New France | French colonies, North America | Britannica.com French colonies, North America Alternative Titles: Gallia Nova, Nouvelle-France Related Topics François de Montmorency Laval New France, French Nouvelle-France, (1534–1763), the French colonies of continental North America , initially embracing the shores of the St. Lawrence River , Newfoundland , and Acadia (Nova Scotia) but gradually expanding to include much of the Great Lakes region and parts of the trans-Appalachian West. Jacques Cartier’s travels in New France. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The name Gallia Nova (New France) was first recorded in 1529 on a map prepared by the brother of Giovanni da Verrazano , who, in the service of France , had explored the coasts of North America in 1524 from what is now the Carolinas north to Nova Scotia. Then in 1534 the French navigator and explorer Jacques Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence and took possession of New France for King Francis I . In succeeding years Cartier ascended the St.

Lawrence as far as the Lachine Rapids, to where Montreal now stands, and attempted, with Jean-François de La Rocque, sieur de (lord of) Roberval , to found a colony near what is now Quebec . The colony failed, but out of these explorations the French fur trade with the Native Americans (First Nations) of the gulf and the river regions began. Title page of Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1609; History of New … University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg Rare Book & Mansucript Library Samuel de Champlain was employed in the interests of successive fur-trading monopolies and sailed into the St. Lawrence in 1603. In the next year he was on the Bay of Fundy and had a share in founding the first French colony in North America—that of Port-Royal, (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia ). In 1608 he began the settlement that was named Quebec , selecting a commanding site that controlled the narrowing of the St. Lawrence River estuary. Samuel de Champlain.

Lost Colony The fort at Quebec, however, attracted few residents, and Cardinal Richelieu , the chief minister of France, felt impelled to found in 1627 the Company of New France (Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France), popularly known as the Company of the Hundred Associates (Compagnie des Cent-Associés). It was granted the colony of New France, then comprising the whole St. Lawrence Valley, and for 15 years from 1629 it was to have complete monopoly of the fur trade. In return it was to take to New France 200 to 300 settlers a year. But war with England began, the company’s first fleet was captured, and in 1629 Quebec itself surrendered to the English. It was restored by the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1632, but the Company of New France never recovered from the blow, although it controlled New France until 1663. French colonization was slow for many years to come, and the fur trade remained the chief concern of everyone except the missionaries.

In 1663 King Louis XIV decided to cancel the charter of the Company of New France and make New France into a royal province, with a governor as the ceremonial and military head of the colony. In addition to creating a royal colony, the King sent a military commander, Alexandre de Prouville, the marquis de Tracy, and a regiment of soldiers who in 1666 defeated the Iroquois and forced them to make peace. It was then possible to proceed to populate and develop New France. More than 3,000 settlers, including girls of marriageable age, were sent out in the 1660s. Few followed thereafter, but by natural increase the population began to expand rapidly. USA Facts The first intendant , Jean Baptiste Talon (1665–68 and 1670–72), stimulated colonization and industry. He also pressed the exploration of the far west. Louis Jolliet explored the Mississippi until he was sure it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico , not into the Pacific Ocean . In 1671 Simon François d’Aumont (or Daumont, sieur de St. Lusson) at Sault Ste.

Marie took possession of all the interior of the North American continent for France as an extension of New France. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Meanwhile, Britain and France were competing intensely for land and trade on the American continent. During King William’s War (the North American extension of the War of the Grand Alliance; 1689–97), a New England fleet and army under Sir William Phips seized Acadia, but the French defied Phips’s attempt to take Quebec in 1690. Then the French, under Louis de Buade, comte de Frontenac, began a series of border raids on New England, and finally marched into the Iroquois country. Meanwhile the brilliant young Canadian Pierre le Moyne, sieur d’Iberville , had conquered British posts, saved Acadia, and overrun Newfoundland. The war was ended by the Treaty of Rijswujk (1697) with New France holding Hudson Bay (but not Newfoundland) as well as all its former possessions. This was the work of Canadians, with little help from France.

