It is said that France lost Canada in 1759, on the Plains of Abraham. But the colony was already ruined. Paid for for decades in torn-up playing cards and promises of payment, plundered by Intendant Bigot and his "Grande Société," it saw Versailles cease to honor its bills of exchange a few weeks after the fall of Quebec.

In this episode of The History Prize, we follow the paper: the card money, the store nicknamed "La Friponne" (The Mischievous One), the dances during the famine, the trial concerning the Canada affair, the Treaty of Paris of 1763, and Voltaire's "few acres of snow." And we ask ourselves who really paid for the loss of Canada.

▶ The sequel — Why Louis XV was right to cede all of Canada: Pourquoi Louis XV avait raison de céder to...

📌 Chapters
00:00 A playing card
02:05 Introduction
03:00 An empire of illusion
04:52 The currency of cards
07:27 The man who signed the paper
10:32 The day Versailles stopped paying
13:47 The response: there must be culprits
16:11 The official price of a people
18:27 The bill
21:43 What "Je me souviens" means
24:32 Conclusion

💬 Tell me in the comments which city you're watching from — Quebec City, Montreal, or France — and who you think bears the heaviest responsibility.

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#history #newfrance #canada #quebec #louisxv #frenchhistory #1759