During
the American Revolution, the British garrison
at Quebec City was assaulted by American
troops in the Battle of Quebec. The defeat
of the Americans put an end to their hopes
that Canada would also rebel. Major General
Isaac Brock fortified Quebec City by strengthening
the walls and building an elevated artillery
battery prior to the War of 1812. Quebec
City was the capital of Canada from 1859
to 1865, the last before Ottawa. The Quebec
Conference on Canadian Confederation was
held here. In World War II two conferences
were held in Quebec City. The first one
was held in 1943 with Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (United States' president),
Winston Churchill (United Kingdom's prime
minister), Mackenzie King (Canada's prime
minister) and T.V. Soong. (China's minister
of foreign affairs).
The
second one was held in 1944 and was attended
by Churchill and Roosevelt. They took
place in the buildings of the Citadelle
and of nearby Chateau Frontenac. In April
2001, Quebec City hosted the Summit of
the Americas to discuss the Free Trade
Area of the Americas; it also hosted massive
anti-globalization demonstrations, provoked
both by the summit and by the decision
to wall off a large portion of the historic
city with a four metre high chain-link
fence for the duration. Police forces
were widely accused of excessive use of
force during the demonstrations. On 1
January 2002, Quebec City and 12 other
municipalities of the Communauté
urbaine de Québec were merged into
to the new Quebec City "megacity,"
which is divided into 8 boroughs.
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