Sherbrooke

Autochthon Period

The territory of Estri and their capital, the city of Sherbrooke, was inhabited for a long time by the Indian tribes of the Iroquois and Algonquins . In the course of the French colonization of Canada in the 17th — 18th centuries, the valleys of the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries, in particular the St. Francis River, became part of the French colonial possessions, called New France . Despite its territorial affiliation, the region, which later became the Eastern Cantons, was not populated by French colonists and remained covered with forests , in which a few Indian tribes wandered.

The British occupation, which replaced the French regime in the 1760s, did not affect the life of the region in the first decades - it continued to remain undeveloped and deserted, although not so far away in the valley of the St. Lawrence River, the French Canadian economy remained in place former lords, semi-feudal plots distributed by the royal power of the local nobility.

Start of colonization

The situation radically changed only after the American War of Independence, which ended in 1783 , after which groups of pro-British loyalists decided to move to the territory of Canada, still under the control of the regime.

The British government strongly encouraged English-speaking immigrants, including those from the UK itself, in order to conquer and finally assimilate the French Canadians.

The first groups of loyalists settled in Upper Canada (the territory of present-day Ontario , New Brunswick , and also in the valley of St. Francis. In the 1780–1840s, the region developed as an exclusively English-speaking one: unlike the neighboring seignori, which runs upward from both banks rivers, the British land tenure system - grants prevailed here. Protestantism rather than Catholicism spread in the region, the first cities (Sherbrooke and Magog ) appeared with typical British architecture.

The demarcation of the international and intra-Canadian borders, as well as the somewhat closed position of the region sandwiched between the US border on the one hand and the Franco-Kand regions on the other, led to the region becoming part of Lower Canada , where the Franco-Canadian population prevailed (at that time more than 600 thousand person). Thus, the Sherbrooke's anglophones were in the minority, although their absolute and relative magnitude was significant and even their flesh increased until the 1860s. The Anglophones founded the largest English-speaking University of Bishops (literally, Episcopal) in the city - the only one in French-speaking Quebec, with the exception of the other two - McGill and Concordia , located in Montreal, where there is still significant English-speaking (covering up to 25% of the population on Montreal ).

In 1900, about 11.75 thousand people lived in the city, by 1975 the population had grown to 86 thousand. The current population of Sherbrooke is about 150 thousand people, of which 92.5% are francophone , 4.5% are anglophones , 3% are allophones . Sherbrooke is the fourth largest city in Quebec, whose population shows an upward trend:

• Population density : 29.5 people / km²
• Fertility : 9.9 ( 2005 )
• Mortality : 7.8 ‰ ( 2005 )

About 87% of the population identified themselves as adherents of the Roman Catholic Church in 2001, and 6% said they did not belong to any church. Among other denominations, Statistics Canada counted 1.2% Anglicans , 0.8% Muslims, 0.8% Unified Church , 0.7% Baptists , 0.5% Orthodox, and 0.3% Jehovah's Witnesses . Pentecost and Methodist accounted for 0.2% each, while Presbyterian , Seventh-day Adventists , Mormons each accounted for 0.1% ^{[2] [3]} .

Sherbrooke is a major railway junction. It was also once a major center for the textile and knitwear industry. Manufacture of railway rolling stock, equipment for the mining and pulp and paper industry. Electrical engineering, metalworking. In 2007, Canadian Business Canadian Magazine ranked Sherbrooke in first place among Canadian cities for doing business. The strengths of the city are the increase in permits for commercial construction, a strong export industry, highly educated labor and low unemployment. Sherbrooke is also an important agricultural center for dairy farms located in the region. The production of hockey sticks is also an important business: they are produced here more than in any other city in the world. The city has a reinforced concrete bridge, the first of its kind in the world.

The city has the French-speaking University of Sherbrooke , and since its merger with Lennoxville in 2002, the English- speaking University of Bishop . The University of Sherbrooke is a large university with lengthy programs for a Master’s and PhD degree with law and medicine faculties, while Bishop’s is smaller and mostly offers undergraduate programs. There are also three Sezhepas in the city, two of them are francophone: Sezhep Sherbrooke and Sherbrooke Seminary, as well as the English-speaking Champlain Lennoxivil College.

The city consists of 6 districts: Brompton, Fleurmont, Lennoxville, Mont-Bellevue, Rock Forest Saint-Eli-Deauville and Jacques-Cartier.

Suburban Sherbrooke University Hospital (or the Clinical Center of the University of Sherbrooke ) has more than 5,200 employees, including 550 doctors. It includes the Etienne-Lebel Clinical Research Center. Also here is the hospital Generale Hotel-Dieu, located in the center of Sherbrooke.

Agrotourism is widely developed in the city, various festivals are held ^[4] . In the town of Coaticook (Coaticook) near Sherbrooke in the city park is located the attraction Foresta lumina (Glowing Forest) ^[5] .

• Sherbrooke, city // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 add.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.