French Colonization

1
French Colonization

• Initial Colonization Efforts
• Establishing the Fur Trade
• Recruiting
• Competition The Dutch
• Growth of French Colonies
• Expanding Along the Mississippi
• Missionaries

2
Failed Ventures

• 1534 - Jacques Cartier
• Northwest passage
• 1535 -Tried to establish colonies along the St.
  Lawrence
• 1564 - French attempted a colony near
  Jacksonville, Fla
• Learned from mistakes

3
First Economic Colony

• Avoid the Spanish
• 1608 - Samuel de Champlain established Quebec
• Fur trading post
• Private venture - New France Trading Company

4
Establishing the Fur Trade

• Furs in demand
• St. Lawrence transportation
• Establish trading posts along the banks
• Native Americans
• Established amicable relationships (Algonquians).
• Guns/tools for furs
• Disease an issue

5
FrenchNative American Relations

• Three reasons for positive relations
• Interdependency
• French werent a threat
• Native allies of the French remained autonomous

6
Recruiting Colonists

• No need
• Fur trade didnt require many people to operate
• New World not popular
• Cold
• Wilderness
• Unfamiliar

7
Purpose of Colony

• This was a business colony
• Make money and go home young men
• French often married native women
• The population of French in Canada was small.
  (In 1650 700 men)

8
Competition - The Dutch

• 1609 Henry Hudson - found Hudson River
• 1614 - Dutch established Ft Orange (Albany) as a
  trading post
• 1626 Dutch purchase Manhattan island for 25
  named New Amsterdam

9
Relationship with Natives

• Amicable
• Guns for Furs
• Traded with Iroquois, not Algonquians

10
End of the Dutch

• Dutch neglected North America
• Distracted by eastern colonization
• Lack of immigrants
• 1664 - British seized New Amsterdam (New York)
• 1667, Dutch forfeit all possessions in N. America
  to England

11
French Growth in Americas

• 1663 - New France Co. sold the colony to the
  Crown
• Crown feared British growth

12
Growth of New France

• Land grants
• Indentured servants/orphans
• New France
• 1650 - 700
• 1663 - 3,000
• 1700 - 15,000
• English colonies in 1700 234,000

13
Why couldnt they grow?

• They had the largest population in
• Western Europe, why couldnt they
• grow?
• Content in France
• Immigrated to warm climates
• Army

14
Missionaries

• 1620s - Jesuit missionaries - Great Lakes region
• Indians initially indifferent, but warmed to
  Jesuits, why?
• Jesuits not greedy
• Jesuits learned native culture before converting
• Had some success
• Felt they had to accept Jesuits to maintain
  French trade (they were correct)

15
Pere Jacques Marquette

• 1666 sent to New France
• Built relationships with tribes in Northern WI,
  MI and Ontario Huron and Ottawa
• 1673 Marquette and Louis Joliet explore
  Mississippi River
• First French to find the Mississippi

16
Further Expansion

• Expanding along the Mississippi
• The West Indies - slavery
• Martinique
• St. Lucie
• Guadeloupe
• Robert LaSalle, 1682
• Explored the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River
• First European to travel the length of the river
• Established small colonies/trading posts along
  this arc
• Claimed territory along the Mississippi for France