New France was a colonial empire established by France in North America during the 16th century and lasting until the 18th century. It covered a vast territory in North America, including parts of present-day Canada, the Great Lakes region, and the Mississippi River Valley.
French explorers, including Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, made early voyages to North America in the 16th and early 17th centuries. They established fur trading posts and settlements, including Quebec City in 1608, which became the capital of New France.
The fur trade was a significant economic activity in New France. French traders and trappers established relationships with Indigenous peoples, such as the Huron, Algonquin, and Cree, to exchange European goods for valuable furs like beaver and mink. Jesuit missionaries, including Jean de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, played a role in spreading Christianity among Indigenous communities in New France. They established missions and learned indigenous languages to communicate with the natives. Unlike the Spanish & English, the French generally had friendlier relations with Native Americans.
Unlike in the English or even the Spanish colonies, the French colonies are very empty. In many French colonies, the primary focus was on economic exploitation rather than establishing permanent settlements. French colonial efforts often revolved around extracting valuable resources, such as precious metals, spices, and tropical goods, rather than promoting large-scale settlement by French citizens. As well as the fact the French government only allowed French Catholics to settle and not French Protestants who were more desperate enough to colonize the New World, so the French Protestants simply went to the English Colonies. It's gotten to the point where the French government taxed women in the colonies for not producing enough children, and the French King Louis XIV had to have a specific program for women to sent to the New World just to reproduce and have baby.
The rivalry between France and Britain in North America, as part of their broader imperial conflicts in Europe, led to several wars, including the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the war and resulted in France ceding Canada and most of its North American territory to Britain. In 1755, during the French and Indian War, the British forcibly expelled thousands of Acadians (French-speaking residents of Acadia, now part of Nova Scotia) from their homes. This event, known as the Acadian Expulsion or the Great Upheaval, had a profound impact on the region.
While much of New France became part of British North America, France retained control of Louisiana, a vast territory that included the Mississippi River Valley and the Gulf Coast but was eventually owned by the Spanish with the French getting it back now. However, in 1803, France sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.
See New Spain and The Thirteen American Colonies for the colonies on the western and eastern coasts.
