In 1534, France sent Jacques Cartier to search for a Northwest Passage. He claimed what is now Canada, for France.

The conditions were harsh. The winters were extremely cold. Few French citizens wanted to settle in this land, little suited for farming.

All fertile land, suitable for farming was reserved for the French nobility. Harsh winters and short growing seasons discouraged the French from settling along the St. Lawrence river.

Trade rifle, powder horn, beaver pelt, and beaver skin hat. The hardy French trappers had a market in Europe for beaver skins.

French trappers called themselves coureurs de bois – “wood rangers”

Unlike the Spanish, the French trappers made Native Americans their business partners. They lived with them and inter-married.

In 1673 over- trapped beaver caused the French to travel down the Mississippi in search for furs.

Canadian Lynx

The Huron taught the French how to survive in the wilderness. The French helped them in battle against their enemy, the Iroquois. Samuel de Champlain

Disease decimated the Native American population. The population decreased from 40,000 to 12,000 by Jesuit Missionaries were blamed.

Father Marquette and Louis Joliet thought the Mississippi may be the long sought Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, it took them to the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1682 Robert de La Salle planted a French flag at the mouth of the Mississippi River and claimed everything west of the Mississippi for King Louis XIV of France. The land became known as Louisiana.

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