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NEW FRANCE HISTORY UNIT 1
Looking Back • Explorers in the New World: Europeans had been coming to North America for hundreds of years before New France was founded. Explorers such as Jacques Cartier came from Europe to find a seaway linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This would create a shorter trade route from Europe to the Far East. Jacques Cartier claimed the territory around the St. Lawrence River (in what is now Quebec) for France in 1534. • The Fishing Industry:Hundreds of fishing ships from France, England, Spain, and Portugal sailed to North America. The men aboard fished for cod in the waters off Newfoundland each summer. There was a great demand in Europe for fish. Cod was easy to catch and preserve for the trip back across the ocean. At first, the fishermen stayed on their ships most of the time. They only came ashore for fresh water and firewood. There they met the First Nations people of the East Coast. • First Nations:First Nations peoples lived all across North America. Different nations lived in different ways. Most First Nations hunted, trapped, and gathered food for survival, but some also grew crops such as squash, beans, corn, and tobacco. They believed that the natural world belonged to everyone. First Nations also traded with each other. Each nation had its own spiritual beliefs, but most believed in a Creator of all things. • The Fur Trade: Explorers began to trade with First Nations in the early 1600s. They traded iron pots, kettles, and beads for beaver pelts. Beaver hats were very popular in Europe. The beaver pelts were taken back to Europe and sold to hat makers. First Nations peoples introduced fur traders to the places where they could trap beaver.
First Nations • For thousands of years, First Nations peoples have lived on the North American continent. They were self-sufficient, with complex societies. • First Nations people have always had a close relationship with the land, which they believed was theirs to use, not own. They relied on the land for all their needs—food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medicine. They understood and respected the animals, weather, seasons, land, and water. • The First Nations had a societal structure that revered elders and relied on them for leadership and judgment. Some groups were matriarchal societies, which means they traced their ancestors through their mothers, and the oldest woman of the group was responsible for the welfare of the clan. The Iroquois Confederacy is one of the world’s oldest democratic societies. • They also had their own spirituality. They had stories explaining the creation of the world; they gave thanks to the Creator, or Great Spirit, for the food plants they harvested. • But all that was about to be shaken up.
Samuel de Champlain • Like Cartier a century before him, Samuel de Champlain originally set out to find riches for France and a route to the Orient. From 1603 to his death in 1635, Champlain crossed the Atlantic Ocean many times. • Through these voyages he accomplished a great deal. His skills as a cartographer (map-maker) provided detailed maps of the Atlantic coast, the waterways of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, and a view of the interior of the continent that had, until then, not been available to Europeans. • In his initial voyages, he explored the coastal regions of eastern North America. He founded a settlement at Québec City, the first permanent settlement for Europeans in what was to become Canada. He established a military alliance with the Huron people. In 1609 he joined them in an attack near a lake that would eventually bear his name. In this attack, Champlain used his arquebus (an early type of rifle). He loaded it with two rounds of shot and fired it into the group of Iroquois attacking his party. This one shot instantly killed two Iroquois chiefs. The attacking force, not ever having experienced anything like this before, retreated, giving the victory to the Huron alliance. • Over the next 20 years Champlain worked tirelessly to build a colony for France. By the time of his death, he had established the basis of a successful colony, and Champlain’s legacy as the “Father of New France” was secured.
Soldiers • Some of the settlers in New France were soldiers who stayed when their military service was over. For example, in 1665, the Carignan- Salières regiment arrived to defend the colony from the Five Nations Iroquois, who were attacking it. The regiment consisted of some 1200 soldiers and 80 officers. The regiment built three forts along the Richelieu River. After a series of battles with the Iroquois people, New France signed a peace treaty with them in 1667. • The regiment was recalled to France in 1668, but more than 400 soldiers stayed behind. The king encouraged them to stay to settle and populate the new colony, even offering financial rewards. They added to the strength and optimism of the new colony.
Setting the Stage Kings and queens in European countries such as France and England believed in building empires. They built the empires by claiming and colonizing the land. The colonies were a source of riches and raw materials for the mother country in Europe. Goods from the mother country could also be sold in the colony. The fur trade was the main reason France claimed territory in North America. The French King gave trading companies the right to run the fur trade. These companies were also supposed to colonize and settle the land. In 1604, Samuel de Champlain set up the first French settlement in Acadia. Acadia was near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, which was the main route for fur trading. This first settlement moved to Port Royal in 1605, but there weren’t enough settlers to keep the settlement going. By 1607, all the settlers had left. In 1608, Champlain set up a European settlement at what is now Quebec City.