D’Iberville then set off to found Louisiana , another part of New France, in 1699. In 1700 and 1701 peace was made between the Iroquois and New France, and between the Iroquois and the Indian allies of New France. There were to be no more Iroquois wars, and New France stood at the height of its fortunes. Fur trade contract (1692), signed in Ville-Marie (Montreal), for canoe transport of merchandise to … The Newberry Library, Ruggles Fund, 2001 (A Britannica Publishing Partner) Its decline began almost at once. The English and their American colonists were to conquer all New France, but it was done in two stages. The first ended in 1713 with the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession . In 1710 Acadia had been seized again by the British, but in the next year an English expedition under Sir Hovenden Walker suffered serious losses along the St. Lawrence River and returned home.

Most of the fighting was done in Europe , however, and the English victories there enabled them, by the Treaty of Utrecht that concluded the war, to recover Hudson Bay, limit French rights in Newfoundland, force the cession of Acadia (without Cape Breton Island ), and to get a larger foothold in the western fur trade. Connect with Britannica French settlement in North America French settlement in North America A Protestant sovereign, the great Henry of Navarre, was now on the throne of France, the first and best of her Bourbon kings. His heart was set on promoting the prosperity and true greatness of his kingdom. He had given it peace at home by the edict of Nantes, granting toleration to his Protestant subjects, proclaimed on the fifteenth of April, 1598, and cessation from war abroad by the treaty of Verviers with Spain, signed seventeen days afterward. Agriculture, manufactures, mining, internal improvements, and settlements in New France (America), which had not been attempted since the disappearance of Robertval more than fifty years before, were encouraged.

In these labors of statesmanship he was led and assisted by Maximilien de Bethune, the great Duke of Sully, whose name shines with splendor in the annals of France. Among the earliest of the new French adventurers was the Marquis de la Roche, a wealthy nobleman, who gathered a company from the prisons of France wherewith to found a colony in America. He sailed with a single ship in the spring of 1598, and landed on Sable Island, in the Atlantic Ocean, ninety miles southeast of Nova Scotia, where he left forty men and returned to France for supplies. Before he was ready to go back, he sickened and died, and the poor emigrants had no tidings from home or the rest of the world for seven years. Then a vessel was sent for them, but only twelve survived. These were pardoned on their return, because of their sufferings abroad, and their immediate wants were supplied by the king. Whilst these men were on Sable Island, another expedition was sent from France on a similar errand. M. de Chastes, Governor of Dieppe, obtained from the king a charter for founding settlements in New France.

He engaged Samuel de Champlain of the French navy, a man of noble lineage and a favorite of the sovereign, to act as his delegate. The king commissioned Champlain lieutenant-general of Canada, and with this authority he embarked at Honfleur on the 15th of March, 1603, with a single vessel, commanded by Pont-Greve, a skillful mariner of St. Malo, whose father had been an intimate friend of Cartier. They reached the St. Lawrence in May, and anchored near the site of Quebec, when Pont-Greve, with five men, went up that stream in a canoe to the rapids of La Chine, above Montreal, where Cartier found an impassable barrier to his upward voyage. Then he turned back, carefully examining the shores of the river, and on reaching the ship he gave Champlain a minute account of all they had observed. Meanwhile, Champlain had held intercourse with the Indians, whose memories and traditions ran back to Cartier's kidnapping, but they were placable, and the lieutenant-general was pleased with all he saw. They returned to France in the early autumn, when Champlain published an account of the country. When the voyagers returned, they found M.

