Why did France explore the New World

Up to the eve of the explosion of European exploratory and colonizing activity, France had been embroiled in the enervating Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). That series of conflicts started in a quarrel over the succession to the French throne; Edward III of England had made a claim. French military defeats were compounded by the horror of the Black Death, the predations of lawless, marauding gangs in the countryside, and a bloody peasant revolt. If that were not enough, the French also suffered humiliating peace agreements and loss of territory to their English rivals. The tides of the conflict began to shift in favor of the French in the 15th century. Joan of Arc led her countrymen to a stirring victory at Orléans in 1429. By 1453, the English presence was reduced to the single city of Calais on the English Channel across from Dover. Considerable order and prosperity was returned to France, particularly during the regime of Louis XI (ruled 1461-83), when the king consolidated power at the expense of jealous local nobles. By 1500, France was regarded as a major power in Europe, but would once again become involved in protracted warfare, this time with the commanding House of Hapsburg as its major rival.

In the early years of the Protestant Reformation, Lutheranism made little headway in France. However, Calvinism enjoyed widespread appeal; its followers adopted the name of Huguenots. The Wars of Religion, beginning after 1560, tore France apart as Catholics and Protestants vied for supremacy. Henry of Navarre, the Protestant leader, was crowned as Henry IV (r. 1589-1610), but only after he converted to Catholicism. The reigns of Louis XIII (1610-43) and Louis XIV (1643-1715) cemented the primacy of Rome in French religious affairs. Louis XIV, the Sun King, led France to the pinnacle of power in European affairs. His glittering court at Versailles was without rival. The French, however, gathered so much power during the 17th century that resentful nations began to ally against them. Early French Exploration and Colonization The French were somewhat slow to develop an interest in the New World. It was only after a French privateer captured a Spanish ship laden with Mexican gold and silver that attentions were directed westward. Spurred by dreams of great wealth, Francis I (r. 1515-47), dispatched three navigators to the New World, the first two of whom were instructed to discover a Northwest Passage to India:

• Giovanni da Verrazzano, a hired Italian pilot, failed to find the passage during his voyage of 1525, but he did establish a French claim to portions of North America.
• Jacques Cartier crossed the Atlantic in 1534 and 1535; on his second trip he ventured up the St. Lawrence River as far as the eventual site of Montréal.
• Sieur de Robervall in 1542 captained the first meaningful attempt by the French to establish a permanent settlement in North America; he took over a camp left earlier by Cartier at the site of present-day Québec; the settlers remained one brutal winter before returning to France.

Later French expeditions included the following:

• Jean Ribault explored coastal Florida and the St. Johns River in 1562, but sparked almost immediate tension with Spanish forces in the area.
• Samuel de Champlain, the greatest of the French explorers, founded Port Royal (1605) and Québec (1608).
• Jean Nicolet (Nicollet), a companion of Champlain, explored Lake Michigan and surrounding areas in the 1630s.
• Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette conducted explorations of the Mississippi Basin in 1673.
• Sieur de La Salle explored the upper Mississippi River and Lake Michigan areas in 1679.
• Sieur de Bienville was the founder of New Orleans and explored the Mississippi Valley in 1698.
• Sieur d'Iberville in 1699 cruised the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and was the first to enter the Mississippi from the south.

French efforts in the New World differed sharply from those of the English. The French excelled at exploring new areas — even deep into the interior regions — while the English usually stayed close to the coastlines. The French contented themselves with developing thriving commercial interests, especially fur trading and fishing, rather than planting large permanent settlements populated by French citizens. These radically different colonial strategies did nothing to dim the growing rivalry between the two nations. See list of French Monarchs.

France established colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India in the 17th century, and while it lost most of its American holdings to Spain and Great Britain before the end of the 18th century, it eventually expanded its Asian and African territories in the 19th century.

Describe some of the discoveries made by French explorers

Key Points

• Competing with Spain, Portugal, the Dutch Republic, and later Britain, France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India in the 17th century. Major French exploration of North America began under the rule of Francis I of France. In 1524, he sent Italian-born Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the region between Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the Pacific Ocean.
• In 1534, Francis sent Jacques Cartier on the first of three voyages to explore the coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River. Cartier founded New France and was the first European to travel inland in North America.
• Cartier attempted to create the first permanent European settlement in North America at Cap-Rouge (Quebec City) in 1541,  but the settlement was abandoned the next year. A number of other failed attempts to establish French settlements in North America followed throughout the rest of the 16th century.
• Prior to the establishment of the 1663 Sovereign Council, the territories of New France were developed as mercantile colonies. It was only after 1665 that France gave its American colonies the proper means to develop population colonies comparable to that of the British. By the first decades of the 18th century, the French created and controlled a number of settlement colonies in North America.
• As the French empire in North America grew, the French also began to build a smaller but more profitable empire in the West Indies.
• While the French quite rapidly lost nearly all of its colonial gains in the Americas, their colonial expansion also covered territories in Africa and Asia where France grew to be a major colonial power in the 19th century.