The English and the Dutch were interested in Acadia because of the fur trade and the fish. They tried to take control of the colony. The English and French would battle for Acadia for many years. The fur trade grew in North America, but the number of settlers did not. The trading companies did not spend time bringing settlers to Acadia and New France. As a result, settlers were scattered along the St. Lawrence River, and it was hard to defend them from raids by First Nations. The French built fort-like settlements so they could defend the colonists from attack. Control of the fur trade was also hard to defend. The King of France saw that New France needed permanent settlements so that defending the colony and fur trade would be easier.
Immigration and New France Why People Came to New France People immigrated to New France for different reasons. Some were sent there. Others came to New France hoping to find a better life. 1) The filles du roi (King’s Daughters) were women who agreed to go to New France to start new lives. The King hoped they would marry and have children so the population of New France would grow. 2) Many common people came to New France so they could buy their own land. In France, only the wealthy could afford land. 3) Many men who came to New France became fur traders or coureurs de bois (runners of the woods). Many coureurs de bois lived among the Huron/Wendat, a First Nations group. From the Wendat, they learned trapping, snowshoeing, and how to build shelters. These were important skills to learn in order to survive and to trap in the wilderness. 4) The Roman Catholic Church in France sent missionaries to New France. The Recollet priests came first. Then the Jesuits or ‘blackrobes’ came. They learned First Nations’ languages and customs. They established mission churches on the land where the First Nations lived. 5) Soldiers came to New France to protect the colony. The King hoped they would settle there after they finished their three years of military service.
Immigration and the First Nations The French wanted to change the First Nations to the French way of thinking. The Catholic missions were one way France tried to change the First Nations’ spiritual beliefs. When Champlain arrived in North America, he worked with the Wendat, who lived on the land around the French settlement. The Wendat were known as a trading people, and they traded furs to the French in return for manufactured goods. The French fur traders and businessmen wanted the fur trade to make them rich. The more furs they sent to France, the richer they got. So the fur traders tried to move up further along the St. Lawrence River, trading as many furs as they could. This threatened the livelihood of the First Nations trappers, as more beaver were taken from the land. The French and other Europeans brought new diseases to North America. First Nations peoples had no immunity to diseases like smallpox and typhus. Between 1634 and 1640, thousands of First Nations peoples died from diseases.
Filles des roi • One of the difficulties that New France faced was a shortage of single women. The explorers, fur traders, and soldiers were mainly single men, but there was little to attract single women to the new colony. Yet if New France was to grow, single women were needed to settle there. The authorities decided to import young women, many of them orphans, who were known as filles du roi. The king gave them free transportation to New France, settlement expenses on their arrival, and a dowry. With the Church’s encouragement, most of the filles du roi soon married. They often drew up clear marriage contracts before the ceremony. In 1668, the contract between Isabelle Hubert and Louis Bolduc stated that Isabelle and Louis promised to marry in the Roman Catholic Church as soon as possible. All the possessions they brought into the marriage would become joint property according to French law. Isabelle promised to bring 400 livres (the money used in New France) into the marriage. If the marriage broke up in the future, she would take goods to the value of 500 livres with her. When one spouse died, the other would inherit all that person’s goods and property. The filles du roi were an important part of New France. They helped to develop the colony by providing stable families. Without their hard work and motherly skills, New France would not have expanded as fast as it did
Coureurs des bois • Canada was rich in fur-bearing animals, and the First Nations peoples were keen to trade pelts for supplies. Beaver fur made especially good hats, and these were in demand in Europe. The fur trade was highly regulated. Until 1663, the Company of the Hundred Associates, a private trading company, controlled New France in the name of the king. Only agents licensed by the company could legally trade with the First Nations peoples. The trappers and hunters brought furs to the regions of present-day Montréal, Québec City, and Trois-Rivières, where the agents exchanged the furs for hatchets, metal pots, and other supplies. The coureurs des bois were traders who left the colony to trade directly with the trappers and hunters. In 1656, the first coureurs des bois brought a huge load of pelts back to New France. Médard Chouart des Groseilliers and Nicolas Forget arrived with 50 canoes crammed with beaver pelts. The coureurs des bois were operating illegally, and had to be very careful.
Then, in 1663, King Louis XIV took direct control of New France. Now it was legal for anyone in New France to trade with the First Nations peoples. After the Company of the Hundred lost its monopoly, the numbers of coureurs des bois increased. They went to the pays d’en haut (“the high country”) inland where they often lived with the First Nations peoples. They were away from the colony for months, even years. • But not everyone was pleased. The governor was trying to control the fur trade for his own benefit. The coureurs des bois threatened to challenge this control, because they worked for themselves. Later, this led to disputes between the coureurs des bois and the governor. • By the late 1670s, there were about 300 to 400 coureurs des bois who were away from New France on a long-term basis. This alarmed the authorities, who believed that their absence was harming the colony. They neglected their land and families, and could not help to defend New France against its enemies, particularly the English. In 1688, the total population of New France was about 11 500 people, and there were about 800 coureurs des bois away in the high country. • France needed only around 20 000 kilograms of pelts a year, yet the coureurs des bois were bringing in far more than that. So the king ordered an end to the coureurs des bois’ freedom. His instructions, issued in 1696, forbid • every person, regardless of rank or condition, to leave on a trading trip or to go inland for any reason, under pain of the galleys; and requires all Frenchmen settled with or visiting the Natives to take their leave and return, or they will be liable of the same punishment. • The glory days of the coureurs des bois were over.