Chastes dead and the concessions transferred by the king to Pierre de Gast, the Sieur de Monts, a wealthy Huguenot, who had received the commission of viceroy, with full power for settlement and rule over six degrees of latitude in America, extending from that of Cape May to the parallel of Quebec. That region was named, in the charter, L'Acadie, a corruption of the Greek Arcadia. The charter was published in all the maritime towns of France, and soon afterward De Monts and his associates were vested with the monopoly of the fur and peltry trade of his domain, and around the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A new arrangement was made with Champlain, and early in March, 1604, De Monts, with his bosom friend Poutrincourt and Pont-Greve as his lieutenants, and Champlain as the pilot, sailed from France with four vessels well manned, and a goodly company of Protestant and Roman Catholic emigrants. Among the latter were several Jesuits. They reached the St. Lawrence in April, when they found the river ice-bound and the weather so cold that the viceroy determined to plant his settlement further to the southward.

They passed around Cape Breton and Nova Scotia into the Bay of Fundy, and on the northern shore of the Peninsula they anchored in a fine harbor environed by hills and meadows, early in May. Poutrincourt was so charmed by the appearance of the country, that De Monts allowed him to remain there with some of the emigrants. He gave him a grant of the region, which was confirmed by the king, and Poutrincourt named the place where he landed Port Royal. It is now Annapolis, in Nova Scotia. De Monts and the rest of the company, seventy in number, crossed over to Passamaquoddy Bay, and on an island not far from the mouth of the St. Croix River, the eastern boundary of Maine, they landed, built a fort with a chapel in it and cannon mounted on it, and there passed a severe winter. Half of them were dead in the spring, when the survivors explored the country westward as far as Cape Cod, and returned to Port Royal, where they joined Poutrincourt's colony.

Early in the autumn, De Monts and Poutrincourt returned to France, leaving Champlain and Pont-Greve to make further explorations of the region. They went to the southwest as far as Cape Cod, where they attempted to land and erect a cross, but were driven to their vessel by the Indians. In 1607, Champlain returned to France. For a few years there was a struggle for existence and growth on the part of the colonists in Acadie. The Jesuit priests who accompanied Poutrincourt back to that land claimed the right to supreme rule by virtue of their holy office. He stoutly resisted their claim, and told them boldly: "It is my part to rule you on the earth; it is your part to guide me to heaven." When Poutrincourt had returned to France they made the same claim upon his son, whom he left in charge of the colony. The fiery young man threatened them with corporeal punishment, when they withdrew and settled on the island of Mount Desert, now so famous as a summer resort, and there set up a cross in token of sovereignty.

They were there in 1613, when Samuel Argall, a freebooter of the seas, went, under the sanction of the governor of Virginia, to expel the French from Acadie as intruders upon the domain of the North and South Virginia Company. The Jesuits on Mount Desert, it is said, willing to use such an opportunity for revenge, piloted the Englishmen to Port Royal, which Argall plundered and laid in ashes, driving the colonists to the woods and breaking up the settlement. Acadie was again settled by the French, who suffered many vicissitudes and became the subject of romance and song. De Monts was not disposed to contend with the powerful English company. He obtained a new charter with ample provisions, and proceeded to plant a colony on the St. Lawrence. American Colonies - French / New France French Colonies in the Americas AD 1541 - 1763 Initial attempts to create a colony in what would become New France - centred on Quebec in modern Canada - were patchy, with two attempts being undertaken in 1541 and 1598.

The second attempt took root and while each of the French provinces had its own governor, the lieutenant-general of New France, who was usually the most senior of the governors, was the ultimate authority in the colonies, answering directly to France between 1603-1627. After 1627 a permanent governor was appointed. At its height, New France included Acadia (areas of eastern Quebec, the coastal territories, and claims to New England as far as Philadelphia, although these became increasingly impractical in the face of English expansion there), Canada (modern eastern and central Canada), and Louisiana (a vast territory stretching across much of the east half of modern Midwestern USA ).

(Additional information by Mick Baker, and also from Indian Tribes of the New England Frontier (Osprey No 428 Men-at-Arms Series), Michael Johnson, Everyday Life of the North American Indian, Jon Manchip White, 1979, from The Encyclopaedia of North American Indian Tribes, Bill Yenne, 1986, from The Native Tribes of North America - A Concise Encyclopaedia, Michael Johnson, 1993, from the Atlas of Indians of North America, Gilbert Legay, 1995, and from External Links: First Nations: Issues of Consequence , Lee Sultzman, and Legends of America .) 1522 - 1524 King Francis I of France is persuaded by the Italian explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano, to allow an expedition to find a western route to China . At this time (and for a considerable period afterwards) it is believed that there is a land bridge between America and China.

Instead, in 1524, Verrazzano explores the coast of what is now South and North Carolina, and then heads north to become the first European to explore the region of later New York. Here he makes contact with a people who are most likely to be the Lenape, who refer to the strangers from across the sea as the 'Swannuken', the 'salt water people'. They are friendly and curious and would probably have remained so but Verrazzano tries to kidnap some of them before he departs. During the next eighty years, most of the coastal Algonquin speakers learn the hard way to beware the European ships that occasionally stop to raid their villages for slaves. 1541 As a friend of the king of France , Francis I, corsair and adventurer Jean-Franï¿½ois de la Roque de Roberval is appointed the first lieutenant-governor of New France, after being commissioned by the king to settle the province of Canada. An advance party under Jacques Cartier arrives in 1541 and founds a settlement at Charlesbourg-Royal, while Roberval arrives in 1542 and meets the departing Cartier off the coast of Newfoundland.

Roberval continues onwards and resettles Charlesbourg-Royal, but the colony survives less than two years due to severe weather, disease, and attacks by the local tribe of Iroquois. The settlement of Charlesbourg-Royal survived just two years and was abandoned twice Jean-Franï¿½ois de la Roque de Roberval First lieutenant-governor of New France. 1543 The post of lieutenant-general falls vacant when the colony is abandoned. 1564 - 1565 The French create their first colony in south-eastern North America when they found Fort Caroline in Florida . The Spanish destroy it the following year. 1598 Trading posts are being established in several parts of the territory which soon becomes Acadia, but generally these fail as permanent settlements. 1598 - 1603 Marquis de la Roche-Mesgouez 1603 Pierre Dugua is granted exclusive rights to colonise lands in North America, expanding the various settlements which collectively form Acadia. The following year, a new settlement is founded on the modern Bay of Fundy: Ile-Saint-Croix. Just a year later it is moved to Port Royal.

1603 - 1610 Pierre Dugua 1608 - 1609 Just a year after Port Royal is abandoned, Quebec City is founded when three ships land from France at Tadoussac and their occupants proceed up river in boats to the site which they start fortifying. Samuel de Champlain, the eventual first governor of New France commands one of the ships. The following year, while striving to improve relations with the local native tribes after years of European slave raiding, Champlain and his small group encounter the Iroquois. The Europeans drive them off after killing their leaders, but the tone has been set for future Franco-Iroquois relations. Also in 1609,French explorer Samuel de Champlain enters the territory that now forms Vermont on 30 July, claiming it for New France, and constructing a fort which is the first European settlement there. 1611 - 1612 First cousin of King Henry IV of France .

1611 - 1615 From the French settlement at Quebec on the St Lawrence River, ï¿½tienne Brulï¿½ visits the Huron villages on Georgian Bay in 1611. By 1615 he discovers that the Susquehannock are more than willing to ally themselves to the French and Huron in their war against the Iroquois league. Friendly relations with the Susquehannock are particularly valuable to the French, not only for the purposes of trade, but because they serve to trap the Iroquois between two powerful enemies. Unfortunately, the new alliance alarms the New Amsterdam traders on the Hudson River, and they actively support the Mohawk against the Susquehannock. Although they are relatively few in number and isolated by their inland location, the Susquehannock manage to become an important trading partner with all of the competing European powers - an achievement unmatched by any other tribe. 1612 - 1613 Prince of Condï¿½. 1613 Port Royal, which had been re-established in 1610, is destroyed. The surviving settlers move off to neighbouring areas to create new settlements within Acadia.

1622 ï¿½tienne Brï¿½lï¿½ leads an expedition into the territory that will become Michigan, but the first permanent settlement is not made until 1668, at Sault Sainte-Marie. Also during this century, French fur traders begin to enter into the territory that will later form Minnesota. Governors of New France AD 1627 - 1663 The position of governor in New France was the equivalent of a viceroyalty. The governor answered directly to the king's ministers in France , and controlled the territories of Acadia, Canada and Louisiana , although Acadia and Louisiana had their own regional governors. The capital was in Quebec City. It was this post which was later taken over by the British and survives today as the office of governor-general of Canada . 1627 - 1635 First governor of New France. Founded Quebec City. 1629 - 1633 Champlain is captured in an English attack and taken to London. Quebec is ruined, but when Champlain is able to return in 1633 he sets about rebuilding it.

He also sets about attacking the Iroquois, intent on bringing them to heel. 1634 Frenchman Jean Nicolet is the first European to explore what is now Wisconsin. He founds the Green Bay colony, which is settled mainly by fur traders. 1635 - 1648 Charles de Montmagny 1641 - 1645 The Iroquois Wars begin. Having exhausted the beaver in their homeland, the Iroquois are running out of the fur they need to trade for firearms from New Netherland . Otherwise, with European epidemics decimating their villages, it is only a matter of time before they are annihilated. Their enemies, of course, are well-aware of this problem and refuse permission for Iroquois hunters to pass through their territories. Faced with a blockade, the Iroquois are forced into a war in which they need either to conquer or to be destroyed. They concentrate their attacks on the Huron after 1640, and by 1645 had succeeded in isolating them from the Algonkin, Montagnais, and New France in the east.

There follows a two-year lull in the fighting after the Trois-Rivieres truce that is agreed in 1645, thanks to the governor of New France, Charles de Montmagny. 1648 - 1651 Louis d'Ailleboust de Coulonge 1648 - 1650 The Iroquois launch massive attacks into the Huron homeland and destroy the Arendaronon villages. Sensing that the situation is becoming serious, Susquehannock warriors fight as Huron allies, while their ambassadors send to the Iroquois council flatly demanding a halt to the war. In 1648 New France's Governor Louis d'Ailleboust de Coulonge also strives to prevent the Iroquois massacre of the Huron people, which is partially in retribution for the latter becoming allied to the French . The attempts fail, and in the winter of 1648-1649, for some inexplicable reason, the Huron refuse further offers of help from the Susquehannock and are overrun by the Iroquois. Only small numbers of Huron survive the massacre.

1651 - 1657 Agreed peace with the Mohawk. 1650 - 1653 Whatever help the Susquehannock may be able to give to the neutrals is cut short when the Mohawk attack the Susquehannock villages. With the Susquehannock unable, and the Erie unwilling to help, the neutrals are quickly defeated. The Mohawk, however, find the well-armed Susquehannock a dangerous and stubborn foe. The war drags on until 1656 with the Mohawk (at great cost to themselves) slowly pushing the Susquehannock down the eastern branch of the Susquehanna River. The Susquehannock suddenly find themselves alone. New France is powerless to help after Iroquois victories over the Huron and neutrals, and the Erie soon face their own war of survival against the Western Iroquois (during 1653-1656). However, Governor Lauzon negotiates successfully with the Mohawk, agreeing a peace treaty which removes one of the more major threats to the colony.

1657 - 1658 Pierre de Voyer d'Argenson 1660 - 1669 The Iroquois strike the Delaware throughout the Delaware Valley and throughout the 1660s, effectively taking them out of the war. For the Susquehannock, the worst blow is a smallpox epidemic that strikes in 1661. Their population is devastated to a point from which it never recovers. The Susquehannock nevertheless manage to hold on. A treaty is signed with the British Colony of Maryland, ending the lingering hostility with the English . The agreement provides firearms and ammunition, since the Maryland colonists are well aware of the value of the Susquehannock as a buffer against the New Netherland -allied Iroquois. In 1663, with English help, the Susquehannock are able to turn back a major Iroquois invasion. In the following year the English take New York from the Dutch , and shortly afterwards form their own alliance with the Iroquois.

In 1666 Maryland, however, does not feel entirely assured by this and renews its treaty with the Susquehannock. The year 1667 coincides with another outbreak of smallpox, so the Iroquois make peace with New France and their native allies and this allows them to concentrate on their war with the Susquehannock. With the support of Maryland, the Susquehannock fight on in an increasingly bitter struggle, but by autumn 1669 they are down to only three hundred warriors and are forced to ask the Iroquois for peace. The Iroquois response to their offer is to torture and kill the Susquehannock ambassador who delivers it. 1661 - 1663 Pierre Dubois d'Avaugour 1663 The French government of Louis XIV reorganises the colonies. The duties of the governorship are divided and the more important military responsibilities are retained by the new position of governor-general.

Governors General of New France AD 1663 - 1763 The old governorship was divided in 1663, when the French king, Louis XIV, took over the administration of New France from the Compagnie des Cent-Associï¿½s. Responsibility for finance, justice, and the police was handed to a new position, the intendant. Control over diplomatic relations and military affairs was given to the new governor general, who held office in Quebec City. During the century of its existence, New France reached its greatest extent, reaching from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico via the later American Midwest. 1663 - 1665 First governor general of New France. 1665 - 1672 Daniel de Courcelle 1665 - 1672 De Courcelle establishes the first militias in New France, which will become an essential element in the wars against the British . In 1667 the native Americans suffer a renewed outbreak of smallpox, so the Iroquois make peace with New France and their native allies and this allows them to concentrate on their war with the Susquehannock.

With the support of the British Colony of Maryland, the Susquehannock fight on in an increasingly bitter struggle, but by autumn 1669 they are down to only three hundred warriors and are forced to ask the Iroquois for peace. De Courcelle, though, is able to negotiate with several of the native tribes to secure the French colonies some peace, and approves an expedition to the west in order to find the long-sought after land passage to China . 1673 Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet travel along the Mississippi, documenting the native villagers. They are the first Europeans to enter the region. Renï¿½-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Great Lakes, the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, and claimed the entire Mississippi basin for New France Louis de Buade de Frontenac 1682 - 1685 Jacques-Rene de Brisay de Denonville 1689 Denonville arrives with intentions of having a great effect on the colony for the glory of France at the opening of the First French-Indian War.

The colony has been continually hampered in its efforts to expand by the hostile attentions of the Iroquois, so after capturing British fur trader posts on Hudson Bay he marches against them, captures their leaders to be shipped to France as slaves, and lays waste to the lands of the Seneca. Retribution is swift, with the Iroquois destroying farms and burning towns. The violence ends with the Massacre of Lachine in which the town of that name is burned to the ground. Twenty-four colonists are killed and another hundred or so are captured, many of them to be burned alive and even eaten. Louis de Buade, comte de Frontenac is selected by the king to regain control in the beleaguered colony, and for a while he does, until ships from the British colonies in New England arrive in 1690. 1689 - 1698 Louis de Buade de Frontenac Second term. 1691 Due to the threat of French encroachment from Louisiana , New Spain establishes its first presence in Texas, although these early missions quickly fail.

King William's War (1690-1697) sees Acadia captured by the British, but it is returned as part of the peace settlement. 1698 - 1703 Governor of Montreal (1684-1698). 1699 A colony is founded at Fort Maurepas, which is also known as Old Biloxi (now Ocean Springs in the state of Mississippi), the first in this territory. 1702 - 1713 The first European settlement in what will become Alabama is founded by the French at Mobile. In the same year, 1702, Acadia is recaptured by the British during Queen Anne's War and this time it remains in British hands, as confirmed by the Treaties of Utrecht in 1713, becoming part of the British Colonies territory of Nova Scotia. New France itself is split into five colonies which each have their own administrative bodies: Acadia, Canada, Hudson Bay, Louisiana , and Newfoundland. Simultaneously, the Second French-Indian War kicks off in 1702 with the New England Raids against the Abnaki.

The Battle of Deerfield or Deerfield Massacre on 29 February 1704 involves a force that is comprised of Abnaki, Kanienkehaka, Pocumtuc, and Wyandot, led by a small contingent of French-Canadian militia. They sack the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing fifty-six civilians and taking dozens more as captives. 1703 - 1725 Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil 1716 New missions are established by New Spain in Texas to create a buffer zone between it and the French possession of Louisiana . These are followed in 1718 by the first European settlement in Texas, at San Antonio. 1726 - 1747 Charles de la Boische de Beauharnois 1738 The French -Canadian trader, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vï¿½rendrye, enters the territory that will become North Dakota with an exploration party that reaches the Mandan villages in the region. During this period, trading posts are also being set up in what is now Ohio and New France lays claim to what is now Oklahoma.

By the start of the eighteenth century, French Quebec was a thriving colonial city 1744 - 1748 The War of the Austrian Succession is a wide-ranging conflict that encompasses the North American King George's War, two Silesian Wars, and the War of Jenkins' Ear, and involves most of the crowned heads of Europe in deciding the question of whether Maria Theresa can succeed as archduke of Austria and, perhaps even more importantly, as Holy Roman Emperor . Austria is supported by Britain , the Netherlands , the Savoyard kingdom of Sardinia , and Saxony (after an early switchover), but opposed by an opportunistic Prussia and France , who had raised the question in the first place to disrupt Habsburg control of central Europe, backed up by Bavaria and Sweden (briefly). Spain joins the war in an unsuccessful attempt to restore possessions lost to Austria in 1715. The War of Jenkins' Ear pitches Britain against Spain between 1739-1748. The Russo-Swedish War, or Hats' Russian War, is the Swedish attempt to regain territory lost to Russia in 1741-1743.

King George's War is fought between Britain and France in the French Colonies in 1744-1748. The First Carnatic War of 1746-1748 involves the struggle for dominance in India by France and Britain. Henry Pelham, leader of the English government in Parliament , is successful in ending the war, achieving peace with France and trade with Spain through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Austria is ultimately successful, losing only Silesia to Prussia. 1747 - 1749 Roland-Michel Barrin 1747 - 1749 Plans in the British Colonies for opening the area to settlement get underway in 1747 when Virginia grants a charter to the Ohio Company. Pennsylvania considers the Ohio tribes to be subject to the Iroquois, but when they refuse the league's orders to return to the Susquehanna, it is obvious that something needs to be done.

No longer able to ignore the defection of their 'women', in 1749 the Iroquois create a system of half-kings (special Iroquois emissaries) to represent the Ohio tribes (who number 10,000 by this time) in their councils. This seems to satisfy the Delaware and Shawnee and, when Pierre-Joseph Cï¿½loron de Blainville leads a French expedition to the Ohio River in 1749 to expel British traders, he marks out the boundary of French territory with lead plates. His reception is unfriendly, with the Ohio tribes demanding to know by what right the French are claiming Iroquois land. 1749 - 1752 Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel 1750 By this time, settlers from New France have drifted from the east side of the Mississippi into the area of what is now St Genevieve in the state of Missouri. St Louis is subsequently founded as the centre of the regional fur trade.

1752 - 1755 Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville 1752 With traders of the British Colonies subverting the loyalty of their allies, and the Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee defying its authority, New France decides to militarily enforce its claims to Ohio. It turns first to the Detroit tribes (Ojibwa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Wyandot), usually its most dependable allies, but the tribes are thinking of trading with the British themselves and do not want to fight the Ohio tribes. In June, Charles Langlade, a French-Ojibwe of mixed blood, leads a war party of 250 Ojibwa and Ottawa from Mackinac and destroys the Miami village and British trading post at Piqua, Ohio.

As shown by this modern image, a French expedition visited Logstown in 1749 (location of the eponymous 1752 treaty), under the command of Pierre-Joseph Celeron de Blainville Following the initial shock of this attack, the tribes of the French alliance fall into place, and the French follow up their success by building a line of forts across western Pennsylvania to block British access to Ohio. Most Delaware and Shawnee have no desire to be controlled by the French and therefore turn to the Iroquois for help. From the Iroquois perspective, the French and British seem like two thieves fighting over their land, but they decide that the French are the more immediate threat. The league signs the Logstown Treaty, which reconfirms their 1744 cession of land and gives the British permission to build a blockhouse at Pittsburgh. Before it is finished however, the French burn it. 1754 - 1758 In May a conference is held at Albany between representatives of the British Colonies and Iroquois League to prepare for war with New France.

Unable to defend Ohio, the Iroquois cede it to Pennsylvania, but they fully intend to keep the Wyoming and Susquehanna valleys. Unfortunately, an Albany trader manages to get some of the minor Iroquois representatives drunk, and when they sober up they discover that they have signed an agreement with a Connecticut land company that opens up the valleys to settlement. Rather than achieve unity, the conference ends with the Iroquois furious with the British about this treaty, Pennsylvania protesting Connecticut's attempt to claim its territory, and the Delaware threatening to kill any whites who try to settle in the Wyoming Valley. Meanwhile, Virginia has decided to act on its own and sends an expedition commanded by a twenty-two year-old militia major named George Washington to demand the surrender of Fort Duquesne, the new fort built by the French at Pittsburgh. Major Washington gets himself into a fight with French soldiers and starts the French-Indian War. The Fourth French-Indian War erupts, starting with the Battle of Great Meadows.

Two more battles are fought in 1754, these being Fort Necessity and Braddock's Defeat, with Crown Point (Lake George) taking place in 1755 against the Mohawk and the Caughnawaga who are led by Hendrick, while in earlier battles the Mingo people are led by Half-King. In 1756, Oswego is the only battle. In 1757 the siege of Fort William Henry involves the Upper Great Lakes Indians - generally Iroquois, Ottawa, and Abnaki from Canada . When the fort's red coated British and blue coated troops of the British Colonies are forced to surrender after days of bombardment, they are offered all the honours of war. The French General Montcalm allows them to march back to Fort Edward with their weapons and possessions intact. His native allies have other ideas, however. After rampaging through the fort to kill and scalp the wounded and dig up corpses for the same treatment, they charge into the assembled body of retreating British and massacre between seventy and one hundred and eighty of them.

Colonel Munro and various other scattered survivors eventually reach the protection of Fort Edward (this event is portrayed with brutal realism in the 1992 film, Last of the Mohicans). The following year, 1758, sees battles take place at Louisburg and Fort Frontenac with little native involvement. 1755 - 1760 Pierre Franï¿½ois de Rigaud Son of Philippe de Rigaud (1703). Last governor. 1759 - 1763 In 1759 General James Wolfe claims New France for the British Colonies with victory over the French in the Battle of Quebec. In 1763, France cedes the vast and wild Louisiana Territory (stretching from modern Louisiana to Canada) to Spain where it forms part of New Spain (excluding southern Alabama which is appended to British West Florida ). New France itself is formally handed over to Britain and renamed the province of Quebec , which in 1791 becomes part of Canada .

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 has long been debated by historians in reference to its influence on the later revolutionary war, but it was a genuine attempt to respect the territorial rights of the native Americans following the conclusion of the French-American War 1800 The French take back the Louisiana Territory under the terms of the Treaty of San Iidefonso. 1803 On 30 April, Napoleon Bonaparte, first citizen of France , sells Louisiana to the United States for 80 million francs. This marks the end of French involvement in North America, but France is responsible for creating the short-lived Second Mexican empire in 1864.

Question: What was the first French settlement in North America?
Answer: Port Royal