Montreal officially became a city in 1832. The city's growth was spurred by the opening of the Lachine Canal and Montreal was the capital of the United Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849. Growth continued and by 1860 Montreal was the largest city in British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada. Annexation of neighbouring towns between 1883 and 1918 changed Montreal back to a mostly Francophone city. The Great Depression in Canada brought unemployment to the city, but this waned in the mid-1930s, and skyscrapers began to be built. During the early 18th century, the name of the island came to be used as the name of the town. Two 1744 maps by Nicolas Bellin identified the island as Isle de Montréal and the town as Ville-Marie; but a 1726 map refers to the town as "la ville de Montréal". The name Ville-Marie soon fell into disuse. Today it is used to refer to the Montreal borough that includes downtown.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/Jacques_Cartier_Square-5a97326aff1b780036caa8f1.jpg)
The city of Montreal has nearly as many inhabitants as the former unified city of Montreal (the recreated suburban municipalities are less densely populated than the core city), but population growth is expected to be slower for some time. Analysts note that the overwhelming majority of industrial sites are located in the territory of the post-demerger city of Montreal. The current city of Montreal is about half the size of the post-1998 merger city of Toronto (both in terms of land area and population).