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French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued as France established a colonial empire in the 17th century. Major French colonies were located in Canada and the Mississippi River Valley, along the Gulf coast in what is today Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, on the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Lucie, and at French Guiana in South America. Most colonies were developed to export products such as fish, sugar, and furs. As they colonized the New World, the French founded cities such as Quebec and Montreal in Canada, and Detroit, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, Mobile, Alabama, Biloxi, Mississippi, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States.
Early exploration and colonies The French first came to the "New World" as explorers, seeking passage to the Indies and wealth. Major French exploration of North America began under the reign of King Francis I of France. In 1524 or 1525, Francis sent Italian born Giovanni da Verrazano to explore the region between Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the Pacific Ocean. Although he failed to find such a route, Verranzano became the first European to explore much of the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada. Later, in 1534, Francis sent Jacques Cartier on the first of a series of voyages to explore the coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River. The first French attempt at establishing a colony in the newly explored territory was Fort Caroline (present-day Jacksonville, Florida) in 1564, made by Huguenots René Goulaine de Laudonnière and Jean Ribault. This colony was destroyed the next year by the Spanish from nearby Saint Augustine. The next attempt came in 1598, on Sable Island, southeast of present-day Nova Scotia. This colony went unsupplied, and the 12 survivors returned to France in 1605. The next, and first successful colony, was Acadia, founded in 1604, with the settlement of Saint Croix Island. Settlement of Acadia later centered on Port Royal, now Annapolis. Mathieu D' Amours, sir of Limekilns, wire naturalness of Louis, rider and adviser of the king to the seat présidial of Châtelet in Paris and Élisabeth Tessier, were born in 1618 in the Saint-Paul parish from the town of Paris. Its ancestors belonged to the French nobility and had had seigneuries in Anjou. Mathieu obtained confirmation of his letters of nobility on December 10, 1668, a few years after his arrival in New-France. Its pavoise family "of silver to sand wild boar accompanied as a chief by a lambel by mouths and, at a peak, three spearheads of sand arranged in fasce". In his country of origin, Mathieu D' Amours had chosen the military career. What was worth to him, undoubtedly, as of its arrival, to be named Major of Québec and later commander of a flying camp of some 200 men. It is on October 13, 1651 that it unloads with the wearing of Quebec, accompanied by his Élisabeth sister, her future brother-in-law Louis-Théandre Chartier de Lotbinière and most probably on the same ship as the governor Jean de Lauzon. March 16, 1652, Mathieu signs, in front of the notary Rolland Godet, a marriage contract which binds it to Marie Marsolet, girl of famous Nicolas, interprets of the French near the Amerindian nations and Marie the Barber. The marriage will be celebrated on April 30, 1652 in the parish Our-injury of Quebec. From this union will be born 15 children including 10 boys who took, according to the habit of noble, several titles such sieurs of Freneuse, Clignancourt, Louvière, Plain and Morandière. As of, the establishment of the sovereign Council in 1663, Mathieu is named there by the governor of Saffray de Mézy and the bishop Monseigneur de Laval. It will remain there until its death. Sometimes this function will lead it to face the governor of Buade de Frontenac which one said rather extreme character. Around 1640, Sieur Mathieu D'Amours des Chauffours was the official Cavalry chief having the role of the police around Quebec city up to Gaspé. He fought renegate, British and colonial groups to protect the lands of farmers and citizen of New-France. Mathieu D' Amours and Marie Marsolet settle initially in the Marsolet parents-in-law. Then they buy those in 1657 a site and a double house on the street Under-the-Extremely with the corner of the street Our-injury in the Low-city of Quebec. Become owner, Mathieu takes an active share in the parish and becomes marguillier. Already owner of a ground with Beaupré acquired in 1653 and of another in Gaudarville in 1654, where it makes build a house in 1666, Mathieu will be also interested by the draft of the furs and commercial fishing. November 8, 1672, the Talon intendant promises a concession to him on the Matane river. Royal approval will come only in 1677 with an addition on the side from the Métis river. In 1684, it will occupy the last years of its life to establish its sons and to find alliances advantageous for his daughters. After a life filled well but without to have acquired the richness, Mathieu D' Amours, sior of Limekilns, die at the 67 years age. It will be buried on October 9, 1695 in the vault of the parish church of Our-injury of Quebec. Canada and the Great Lakes The French colonies at Acadia and in what would become Canada were initially based around fishing in the Grand Banks. Soon however, the French became very interested in the fur trade, and this led them to push their colonies further inland to better trade with American Indian tribes. In 1603, Samuel de Champlain made his first trip to North America on a fur trading expedition. Champlain would prove instrumental in expanding New France. In 1608, he created a fur trading post that would grow into the city of Quebec, a settlement that later became the capital of French North America. At Quebec, Champlain forged alliances between France and the Huron and Ottawa against their traditional enemies, the Iroquois. Champlain