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This section of theTimeline of Quebec history concernsevents through 1533.

• ~10,000 BCE: Indigenous peoples begin settling in what is nowQuébec following glacial retreat, initially as nomadic hunter-gatherers.^[1]
• ~8,000 BCE: Early evidence ofPaleo-Indians in southern Québec; these are the ancestors of laterEastern Woodlands peoples.^[1]
• ~3,000 BCE: Development ofArchaic cultures in theSt. Lawrence River Valley; increasing social complexity and use of regional trade networks.^[1]
• ~1,000 BCE:Woodland Period begins; Indigenous groups begin to practicehorticulture (e.g., maize), create ceramics, and form complex societies.^[1]
• ~1000:Iroquoian-speaking peoples such asSt. Lawrence Iroquoians are settled in large agricultural villages along theSt. Lawrence River valley.^[1]
• ~1200:Algonquian-speaking groups, including theInnu andAlgonquin, inhabit boreal forest regions north of theSt. Lawrence, primarily as semi-nomadic hunters and fishers.^[1]
• ~1300:Inuit peoples expand into northern Québec (Nunavik), adapting toArctic conditions and developing theThule culture, ancestral to modern Inuit.^[1]

• ~1400 -
  • Mi’kmaq Grand Council established; a governing body with male representatives and a grand chief leads by consensus.^[2]
  • Blackfoot Confederacy emerges; a political structure organized around bands governed by consensus.^[2]
• ~1450 -Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois League) forms to resolve disputes among nations in thelower Great Lakes region, including parts of modern-day Quebec.^[2]
• 1492 - For the Queen of Castile (later, Spain),Christopher Columbus crosses the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1493 - Thepapal bullInter Caetera (Doctrine of Discovery) decreed, granting European powers legal justification to claim lands in the Americas without Indigenous consent.^[2]
• 1497 -John Cabot reaches the island of Newfoundland, which he claims for England.

• ~1500 - Distinct Indigenous cultural regions are established in Québec:Eastern Woodlands (e.g.,Mohawk,Huron-Wendat,Abenaki) in the south,Subarctic groups (e.g.,Cree,Innu,Naskapi) in theboreal andtaiga forests, andArctic peoples (Inuit) in the far north.^[1]

• 1524 -Giovanni da Verrazzano, aFlorentine in the service of theKing Francis I of France explores the East coast of North America fromFlorida toNewfoundland as well as parts ofNew York Harbor. The French would take narrow land ports of the BoroughsQueens andBrooklyn from the upper and lower parts of the harbor until 1609 when theBritish and theDutch take control of it from the French.
• 1525 and after -Basque fishermen andwhalers regularly sail in theSt. Lawrence estuary and theSaguenay River.

• 16th century in Quebec
• Timelines of Quebec history
• Timelines of New France history
• 15th century in Canada
• 16th century in Canada
• 15th century in North America
• 16th century in North America
• Pre-Confederation Quebec

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