'Quebec's providential mission': L'Action francaise of Montreal and Frenchminorities (1917-1928)

Through the study of the monthly L'Action francaise, this article attempts to assess the place of French-Canadian minorities in the French-Canadian na tionalist movement of the 1920s, an area of study neglected by historians. The author demonstrates that the review's "romantic" view of the French-Can adian nation influenced its perception of French minorities, considered to be the remains, even the prolongation of the great French American Empire. Such an interpretation was often used by the review to demand that their re ligious and educational rights be respected. Only when considered in relati on to French minorities are some of the most important themes of traditiona l French-Canadian nationalism fully understood, specifically French Canada' s providential mission. Since the nation was thought of as an "organic" ent ity, L'Action francaise assigned the province of Quebec specific duties in assisting French minorities in their struggle against the assimilative tact ics of the Anglo-Protestant majority.