The French in America

The French Empire in America

• Giovanni da Verrazano sent to map North America’s coastline (1524)– Wanted to find the Northwest Passage

• Fighting between Catholics and Protestants caused France to halt exploration until early 1600s

• Colonization was made for the purpose of fur trapping and fishing

Jacques Cartier

• Ten years after Giovanni da Verrazano France sent Jacques Cartier.

• Jacques Cartier mapped out the St. Lawrence River.

• 1541 was his last voyage to the Americas. It was 60 years before France sent another explorer to colonize in the Americas. There was to much fighting going on between the Catholic and Protestant in France.

Jacques Cartier

The French Empire in America

• King Henry IV of France authorized French merchants to create colonies in North America. They hired a Geographer named Samuel de Champlain hired to help colonize North America (1605)– Established colony in Nova Scotia. Originally called

Acadia.– 1608: Founded Quebec (first capital of New France)– Colonies grew slowly – Fur traders and missionaries often lived with the Natives

Samuel de Champlain

1609 Battle Samuel de Champlain leads the

Algonquin's against the Mohawk

Coureurs de bois“runners of the woods”

• 1666 French fur trade. Most fur traders did not even live in the colonies. The trade took place between Native Americans.

• Many French married Native American women.

Jesuit Missionaries“black robes”

New France Expands

• The French decided they wanted their colonies to grow– To keep up with

English and Spanish– Sent 4,000 men…then

900 women• Gifts for those who

married and had children

• Fined if they did not

New France’s population

• Parents that had 10 or more children received financial bonuses.

• In 1670 New France’s population was nearly 7,000. By 1760 it was well over 60,000 people.

New France Expands

• The French wanted to control the Mississippi River– Founded cities along the River:

• Detroit, St. Louis, Biloxi, New Orleans

• Planted large plantations of rice, tobacco, sugar, & indigo– Used slave labor

Exploring the Mississippi River

• Louis Joliet- Fur Trader• Jacques Marquette- Jesuit Priest• In 1673 Joliet and Marquette set off to

search the Mississippi River. They traveled the river as far as the Arkansas River.

Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle

Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle

• Known as Lord La Salle• 1682 he followed the Mississippi River all

the way to the Gulf of Mexico. He was the first European to do so.

• Named the whole area Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV.

Count Frontenac

• Count Frontenac –governor of New France wanted to ship furs down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.

• This was hard to do. No good harbors, and shifting sandbars. It was very hot.

• Swamps had Yellow Fever, and Malaria.

Count Frontenac

French Plantations

• 1698 Lord d’Iberville founded Biloxi

• By 1721 the French in Louisiana had imported over 1,800 enslaved African people to work on their plantations.

• SUGAR, RICE, TOBACCO, and INDIGO