The Rise and Fall of New France
In the beginning
• Before the arrival of
the Europeans, the
land we call North
America was home to
hundreds of First
Nations, with distinct
languages and
cultures.
The Vikings
• The first Europeans to arrive in North
America were the Vikings, around 1000 C.E.
• They came from Scandinavia (Sweden,
Norway and Denmark) and established a
small settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows,
Newfoundland, which they called “Vinland”.
• The settlement failed, since there were too
few settlers, and they fought with the
Beothuk, who drove them off.
Vinland and Leif Erikson
John Cabot
• Giovanni Caboto, an
Italian navigator also
known as John Cabot,
claimed “New Found
Land” for Henry VII
of England in 1497.
• He also discovered
great schools of cod
fish off the coast of
Grand Banks.
French Exploration
• In 1524, France sent
Giovanni Verrazano to
find the Northwest
Passage to Asia.
• He discovered that
North America was
not an archipelago of
islands, but a
continent.
Jacques Cartier
• In 1534, France sent
Jacques Cartier to find
the Northwest Passage.
• He reached the Gaspé
Peninsula, which he
claimed for France.
• He also kidnapped two
Iroquoians, Taignoagny
and Domagaya, and
brought them back to
France to learn French so
that they could guide him
when they returned.
Cartier’s Second Voyage
• The next year, Cartier arrived
in “Canada”, an Iroquoian
word meaning village that
Cartier thought was the name
of the area around the St.
Lawrence.
• He explored the St. Lawrence
River, visiting Stadacona and
Hochelaga.
• The rapids west of Hochelaga,
which he named “La Chine”
(China), prevented him from
travelling further.
Cartier fails
• Cartier’s men spent the winter at Stadacona, where 25 men
died of scurvy.
• Donnacona, the chief of Stadacona, showed Cartier how to
make Vitamin C-rich tea from spruce bark and needles,
saving many lives.
• To thank him, Cartier kidnapped Donnacona and took him
to France, where Donnacona died.
• As a result, the Iroquois refused to trade with the French,
and Cartier’s colony failed.
• The French would not try to settle in North America for
another sixty years.
Early French settlements
• In 1600, Pierre de
Chauvin and François
Gravé established a
French fur trading post
at Tadoussac.
• In 1603, Pierre Du Gua
de Monts founded a
settlement at Port Royal
(present day Nova
Scotia).
Samuel de Champlain
• The settlement failed
in 1607 when de
Monts lost his royal
fur trading license.
• In 1608, de Monts’
assistant, Samuel de
Champlain, founded a
colony in Quebec City.
Alliances with First Nations
• Champlain made alliances with the Algonquins and
Montagnais that lived near Quebec, as well as with the
Wendat, whom the French called “Hurons”, and who
controlled most of the territory around the Great Lakes.
• Champlain sent “coureurs de bois” like Étienne Brulé to
live with the Wendat, trade with them, marry their women
and explore their territory.
• In addition to the coureurs de bois, the French also sent
Jesuit missionaries to live with the Hurons.
• The Hurons did not want the missionaries, but the French
made this a condition of trading.
Huron-Iroquois Wars
• Exposure to European diseases such as measles and
smallpox reduced the Hurons’ population from 40,000
to 12,000 between 1634-1640.
• The Hurons were further weakened by divisions
between Christian and non-Christian Hurons, and
addiction to alcohol introduced by French traders.
• In wars over fur trading territories, the Hurons were
easily defeated by the Iroquois, who were armed with
muskets acquired from their Dutch allies.
• Surviving Hurons abandoned their territory and
relocated to Wendake, near Quebec City.
Colonization of New France
• In 1627, control of New France was given to
the Company of a Hundred Associates.
• The company set up seigneuries along the St.
Lawrence River, feudal-style manors given to
settlers.
• Peasant farmers who lived on the seigneuries
were known as “habitants”.
• Montréal was founded in 1642 by the Société
de Notre-Dame de Montréal, as a Catholic
mission originally known as Ville-Marie.
A Royal Colony
• In 1660, the company
lost its trading
monopoly, and New
France became a royal
colony.
• The first administrator
was Jean Talon.
• He brought hundred of
young women, known
as “filles du roi” from
France to marry the
mostly male settlers.
Continued Exploration
• The French continued to explore the North American
interior: in the 1650s Pierre Radisson and Médart de
Groseilliers explored the Western Great Lakes.
Along the Mississippi
• In the 1670s traders such
as Louis Jolliet and
Jacques Marquette began
exploring the territory
along the Ohio, Illinois
and Mississippi rivers.
• René Robert Cavalier de
la Salle was the first
European to reach the
mouth of the Mississippi
River in the Gulf of
Mexico in 1782.
The Great Peace of Montreal
• For most of the seventeenth century, New France was
at war with the Five Nations Confederacy of the
Iroquois.
• The Five Nations were the most powerful First Nations
in the St. Lawrence/Great Lakes region, and were
allied with the Dutch and later the English.
• In the 1670s and 1680s the French negotiated treaties
with the Five Nations’ enemies to the west, such as the
Miami and the Illinois.
• In 1701, over 1300 delegates representing 40 nations,
including the Five Nations and the French, signed a
peace treaty in Montreal.
French-English Wars
• The French and English fought four wars in North
America.
• From 1689-1697, King William’s War was fought
between the French, English and their First Nation
allies in Canada, Acadia and New England.
• From 1704-1713 the French and their Spanish
allies in Florida fought against the British in a war
from Newfoundland to Florida.
• In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht gave the British
control of Acadia.
The Expulsion of the Acadians
• After the British
conquered Acadia in
1713, the Acadians
refused to sign an oath
of loyalty to Britain,
but they promised to
remain neutral in the
event of war.
• In 1755, following the
outbreak of the Seven
Years War, the British
decided to expel the
Acadians.
Le Grand Dérangement
• 11,500 Acadians were
deported (3/4 of the Acadian
population of Nova Scotia),
and one-third died at sea.
• The rest settled in the
Thirteen Colonies, France
and England, and many
eventually made their way to
Louisiana, where they
became known as “Cajuns”.
The Seven Years War
• King George’s War: fought between Britain
and France, 1744-1748.
• In 1755, the Seven Years War began as a
result of conflict over the Ohio Valley.
• In 1758, the British under Gen. Wolfe
captured the fortress of Louisbourg, which
allowed British ships to enter the Gulf of St.
Lawrence.
The Conquest of New France
• In 1760, the British and French armies met
on the Plains of Abraham.
• Both Wolfe and the French General
Montcalm were killed in the battle.
• The British won, and Quebec surrendered.
• Montréal was captured the same year.
• The Treaty of Paris in 1763 declared New
France to be a British possession.
The Plains of Abraham by George Campion