New France The area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534, and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763. At its peak in 1712, the territory extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains, and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, including all the Great Lakes of North America. Sovereign Council A governing body in New France. It acted as both Supreme Court for the colony of New France and as a policy making body, although, its policy role diminished over time. Though officially established in 1663 by King Louis XIV, it was not created whole cloth, but rather evolved from earlier governing bodies. mercantile colonies Colonies that sought to derive the maximum material benefit from the colony, for the homeland, with a minimum of imperial investment in the colony itself. The mercantilist ideology at its foundations was embodied in New France through the establishment under Royal Charter of a number of corporate trading monopolies. Carib Expulsion The French-led ethnic cleansing that terminated most of the Carib population in 1660 from present-day Martinique. This followed the French invasion in 1635 and its conquest of the people on the Caribbean island, which made it part of the French colonial empire.

The French in the New World: New France

Competing with Spain, Portugal, the United Provinces (the Dutch Republic), and later Britain, France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India in the 17th century. The French first came to the New World as explorers, seeking a route to the Pacific Ocean and wealth. Major French exploration of North America began under the rule of Francis I of France. In 1524, Francis sent Italian-born Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the region between Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the Pacific Ocean. Verrazzano gave the names Francesca and Nova Gallia to the land between New Spain and English Newfoundland, thus promoting French interests.

In 1534, Francis sent Jacques Cartier on the first of three voyages to explore the coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River. Cartier founded New France by planting a cross on the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula. He is believed to have accompanied Verrazzano to Nova Scotia and Brazil, and was the first European to travel inland in North America, describing the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, which he named “The Country of Canadas” after Iroquois names, and claiming what is now Canada for France.He attempted to create the first permanent European settlement in North America at Cap-Rouge (Quebec City) in 1541 with 400 settlers, but the settlement was abandoned the next year. A number of other failed attempts to establish French settlement in North America followed throughout the rest of the 16th century.

Portrait of Jacques Cartier by Théophile Hamel (1844), Library and Archives Canada (there are no known paintings of Cartier that were created during his lifetime) In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of King Francis I. It was the first province of New France. However, initial French attempts at settling the region met with failure. 

Although, through alliances with various Native American tribes, the French were able to exert a loose control over much of the North American continent, areas of French settlement were generally limited to the St. Lawrence River Valley. Prior to the establishment of the 1663 Sovereign Council, the territories of New France were developed as mercantile colonies. It was only after 1665 that France gave its American colonies the proper means to develop population colonies comparable to that of the British. By the first decades of the 18th century, the French created and controlled such colonies as Quebec, La Baye des Puants (present-day Green Bay), Ville-Marie (Montreal), Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit (modern-day Detroit), or La Nouvelle Orléans (New Orleans) and Baton Rouge. However, there was relatively little interest in colonialism in France, which concentrated on dominance within Europe, and for most of its history, New France was far behind the British North American colonies in both population and economic development. Acadia itself was lost to the British in 1713.

In 1699, French territorial claims in North America expanded still further, with the foundation of Louisiana in the basin of the Mississippi River. The extensive trading network throughout the region connected to Canada through the Great Lakes, was maintained through a vast system of fortifications, many of them centered in the Illinois Country and in present-day Arkansas.

Map of North America (1750): France (blue), Britain (pink), and Spain (orange)

New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534, and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763. At its peak in 1712, the territory of New France extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains, and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, including all the Great Lakes of North America.

As the French empire in North America grew, the French also began to build a smaller but more profitable empire in the West Indies. Settlement along the South American coast in what is today French Guiana began in 1624, and a colony was founded on Saint Kitts in 1625. Colonies in Guadeloupe and Martinique were founded in 1635 and on Saint Lucia in 1650. The food-producing plantations of these colonies were built and sustained through slavery, with the supply of slaves dependent on the African slave trade. Local resistance by the indigenous peoples resulted in the Carib Expulsion of 1660.

France’s most important Caribbean colonial possession was established in 1664, when the colony of Saint-Domingue (today’s Haiti) was founded on the western half of the Spanish island of Hispaniola. In the 18th century, Saint-Domingue grew to be the richest sugar colony in the Caribbean. The eastern half of Hispaniola (today’s Dominican Republic) also came under French rule for a short period, after being given to France by Spain in 1795.

In the middle of the 18th century, a series of colonial conflicts began between France and Britain, which ultimately resulted in the destruction of most of the first French colonial empire and the near complete expulsion of France from the Americas.

Africa and Asia

French colonial expansion wasn’t limited to the New World. In Senegal in West Africa, the French began to establish trading posts along the coast in 1624. In 1664, the French East India Company was established to compete for trade in the east. With the decay of the Ottoman Empire, in 1830 the French seized Algiers, thus beginning the colonization of French North Africa. Colonies were also established in India in Chandernagore (1673) and Pondichéry in the south east (1674), and later at Yanam (1723), Mahe (1725), and Karikal (1739). Finally, colonies were founded in the Indian Ocean, on the Île de Bourbon (Réunion, 1664), Isle de France (Mauritius, 1718), and the Seychelles (1756).

While the French never rebuilt its American gains, their influence in Africa and Asia expanded significantly over the course of the 19th century.

Attributions