French colonisation of the Americas: Encyclopedia II - French colonisation of the Americas - North America

French colonisation of the Americas - North America

The French established colonies across the New World in the 17th century. They were developed to export sugar and furs, among other products. Explorers and settlers from France settled in what is now Canada, the Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf coast, in what is now Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, founding the cities of Quebec and Montreal in Canada, and Detroit, Michigan, Saint Louis, Missouri, Mobile, Alabama, Biloxi, Mississippi, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States.

The French first came to the "New World" as explorers, seeking passage to the Indies and wealth. French explorers included: Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, Jacques Cartier, Giovanni da Verranzano, and Robert LaSalle.

The first French attempt at colonization was Fort Caroline in 1564, made by Huguenots. 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.

The French were very interested in the fur trade, and purchased fur from, and formed alliances with, Native American tribes, such as the Huron and Ottawa. They actively engaged in warfare with the traditional enemies of the Hurons and Ottawas, the Iroquois. French Jesuits also attempted to Christianize many native groups through the establishment of missions, such as Sainte-Marie among the Hurons.

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 Netherlands. These Huguenots, let 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).

France once held vast possessions in North America, including the Mississippi and St. Lawrence river valleys, and the Great Lakes region. Quebec was founded in 1608, and Montreal in 1642. New France had 2500 settlers by 1666. The colony grew slowly at first because France only took interest in fur trade and not colonising. 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.

Having explored the Mississippi Valley to its mouth, from the direction of Canada, in the North, in 1682, Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle named the great central belt of territory Louisiane in honour of Louis XIV of France. In 1684, he left France with 4 ships and 300 colonists to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. 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.

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 Ildefonse. However, France did not have the navy to re-supply its North American holdings – the blockade of the French Empire was a key part of British strategy against Napoleon – and because France did not want its possessions to fall into the hands of the British, Napoleon sold this colonial Louisiana to the United States, a sale referred to as the Louisiana Purchase. The date of this was May 3, 1803 and the fee, 15 million dollars, a considerable sum for the young American state. However, the land was extensive – from New Orleans to Montana – and from British colonial days, French Louisiana had begun to seem a constraint on the potential for expansion beyond the Appalachians. The purchase opened the way for 19th century American settlers.

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. The western one-third of the island 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 in Hispaniola. After the French were driven out by a slave revolt in 1804 (the first and only successful revolution by Africans in the New World) in 1804, Haiti was given independence in the same year.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "North America", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki