History UsefulNotes / TheFrenchColonialEmpire

* ''Film/DeGaulle''recreates the famous Appeal of 18 June 1940 by UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle, including his attempt to rally the French empire as Nazi Germany has defeated the French army and occupies mainland France.

* ''Film/{{Indochine}}'' spans the years 1930-1954 in the country that would eventually become Vietnam.

* ''Film/DeGaulle'' (2020) recreates the famous Appeal of 18 June 1940 by UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle, including his attempt to rally the French empire as Nazi Germany has defeated the French army and occupies mainland France.

* ''Film/{{Days of Glory|2006}}'' (2006), about Algerian and Moroccan men who enlist in the Free French Forces during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII with hopes of independence for their country.
* ''Film/LeDernierVol'' (2009) takes place in French colonies of Northern Africa in the 1930s.
* ''Film/FatherAndSoldier'' (2023) is about two Senegalese men (father and son) who are drafted in the French military during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* ''Film/{{Indochine}}'' (1992) spans the years 1930-1954 in the country that would eventually become Vietnam.

* ''Film/DeGaulle'' (2020) recreates the famous Call of 18 June 1940 by Charles de Gaulle, including his attempt to rally the French empire as Nazi Germany has defeated the French army and occupies mainland France.

** Algeria was colonized after a guerrilla war lasting two decades (1830-1850) and then governed as an integral part of France, divided up into departments, and colonized by ethnic Spaniards and Italians and Frenchmen (known at first as ''colons'', later as ''pieds-noirs'' (lit. "black feet")). These immigrants had disproportionate clout in the National Assembly (their Deputies and Senators stayed in office for longer than usual, giving them ''incredible'' seniority), meaning that when the Arabs started to revolt against French rule in 1954, the Fourth Republic found it very difficult to compromise. The war that resulted was thus extremely bloody (Arabs still call the Algerian War of Independence the "War of a Million Martyrs", and demographic analysis tells us that up to 500,000 people really did die during the conflict) and lasted until 1962, when Charles de Gaulle finally granted Algeria its independence. To this day, Algeria is probably the most culturally messed-up country in North Africa; the French successfully played off Arabs and Berbers against each other, and Algerian Arabic has enough French that other Arabs find it even harder to understand than other forms of Western Arabic (which is notoriously difficult for Eastern Arabs already).

UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s Colonial Empire existed from the [[TheCavalierYears 1500s]] to the [[TheSixties 1960s]], roughly the same length of time as UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars (centering on UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} Indochina]] and [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPolynesia the Pacific]]. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

* UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}: Much of it starting as soon as 1534. Nowadays, the only French-speaking part is UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, although there are francophone populations in other provinces (with the largest being in New Brunswick[[note]]The only officially bilingual province of Canada; Quebec has French as its sole official language, while all other provinces either have English as the sole official language or have no official language at all. This count leaves out the territories, as all three have multiple official languages--English and French are official in all three, and while Nunavut adds Inuktitut, the Northwest Territories add ''nine'' indigenous languages to the list.[[/note]] and Ontario[[note]]Whose French-speaking population are called "Franco-Ontariens"; probably the most famous of recent years are Paul Martin, Sr., a well-respected LongRunner MP and member of Liberal governments, and his son Paul Martin, Jr., who became a much-reviled Prime Minister 2003-06.[[/note]]). Also kept the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon just off the coast of Newfoundland. France holds onto these islands even today, the only part of North America that is still a French territory.

UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s Colonial Empire existed from the [[TheCavalierYears 1600s]] to the [[TheSixties 1960s]], roughly the same length of time as UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars (centering on UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} Indochina]] and [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPolynesia the Pacific]]. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

* UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}: Much of it. Nowadays, the only French-speaking part is UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, although there are francophone populations in other provinces (with the largest being in New Brunswick[[note]]The only officially bilingual province of Canada; Quebec has French as its sole official language, while all other provinces either have English as the sole official language or have no official language at all. This count leaves out the territories, as all three have multiple official languages--English and French are official in all three, and while Nunavut adds Inuktitut, the Northwest Territories add ''nine'' indigenous languages to the list.[[/note]] and Ontario[[note]]Whose French-speaking population are called "Franco-Ontariens"; probably the most famous of recent years are Paul Martin, Sr., a well-respected LongRunner MP and member of Liberal governments, and his son Paul Martin, Jr., who became a much-reviled Prime Minister 2003-06.[[/note]]). Also kept the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon just off the coast of Newfoundland. France holds onto these islands even today, the only part of North America that is still a French territory.

* Much of UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean, including: Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti[[note]]Successfully rebelled against French rule in the early years of the Nineteenth Century, thus becoming a: the second free nation in the Western hemisphere; b: the first majority-non-white nation in the Western hemisphere; c: the first black republic; and d: the only example of a successful slave revolt ''in all recorded history''[[/note]] and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (which, incidentally, [[AGoodNameForARockBand would be a good name for a jazz band]]).

UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s Colonial Empire existed from the [[TheCavalierYears 1600s]] to the [[TheSixties 1960s]], roughly the same length of time as UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars (centring on North America), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} Indochina]] and [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPolynesia the Pacific]]. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

The French Colonial Empire existed from the 1600s to the 1960s, roughly the same length of time as the British Empire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars (centring on North America), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West Africa, Indochina and the Pacific. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

* Canada: Much of it. Nowadays, the only French-speaking part is Quebec, although there are francophone populations in other provinces (with the largest being in New Brunswick[[note]]The only officially bilingual province of Canada; Quebec has French as its sole official language, while all other provinces either have English as the sole official language or have no official language at all. This count leaves out the territories, as all three have multiple official languages--English and French are official in all three, and while Nunavut adds Inuktitut, the Northwest Territories add ''nine'' indigenous languages to the list.[[/note]] and Ontario[[note]]Whose French-speaking population are called "Franco-Ontariens"; probably the most famous of recent years are Paul Martin, Sr., a well-respected LongRunner MP and member of Liberal governments, and his son Paul Martin, Jr., who became a much-reviled Prime Minister 2003-06.[[/note]]). Also kept the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon just off the coast of Newfoundland. France holds onto these islands even today, the only part of North America that is still a French territory.
* United States of America: Parts of it (which explains patently French place names like Des Moines, Saint Louis, Louisiana, and Detroit). Almost all American territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River was claimed by France, and the French had active settlement in that region north of the Ohio River and in the lowermost parts of the Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf coast[[note]]French settlement in Louisiana started a few miles upstream from Baton Rouge and continued downriver to the sea. Additionally, the lands from Mobile (in today's Alabama) westward to New Orleans were French-controlled for quite some time.[[/note]]) this land was given up to the British after the UsefulNotes/FrenchAndIndianWar and to the United States in the Treaty of Paris that ended UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. The Mississippi-Missouri basin west of the Mississippi became Spanish from 1762 until UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte forced his then-ally King Charles IV to give it back to France. Barely three years later France sold it to the fledgling US government under UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson in the Louisiana Purchase. Napoleon had bills to pay, since fighting "[[EnemyMine Perfidious Albion]]" and beating up the rest of Europe didn't come cheap, and it is not as if anyone in the French government had commercial interests or familial links to ''La Louisiane''[[note]] as opposed to, say, the highly profitable sugar-island of Martinique, home of Joséphine Bonaparte[[/note]]. There is still a considerable population of French-speakers in the bayous of Louisiana[[note]](to a large extent descended from people expelled from the former colony of Acadia in Canada by the British[[/note]], and in New England near the Quebec border.
* Much of the Caribbean, including: Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti[[note]]Successfully rebelled against French rule in the early years of the Nineteenth Century, thus becoming a: the second free nation in the Western hemisphere; b: the first majority-non-white nation in the Western hemisphere; c: the first black republic; and d: the only example of a successful slave revolt ''in all recorded history''[[/note]] and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (which, incidentally, [[AGoodNameForARockBand would be a good name for a jazz band]]).

* South America: French Guiana (Guyane), a chunk of the Amazon located between Brazil and Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana). Best known in the past for its unhealthy penal colonies (Devil's Island) and hot spices (Cayenne). Still part of France today, it houses the Centre Spatial Guyanais (Guiana Space Center) from which the European Space Agency launches its rockets. Not to be confused with the country of Guyana (which was formerly known as British Guyana).

* The Arabic-speaking [[labelnote:Note]]Well, nowadays they really are bilingual Arabic and French, but they weren't before colonization, that is[[/labelnote]] lands of North Africa, namely UsefulNotes/{{Algeria}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tunisia}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}}, also known as the Maghreb. As you might have guessed, these colonies (particularly Algeria) are mostly Sahara Desert, but the coastal areas provided lucrative and strategically-useful ports for France.

* United States of America: Parts of it (which explains patently French place names like Des Moines, Saint Louis, Louisiana, and Detroit). Almost all American territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River was claimed by France, and the French had active settlement in that region north of the Ohio River; this land was given up to the British after the UsefulNotes/FrenchAndIndianWar and to the United States in the Treaty of Paris that ended UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. The Mississippi-Missouri basin west of the Mississippi became Spanish from 1762 until UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte forced his then-ally King Charles IV to give it back to France. Barely three years later France sold it to the fledgling US government under UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson in the Louisiana Purchase. Napoleon had bills to pay, since fighting "[[EnemyMine Perfidious Albion]]" and beating up the rest of Europe didn't come cheap, and it is not as if anyone in the French government had commercial interests or familial links to ''La Louisiane''[[note]] as opposed to, say, the highly profitable sugar-island of Martinique, home of Joséphine Bonaparte[[/note]]. There is still a considerable population of French-speakers in the bayous of Louisiana[[note]](to a large extent descended from people expelled from the former colony of Acadia in Canada by the British[[/note]], and in New England near the Quebec border.

France has retained somewhat more minor colonies than Britain, but has directly integrated them into the core state rather than running them as separate dependencies. As a result, France is technically a transcontinental country that spans 12 timezones - the most of any country on Earth - and possesses the largest Exclusive Economical Zone. The largest of these overseas regions and/or territories are New Caledonia and French Guiana, the latter noted for being the site of the European Space Agency's launch site at Kourou (and for giving France its longest land border with ''Brazil'' of all places, surpassing Spain by a mere 3 kilometers). As of 2011 the French overseas department have a combined population of 2,685,705 (in comparison the British Overseas Territories have a combined population of 260,000.).

France has retained somewhat more minor colonies than Britain, but has directly integrated them into the core state rather than running them as separate dependencies. As a result, France is technically a transcontinental country that spans 12 timezones - the most of any country on Earth - and possesses the largest Exclusive Economical Zone. The largest of these overseas regions and/or territories are New Caledonia and French Guiana, the latter noted for being the site of the European Space Agency's launch site at Kourou. As of 2011 the French overseas department have a combined population of 2,685,705 (in comparison the British Overseas Territories have a combined population of 260,000.).

** What of the ''pieds-noirs?'' The new Algeria gave everyone that was automatically eligible for French citizenship [[note]]which included all Christians and the Jews who were there for centuries, even those who fought ''against'' the Colonial regime[[/note]] a choice: suitcase or coffin. Most of them went to France, where the mainland French were not thrilled to see all the "immigrants" looking for jobs and such. The ''pieds-noirs'', meanwhile, were taken aback by their lukewarm reception in what they had always considered ''their own fucking country''. It was an ugly chapter in French history, and no one much likes talking about it.

* In the 18th century France competed for influence in India with the British East India Company, but came a distant second in the Seven Years War, although it still retained a few trading posts on the mainland (notably Pondicherry and Chandernagore, which were absorbed by India after independence) and some islands in the Indian Ocean. Of the two most important one, Mauritius (confusingly called the Île de France under French rule), was lost at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, but French is still one of its official languages. The other, best known for producing vanilla, was first called Île Bourbon, [[PleaseSelectNewCityName then La Réunion, then Île Bonaparte, then Île Bourbon, and since 1848 La Réunion]] again; it is today an overseas département of France.

France has retained somewhat more minor colonies than Britain, but has directly integrated them into the core state rather than running them as separate dependencies. As a result, France is technically a transcontinental country that spans 12 timezones - the most of any country on Earth. The largest of these overseas regions and/or territories are New Caledonia and French Guiana, the latter noted for being the site of the European Space Agency's launch site at Kourou. As of 2011 the French overseas department have a combined population of 2,685,705 (in comparison the British Overseas Territories have a combined population of 260,000.)

* Much of western Africa, in two parts:
** The Arabic-speaking [[labelnote:Note]]Well, nowadays they really are bilingual Arabic and French, but they weren't before colonization, that is[[/labelnote]] lands of North Africa, namely UsefulNotes/{{Algeria}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tunisia}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}}, also known as the Maghreb. As you might have guessed, these colonies (particularly Algeria) are mostly Sahara Desert, but the coastal areas provided lucrative and strategically-useful ports for France.
*** Tunisia and Morocco were technically protectorates, officially governed by traditional Arab monarchs (a Sultan in Morocco and a ''Bey'' or Lord in Tunisia; both upgraded themselves to King upon independence, although the Tunisian one didn't last very long), but that didn't really mean much. They were colonized relatively late (Tunisia in 1888, Morocco in 1912), and the French influence on them, while significant, did not do substantial damage to the native Arab-Berber culture. Morocco is rather interesting in that it was not entirely under French control; besides the Western Sahara/Rio de Oro (a whole 'nother can of worms), northern Morocco was a Spanish protectorate, with the exception of Tangier (right across from UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}), which was an [[TruceZone international free port]] (and [[CityOfSpies den of espionage]]).
*** Algeria was colonized after a guerrilla war lasting two decades (1830-1850) and then governed as an integral part of France, divided up into departments, and colonized by ethnic Spaniards and Italians and Frenchmen (known at first as ''colons'', later as ''pieds-noirs'' (lit. "black feet")). These immigrants had disproportionate clout in the National Assembly (their Deputies and Senators stayed in office for longer than usual, giving them ''incredible'' seniority), meaning that when the Arabs started to revolt against French rule in 1954, the Fourth Republic found it very difficult to compromise. The war that resulted was thus extremely bloody (Arabs still call the Algerian War of Independence the "War of a Million Martyrs", and demographic analysis tells us that up to 500,000 people really did die during the conflict) and lasted until 1962, when Charles de Gaulle finally granted Algeria its independence. To this day, Algeria is probably the most culturally messed-up country in North Africa; the French successfully played off Arabs and Berbers against each other, and Algerian Arabic has enough French that other Arabs find it even harder to understand than other forms of Western Arabic (which is notoriously difficult for Eastern Arabs already).
*** What of the ''pieds-noirs?'' The new Algeria gave everyone that was automatically eligible for French citizenship [[note]]which included all Christians and the Jews who were there for centuries, even those who fought ''against'' the Colonial regime[[/note]] a choice: suitcase or coffin. Most of them went to France, where the mainland French were not thrilled to see all the "immigrants" looking for jobs and such. The ''pieds-noirs'', meanwhile, were taken aback by their lukewarm reception in what they had always considered ''their own fucking country''. It was an ugly chapter in French history, and no one much likes talking about it.
** French West Africa, consisting of modern-day Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Guinea. The northernmost colonies were mostly desert (the Sahara, specifically) and dry plains and Muslim, while the southern ones were wetter (often rainforest) and mostly followed traditional African religions (many converted to Christianity). Again, it was mostly coastal ports the French were after, although they were also searching for minerals. Being proper colonies, the fight for independence wasn't terribly bloody (if at all, in many places); UsefulNotes/WorldWarII having drained France's resources, the case for losing these African colonies was painfully clear.
* There was also French Central Africa, from Chad down to what are now the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, and much of modern Cameroon (the rest was ruled by Britain). Same old story: Chad and a fair bit of Cameroon were dry and Muslim, the rest were wet and traditional/Christian (Christianity had been spread in Congo by the Portuguese in the 16th century).

* Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, collectively known as French Indochina. The first VietnamWar was fought to try and retain the last of these (the others became independent peacefully).

** French West Africa, consisting of modern-day Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Guinea. The northernmost colonies were mostly desert (the Sahara, specifically) and dry plains and Muslim, while the southern ones were wetter (often rainforest) and mostly followed traditional African religions (many converted to Christianity). Again, it was mostly coastal ports the French were after, although they were also searching for minerals. Being proper colonies, the fight for independence wasn't terribly bloody (if at all, in many places); WorldWarII having drained France's resources, the case for losing these African colonies was painfully clear.

* Unofficially part of the Empire was Lebanon, which was part of the [[{{UsefulNotes/Turkey}} Ottoman Empire]], but its Christian population (a majority at the time) was under French protection starting in the mid-19th century. The relationship between Lebanon and France remains strong, with much cultural exchange; the Lebanese have even developed a reputation of basically being the French of the Arab World with a lot of "cool" but highbrow culture, a casual attitude towards conventional morality, and ''fantastic'' gastronomy. After the end of WorldWarI, France split the Middle East with Britain under a system of UsefulNotes/LeagueOfNations "Mandates": Britain got Palestine (including the Transjordan) and Iraq, while Lebanon and Syria came under French rule. This lasted until shortly after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, but as far as the locals were concerned, it might as well have been a century. Much to their chagrin, the oil the French had hoped would be in Syria failed to turn up (it was all in British Iraq. D'oh!).

The French Colonial Empire existed from the 1600s to the 1960s, roughly the same length of time as the British Empire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and the UsefulNotes/NapoleonicWars (centring on North America), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West Africa, Indochina and the Pacific. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

* In the 18th century France competed for influence in India with the British East India Company, but came a distant second in the Seven Years War, although it still retained a few trading posts on the mainland (notably Pondicherry and Chandernagore, which were absorbed by India after independence) and some islands in the Indian Ocean. Of the two most important one, Mauritius (confusingly called the Île de France under French rule), was lost at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, but French is still one of its official languages. The other, best known for producing vanilla, was first called Île Bourbon, [[PleaseSelectNewCityName then La Réunion, then Île Bonaparte, then Île Bourbon, and since 1848 La Réunion]] again; today it is today an overseas département of France.

*** Algeria was colonized after a guerilla war lasting two decades (1830-1850) and then governed as an integral part of France, divided up into departments, and colonized by ethnic Spaniards and Italians and Frenchmen (known at first as ''colons'', later as ''pieds-noirs'' (lit. "black feet")). These immigrants had disproportionate clout in the National Assembly (their [=MPs=] and Senators stayed in office for longer than usual, giving them ''incredible'' seniority), meaning that when the Arabs started to revolt against French rule in 1954, the Fourth Republic found it very difficult to compromise. The war that resulted was thus extremely bloody (Arabs still call the Algerian War of Independence the "War of a Million Martyrs", and demographic analysis tells us that up to 500,000 people really did die during the conflict) and lasted until 1962, when Charles De Gaulle finally granted Algeria its independence. To this day, Algeria is probably the most culturally messed-up country in North Africa; the French successfully played off Arabs and Berbers against each other, and Algerian Arabic has enough French that other Arabs find it even harder to understand than other forms of Western Arabic (which is notoriously difficult for Eastern Arabs already).

* In the 18th century France competed for influence in India with the British East India Company, but came a distant second in the Seven Years War, although it still retained a few trading posts on the mainland (notably Pondicherry and Chandernagore, which were absorbed by India after independence) and some islands in the Indian Ocean. Of the two most important one, Mauritius (confusingly called the Île de France under French rule), was lost at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, but French is still one of its official languages. The other, best known for producing vanilla, was first called Île de Bourbon, [[PleaseSelectNewCityName then La Réunion, then Île Bonaparte, then Île de Bourbon, and since 1848 La Réunion]] again; today it is today an overseas département of France.

* In the 18th century France competed for influence in India with the British East India Company, but came a distant second in the Seven Years War, although it still retained a few trading posts on the mainland (notably Pondicherry and Chandernagore, which were absorbed by India after independence) and some islands in the Indian Ocean. Of the two most important one, Mauritius (confusingly called the Île de France under French rule), fell to Great Britain at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the other, first called Île de Bourbon, then La Réunion, then Île Bonaparte, then Île de Bourbon, and since 1848 La Réunion again, is today an overseas département of France and is best known for its vanilla.

* South America: French Guiana, a chunk of the Amazon located between Brazil and Suriname. Still part of France as of today, and probably mostly known for hosting the Centre Spatial Guyanais (Guiana Space Center) from which the European Space Agency launches its rockets. Not to be confused with the country of Guyana (which was formerly known as British Guyana).

*** Algeria was colonized quite early (in 1830) and governed as an integral part of France, divided up into departments, and colonized by ethnic Spaniards and Italians and Frenchmen (known at first as ''colons'', later as ''pieds-noirs'' (lit. "black feet")). These immigrants had disproportionate clout in the National Assembly (their [=MPs=] and Senators stayed in office for longer than usual, giving them ''incredible'' seniority), meaning that when the Arabs started to revolt against French rule in 1954, the Fourth Republic found it very difficult to compromise. The war that resulted was thus extremely bloody (Arabs still call the Algerian War of Independence the "War of a Million Martyrs", and demographic analysis tells us that up to 500,000 people really did die during the conflict) and lasted until 1962, when Charles De Gaulle finally granted Algeria its independence. To this day, Algeria is probably the most culturally messed-up country in North Africa; the French successfully played off Arabs and Berbers against each other, and Algerian Arabic has enough French that other Arabs find it even harder to understand than other forms of Western Arabic (which is notoriously difficult for Eastern Arabs already).

The French Colonial Empire existed from the 1600s to the 1960s, roughly the same length of time as the British Empire lasted. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

* United States of America: Parts of it (which explains patently French place names like Des Moines, Saint Louis, Louisiana, and Detroit). Almost all American territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River was claimed by France, and the French had active settlement in that region north of the Ohio River; this land was given up to the British after the UsefulNotes/FrenchAndIndianWar and (save Florida) was given to the United States in the Treaty of Paris that ended UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. The Mississippi-Missouri basin west of the Mississippi was sold to the fledgling US government under ThomasJefferson in the Louisiana Purchase. (The French sold it to the Americans [[EnemyMine so they'd be strong against Britain]].) Well, that and the fact that Napoleon had bills to pay, since beating up the rest of Europe didn't come cheap. The loss of Haiti probably played a part as well, as this made it substantially harder for Louisiana to ship goods back to France (the sailing ships needed that convenient stopover to load up on food and water). There is still a considerable population of French-speakers in the bayous of Louisiana, and in New England near the Quebec border.