The Coast-of-South is a natural, historical and tourist area of the Quebec constituting one of the territories in the past inhabited. It extends in bottom from Quebec on southern bank from the Fleuve the St. Lawrence, between the municipalities of Beaumont and Saint-Andrew of Kamouraska. It corresponds to the regional municipalities of county of Bellechasse, Montmagny, Islet and Kamouraska.

The area is consisted of the littoral strewn with villages and a little populated back-country forming a band from approximately fifty to hundred kilometers of width to the American border.

History

Since at the first times of the colony the river constituted the only road, the first establishments were created on the coasts. In the area of Quebec, designations appeared to name the areas naturelles : the Coast of Bowsprit, in north, the coast of Lauzon, at the south, and the coast of the South, low on the river.

In 1637, the first seigniory of the Coast-of-South, that of Bellechasse, was conceded. It was followed by that of the River-of-South in 1646, by that of the Alder plantations in 1656 and by fourteen others in the years 1670. The Coast-of-South term entered the use as of this time. At the end of the French Mode, 10  000 of 60  000 inhabitants of the News-France lived this area.

After the Conquest, a dozen new parishes were created in the low-grounds and on the first buttresses of the the Appalachian Mountains. The construction of the railroad of the Large Trunk until River-of-Wolf in 1859 and the road development then led to the creation of about thirty new localities in the Appalachian back-country. The strong increase in population however involved with the turning of the XXe century an important emigration towards other areas of Quebec and the the United States.

The arrival of the railroad transformed the Coast-of-South into area of passage to the bottom of the river and it lost more and more of its demographic importance as from this moment.

Economy

The economy sudcôtoise, traditionally founded on agriculture, fishing and the forestry development, developed a rather active manufacturing sector, mainly with Montmagny, Islet and Pocatière. Tourism which developed with the XIXe century thanks to the seaside resorts of the littoral remains important, in particular with Saint-Jean-Port-Pretty and Kamouraska

Coast-of-South like area

The administrative cutting of Quebec separates the natural and historical area from the Coast-of-South in two administrative areas  : that of the Boiler-Appalachian Mountains in the west and that of the Low-Saint-Laurent in the east. Voices rose these last years for an administrative recutting which would respect best the feeling of membership and the history.

References and bibliography

DESCHENES, Gaston Coast-of-South, this unknown factor , Quebec, Editions of North, 1991.

DESCHENES, Gaston the Year of the English, Coast-of-South per hour of the Conquest , Quebec, Editions of North, 1988.

HÉBERT, Yves. Bibliography of the Coast-of-South . Quebec, Québécois Institute of research on the culture, 1986.

HÉBERT, Yves. Coast-of-South, Beautiful To crunch . Quebec, the Gid Editions, 2003.

HÉBERT, Yves. Montmagny and the Coast-of-South . Holy-Foy, the Editions GID, 2005, (Collection Builders).

LABERGE, Alain, Under the Management of. History of the Coast-of-South . Quebec, Québécois Institute of research on the culture, 1993. 644 pages.

QUEBEC. Commission of toponymy. illustrated Dictionary, Names and places of Quebec . 2nd edition. Quebec, Publications of Quebec, 2006.

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