and other French traders then continued exploring North America, using the birch bark canoe to move quickly across the Great Lakes and their tributary rivers. By 1634, French explorer Jean Nicolet had pushed as far west as present day Wisconsin. Although the French gained a large territory throughout Canada and the Great Lakes region, settlement in the area was sparse. New France had just 2,500 settlers by 1666. The colony grew slowly at first because France only took interest in fur trade and not colonizing. In 1663, this strategy changed with the arrival of Louis XIV upon the throne of France. He immediately sent ships containing 775 women (“les filles du roy") for the mostly male populated French Canadian demography serving in the fur trade posts. In only ten years, the population tripled to 7,000 inhabitants, reaching 15,000 in 1689, and 85,000 by 1754. In the wake of the French traders and voyageurs came several French Jesuits who attempted to Christianize many native groups through the establishment of missions, such as Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. In the meantime, French Huguenots established self-governing colonies beyond the control of the French state: for example, Huguenot refugees founded New Paltz, New York in the 1660's, part of a large Huguenot migration to the nominally Dutch New Netherland. These Huguenots, led by Louis Dubois, formed an early self-governing unit called the duzine, made treaties with the local Native Americans to purchase land from the Hudson River to the mountains, and otherwise prospered even after the English took control of the Hudson River and New York. (The village today boasts the oldest street in the United States with the original stone houses). Louisiana New France began to grow south and west of the Great Lakes after 1673, when Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet canoed across present day Wisconsin via the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway to discover the Mississippi River. From here, they followed the river south to the mouth of the Arkansas River. Afraid that they were drawing too near to areas of Spanish influence, the explorers turned north in Arkansas and returning to the Great Lakes, this time via the Illinois and Chicago rivers through present day Chicago. Following the journey of Marquette and Jolliet, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle traveled the Mississippi to its delta, claiming the river's entire watershed for France in 1682 and naming the territory Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV of France. This gave France control of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains in addition to their holdings in the Great Lakes and Canada, and soon Frenchmen such as Nicholas Perrot were establishing trading posts and forts in the new territory. In 1684, La Salle attempted to solidify French control over the Mississippi Valley by establishing a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. La Salle left France with 4 ships and 300 colonists, but the expedition was plagued by pirates, hostile Indians and poor navigation. They set up Fort Saint Louis, near Victoria, Texas. The colony lasted only until 1688, when local Indians massacred the 20 remaining adults, and took 5 children as captives. The colony of Louisiana was ultimately founded in 1699 and its capital, New Orleans, in 1718. France soon came into conflict with Great Britain, whose colonies bordered French colonies in several places. This led to the French and Indian Wars (the name given to the American phase of the Seven Years' War). Decline of the French in North America Following the French defeat in the Seven Years' War, the Treaty of Paris of February 10, 1763, divided French territory on the North American continent between the British and the Spanish. The sole exception was the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast, retained as a fishing outpost. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon are France's only remaining possessions north of the Caribbean. The French were able to briefly regain some of their former possessions in North America from the Spanish in 1800, during the Napoleonic Era, under the Treaty of San Ildefonso. In 1803 Napoleon began planning the invasion of England and sold colonial Louisiana to the United States, a sale referred to as the Louisiana Purchase. The purchase opened the way for 19th century American settlers. West Indies The French were also responsible for the settlement of the nation of Haiti, the nation which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, as well as the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucie and St. Martin (which is now shared with the Netherlands Antilles) and their immediate areas. The western one-third of the Hispaniola was ceded to the French, by the Spanish crown in 1697 and the French gained more land in 1795, which established a legitimate French colony on the island. After the French were driven out by a slave revolt in 1804 (the first and only successful revolution by Africans in the New World), Haiti gained independence. In Martinique throughout the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, slavery was never abolished. However, Guadeloupe is unique in these French colonies because slaves gained independence for a brief period from 1795 (due to pressures by the French Revolution, the convention in Paris performed this task and sent Victor Hugues to implement the new law) to the reinstatement of the institution of slavery by Bonaparte in 1802. South America French Guiana was first settled by the French in 1604. It remains an overseas department of France. From 1555 to 1567, French Huguenots, under the leadership of vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, made an attempt to establish the France Antarctique in Brazil, but were expelled. From 1612 to 1615, a new failed attempt was made in São Luís, Brazil. See also | ||||||||
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