Quebec had fallen to the British in September 1759, at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, but French forces remained in New France in large numbers. Supplies were important because France ran their colonies and military such that the colonies were wholly dependent on products and manufacturing of the motherland. Several appeals to the French government for reinforcements met with indifference or neglect, partly because the French navy had been smashed at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759.