Flèche named their new town Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary," for the Virgin Mary. The trading post of Ville-Marie, established on the current island of Montreal, quickly became the economic hub for the French fur trade.
Sources
- Montreal Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-16
- New France Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-19
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.