[31] It remains an important centre of art, culture, literature, film and television, music, commerce, aerospace, transport, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, tourism, food, fashion, video game development, and world affairs.

[58] The Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, an ethnically and culturally distinct group from the Iroquois nations of the Haudenosaunee (then based in present-day New York), established the village of Hochelaga at the foot of Mount Royal two centuries before the French arrived.

While Arnold approached the Plains of Abraham, Montreal fell to American forces led by Richard Montgomery on November 13, 1775, after it was abandoned by Guy Carleton.

The Americans did not return British prisoners in exchange, as previously agreed, due to accusations of abuse, with Congress repudiating the agreement at the protest of George Washington.

[72][73][74] Montreal was the capital of the Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849, but lost its status when a Tory mob burnt down the Parliament building to protest the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, because it lay on the border between French and English Canada, Ottawa was seen as a compromise between Montreal, Toronto, Kingston and Quebec City, which were all vying to become the young nation's official capital.

[78] During World War II, Mayor Camillien Houde protested against conscription and urged Montrealers to disobey the federal government's registry of all men and women.

The 1970s ushered in a period of wide-ranging social and political changes, stemming largely from the concerns of the French-speaking majority about the conservation of their culture and language, given the traditional predominance of the English Canadian minority in the business arena.

The city is named after the most prominent geographical feature on the island, a three-head mountain called Mount Royal, topped at 232 m (761 ft) above sea level.

Thunderstorms are common from late spring through summer to early fall; additionally, tropical storms or their remnants can cause heavy rains and gales.

Although most are clustered around the Old Montreal area, such as the Sulpician Seminary adjacent to Notre-Dame Basilica that dates back to 1687, and Château Ramezay, which was built in 1705, examples of early colonial architecture are dotted throughout the city.

[108] There are many historic buildings in Old Montreal in their original form: Notre-Dame Basilica, Bonsecours Market, and the 19th‑century headquarters of all major Canadian banks on St. James Street (French: Rue Saint Jacques).

[109] A few notable examples of the city's 20th-century architecture include Saint Joseph's Oratory, completed in 1967, Ernest Cormier's Art Deco Université de Montréal main building, the landmark Place Ville Marie office tower, and the controversial Olympic Stadium and surrounding structures.

Old Montreal is accessible from the downtown core via the underground city and is served by several STM bus routes and Metro stations, ferries to the South Shore and a network of bicycle paths.

[121] The first cross on the mountain was placed there in 1643 by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the founder of the city, in fulfilment of a vow he made to the Virgin Mary when praying to her to stop a disastrous flood.

[138] Historically Montreal has been a centre of Catholicism in North America with its numerous seminaries and churches, including the Notre-Dame Basilica, the Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde, and Saint Joseph's Oratory.

[161] Recently, the city has attracted world leading game developers and publishers studios such as EA, Eidos Interactive, BioWare, Artificial Mind and Movement, Strategy First, THQ, Gameloft mainly because of the quality of local specialized labour, and tax credits offered to the corporations.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, an institutional investor managing assets totalling $408 billion CAD, has its main business office in Montreal.

[166] Many foreign subsidiaries operating in the financial sector also have offices in Montreal, including HSBC, Aon, Société Générale, BNP Paribas and AXA.

Shell decided to close the refining centre in 2010, throwing hundreds out of work and causing an increased dependence on foreign refineries for eastern Canada.

[200] Beginning in the 1940s, Quebec literature began to shift from pastoral tales romanticizing the French-Canadian countryside to writing set in the multicultural city of Montreal.

Notable pioneering works describing the character of the city include Gabrielle Roy's 1945 novel Bonheur d'occasion, translated as The Tin Flute, and Gwethalyn Graham's 1944 novel Earth and High Heaven.

Subsequent writers of fiction who have set their work in Montreal have included Mordecai Richler, Claude Jasmin, Michel Tremblay, Francine Noel, and Heather O'Neill, among many others.

The Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) play at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on the campus of McGill University for their regular-season games.

Uniprix Stadium, built in 1993 on the site of Jarry Park, is used for the National Bank Open (formerly known as the Rogers Cup) men's and women's tennis tournaments.

There are also five over-the-air French-language television stations: CBFT-DT (Ici Radio-Canada), CFTM-DT (TVA), CFJP-DT (Noovo), CIVM-DT (Télé-Québec), and CFTU-DT (Canal Savoir).

[233] Each station was designed by different architects with individual themes and features original artwork, and the trains run on rubber tires, making the system quieter than most.

It carried an average of 79,000 daily passengers in 2014, making it the seventh busiest in North America following New York, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, and Mexico City.

Groundbreaking occurred April 12, 2018, and construction of the 67-kilometre-long (42 mi) network – consisting of three branches, 26 stations, and the conversion of the region's busiest commuter railway – commenced the following month.

[261] In what the STM states is a mission to combine different forms of mobility, transit card holders can now take advantage of their membership to also rent bicycles at select stations.