In 1611, just three years after the foundation of Quebec City, Samuel de Champlain established a fur trading post on the island of Montreal, at a site originally named La Place Royale.

In 1639, Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière received the seigneurial title to the island in the name of the Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal, a Roman Catholic mission who aimed to convert the native Iroquois.

Finally, in 1642, the colony of Ville-Marie was officially established on the island, governed by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve.

Montreal would not be incorporated as a city until 1832, nearly two centuries later.