
audiobook
Volume 5
CHAPTER I - AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE
CHAPTER II - GENTLEMEN OF THE WILDERNESS
CHAPTER III - THREE SEIGNEURS OF OLD CANADA—HEBERT, LA DURANTAYE, LE MOYNE
CHAPTER IV - SEIGNEUR AND HABITANT
CHAPTER V - HOW THE HABITANT LIVED
CHAPTER VI - 'AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM'
CHAPTER VII - THE TWILIGHT OF FEUDALISM
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The opening chapters plunge listeners into a sweeping portrait of early French ambition, tracing how the Crown’s drive to expand its empire across the Atlantic gave rise to a uniquely North‑American form of feudalism. Against the backdrop of Europe’s shifting fortunes, the narrative explains how the seigneurial system was transplanted to the rugged frontier, shaping land grants, social hierarchies, and the everyday lives of settlers who struggled to turn wilderness into a thriving community.
As the chronicle unfolds, the author balances grand geopolitical analysis with vivid details of daily colonial life—farmers clearing forests, officials enforcing royal edicts, and the complex relationships between French elites and Indigenous peoples. Listeners will gain a clear sense of how this transplanted aristocracy both mirrored and diverged from its Old‑World counterpart, setting the stage for the cultural and political tensions that would later define Canada’s development.
Language
en
Duration
~3 hours (181K characters)
Series
Chronicles of Canada series: Volume 05
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
Toronto: [s.n.], 1915
Release date
2003-11-01
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1875–1957
A Canadian-born historian and political scientist, he wrote clearly about government, cities, and the history of New France while teaching generations of students at Harvard and Caltech. His work helped make public institutions and municipal politics easier for ordinary readers to understand.
View all books
by William Bennett Munro, Charles Eugene Ozanne

by William Bennett Munro

by Robert Lewis Dabney

by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jr. Joseph Smith

by John Jewel

by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur