French colonization Late getting into the colonization game

French colonization

Late getting into the colonization game: • Foreign and domestic problems – Roman Catholics vs. French Huguenots – St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre – 1598 - Edict of Nantes- limited toleration to Protestants – Louis XIV

1608 • Quebec • Samuel de Champlain “father of New France”

Indian Relations • Friendly!. . . To the Huron Indians • Fought with them against Iroquois, lightning sticks! • Iroquois then hated French

French Crown took control of New France • Almost completely autocratic • No representative assemblies or trial by jury, etc.

Population of New France • Slow growth • 1750: only about 60, 000 in New France

Why does no one want to join the party? • No economic motivation • French Huguenots were denied refuge in colony • French government favored West Indies

New France fans out • One valuable resources: beaver • Beaver hats • Coureurs de bois • Place names: Des Moines, Baton Rouge

French and Indians • French recruited Indians • Good because, you know not massacring them • Bad because: – Diseasesssss – Alcohol – Weapons – Tribal competition/violence – Cultural problems

Widespread, large-scale trapping • Great Lakes • Saskatchewan • Manitoba • River valleys of AR, MO, LA • West to Rockies • South to Spanish Texas

Jesuits • French tried to convert Native Americans to Christianity • Not successful • No system like the mission society of Spanish or praying town of British

Empire-builders • To stop British in Ohio River valley, founded Detroit • To stop Spanish in Gulf of Mexico, La Salle claimed “Louisiana”