Europeans Establish Colonies Chapter 2: Europeans Establish Colonies Section 2: The French Empire

French explorers led expeditions along the North American Atlantic seaboard during the 1500s The explorers established a number of French settlements along the St. Lawrence River, later part of present-day Canada

Giovanni da Verrazano and Jacques Cartier Northwest Passage – a water route to Asia through the cold waters of present-day Canada.

NEW FRANCE: NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS: French trade for furs because they are rare in Europe and greatly desired = $ Native Americans trade fur for Metal arrowheads, hoes, axes, knives, and hatchets; all useful tools and weapons. Because of trade with French the Native Americans invaded their neighbors territories to get more beaver fur

NEW FRANCE: NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS Unlike the Spanish, the Canadian French could not afford to intimidate, dispossess, or enslave the Native Americans ii. The French needed them as hunters and suppliers of furs

NEW FRANCE: NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS Jesuit Missionaries: Like the Spanish, the French dispatched Catholic priests to convert Native Americans

LIFE IN NEW FRANCE: New France’s government resembled that of New Spain. Both were strictly controlled by the powerful monarchs of the homeland. Like the Spanish, the French king did not permit an elected assembly in Canada French established a handful of small settlements in the Great Lakes and Illinois countries, including Detroit.

NEW FRANCE CLIMATE: Cold, long winters. They could farm so mild weather did return after the long cold winter

Alliances with Native Americans Bring Benefits: French adopted some of the Native Americans’ ways; Many fur traders married Native American women, the children of these marriages became known as metis French allied with the Great Lakes Indians

Louisiana and New Orleans: French explorer Robert de LaSalle claimed the territory around the Mississippi River basin for France, naming it Louisiana. Near the mouth of the Mississippi River, the French founded New Orleans, which became the colony’s largest town and leading seaport

Louisiana and New Orleans: Hot climate and swampy landscape promoted deadly diseases, especially dysentery and malaria French primarily valued Louisiana as a military base to keep the English from grabbing the immense Mississippi watershed

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