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

Failed Ventures  Jacques Cartier –Northwest passage –1535 -Tried to establish colonies along the St. Lawrence  French attempted a colony near Jacksonville, Fla  Learned from mistakes

First Economic Colony  Avoid the Spanish  Samuel de Champlain established Quebec –Fur trading post –Private venture - New France Trading Company

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

French–Native American Relations  Three reasons for positive relations 1.Interdependency 2.French weren’t a threat 3.Native allies of the French remained autonomous

Recruiting Colonists  No need –Fur trade didn’t require many people to operate  New World not popular  Cold  Wilderness  Unfamiliar

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)

Competition - The Dutch  1609 – Henry Hudson - found Hudson River  Dutch established Ft Orange (Albany) as a trading post  1626 – Dutch purchase Manhattan island for $25 – named New Amsterdam

Relationship with Natives  Amicable  Guns for Furs  Traded with Iroquois, not Algonquians

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

French Growth in Americas  New France Co. sold the colony to the Crown  Crown feared British growth

Growth of New France  Land grants  Indentured servants/orphans  New France: – – ,000 – ,000  English colonies in 1700 – 234,000

Why couldn’t they grow? They had the largest population in Western Europe, why couldn’t they grow? 1. Content in France 2. Immigrated to warm climates 3. Army

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)

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

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