1. The French in America

2. The French Empire in America
Giovanni da Verrazano sent to map North America’s coastline (1524)
Wanted to find the Northwest Passage
Fighting between Catholics and Protestants caused France to halt exploration until early 1600s
Colonization was made for the purpose of fur trapping and fishing

4. Jacques Cartier
Ten years after Giovanni da Verrazano France sent Jacques Cartier.
Jacques Cartier mapped out the St. Lawrence River.
1541 was his last voyage to the Americas. It was 60 years before France sent another explorer to colonize in the Americas. There was to much fighting going on between the Catholic and Protestant in France.

7. Jacques Cartier

8. The French Empire in America
King Henry IV of France authorized French merchants to create colonies in North America. They hired a Geographer named Samuel de Champlain hired to help colonize North America (1605)
Established colony in Nova Scotia. Originally called Acadia.
1608: Founded Quebec (first capital of New France)
Colonies grew slowly
Fur traders and missionaries often lived with the Natives

9. Samuel de Champlain

10. 1609 Battle Samuel de Champlain leads the Algonquin's against the Mohawk

12. Coureurs de bois “runners of the woods”
1666 French fur trade. Most fur traders did not even live in the colonies. The trade took place between Native Americans.
Many French married Native American women.

15. Jesuit Missionaries “black robes”

18. New France Expands
The French decided they wanted their colonies to grow
To keep up with English and Spanish
Sent 4,000 men…then 900 women
Gifts for those who married and had children
Fined if they did not

19. New France’s population
Parents that had 10 or more children received financial bonuses.
In 1670 New France’s population was nearly 7,000. By 1760 it was well over 60,000 people.

20. New France Expands The French wanted to control the Mississippi River
Founded cities along the River:
Detroit, St. Louis, Biloxi, New Orleans
Planted large plantations of rice, tobacco, sugar, & indigo
Used slave labor

21. Exploring the Mississippi River
Louis Joliet- Fur Trader
Jacques Marquette- Jesuit Priest
In 1673 Joliet and Marquette set off to search the Mississippi River. They traveled the river as far as the Arkansas River.

25. Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle

26. Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle
Known as Lord La Salle
1682 he followed the Mississippi River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. He was the first European to do so.
Named the whole area Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV.

28. Count Frontenac
Count Frontenac –governor of New France wanted to ship furs down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
This was hard to do. No good harbors, and shifting sandbars. It was very hot.
Swamps had Yellow Fever, and Malaria.

29. Count Frontenac

33. French Plantations 1698 Lord d’Iberville founded Biloxi
By 1721 the French in Louisiana had imported over 1,800 enslaved African people to work on their plantations.
SUGAR, RICE, TOBACCO, and INDIGO