Government in New France King Louis XIV of France was also the ruler of New France. He had the power to make all of the decisions for New France. However, he was too far away to rule New France himself. Instead, he appointed advisors to help him. In 1663, the King appointed a Sovereign Council to govern New France. The Council included the Governor General, the Intendant, and a Bishop. If the men chosen for the Council did not do what the King and his advisors asked, the King would order them to return to France. Because France was so far away, royal decrees were often outdated by the time they reached the colony. So the Sovereign Council made many decisions by itself. The Governor General was responsible for military planning and made sure the other people on the Council did their jobs properly. He was also in charge of setting out the rules for how the French worked with the First Nations peoples. The Intendant was responsible for keeping the law in New France. He also controlled the land grants and trade. He reported about the economy of the colony to the King. The Bishop was responsible for religious life in the colony. He was also in charge of converting First Nations peoples to Christianity. The French and other workers in New France had no political powers. However, they were happy with the government. Everyone in New France wanted to make the colony grow and prosper.
Economy of New France Jean Talon became the first Intendant of New France in 1665. One of his main duties was to develop the colony’s economy. He was responsible for everything that involved making, selling, buying, and trading products. The fur trade was the main economic activity, and furs were still the main export to France. However, Talon wanted farming to become the center of the economy. He also wanted to develop other industries. Under Talon, the economy in New France became more varied, but there were still not enough settlers to make the economy grow. FARMING Talon knew that the people of New France had to take care of their own needs. The colony was far across the sea from France, and the St. Lawrence River was frozen during the winter months. The colony could not depend on getting supplies from France. Talon promoted agriculture so that the colonists could provide food for themselves. NATURAL RESOURCES Talon encouraged the search for raw materials such as copper, iron, and other minerals. He developed the fishing and fur trade so that settlers could export seal, salmon, and cod to France. Sawmills were built to produce lumber for local building and for export. Shipbuilding provided vessels for trade, as well as warships for sale to France.
Life on Seigneury The King of France owned all of the land in New France. He divided the land into lots called seigneuries (sane-yer-ees) and granted land to the seigneurs, or landowners. The seigneur rented out pieces of land to the farmers, known as habitants, who then farmed that land. The Seigneury Each seigneury was like a small community, with its own manor house, church, and mill. The seigneur and habitants had different duties. The seigneur built the manor house and the flour mill. He also helped build the parish church. He reported to the Intendant about how much land was being farmed and how much rent he received from the habitants. The Habitants Habitants had to build a house on the land they rented from the seigneur. For building materials, they used trees and rocks they cleared from the land. Habitants had to pay to use the mill. Sometimes, they used their crops for payment instead of money. They also supported the priest by giving some crops to the Church. Every year, the habitant paid rent to the seigneur and worked n the seigneury for several days without pay.
Habitant families worked hard. They had lots of responsibilities. As well as cutting and clearing the land, they had to • grow crops and raise animals to support themselves • give a portion of their production to the seigneur as rent • work without pay for about ten days a year, planting and harvesting the seigneur’s personal fields • provide free labour to build and maintain a church and roadways on the seigneurie • pay taxes to the Church and to the government • The work went on all year round. It was an exhausting schedule. There was no season in which the habitants really rested. All members of the family, including children, were expected to help. The Farms The farms on the seigneury were long and narrow. They stretched back from the St. Lawrence River. This meant everyone had waterfront property. Habitants grew crops on the land, caught fish in the river, and used the river for transportation.
Seigneurs and Seigneuries • Seigneurs were men who had won the king’s favour. They might have been soldiers or supporters of the king in France. The king rewarded them by granting them a seigneurie in New France. These were large areas of land (often 10 kilometres by 5 kilometres). The seigneur could keep a large section of the land for himself and his family, but had to get farm families (the habitants) to settle on the rest of it. A typical seigneurie is shown below. Note some of the key features of the way the seigneurie was laid out. • It was set beside the river to provide water for farming and personal use, for transportation by canoe, and for fishing. • The fields were long and narrow to let as many habitant families as possible have access to the water. • The seigneur retained a large section to provide a site for a church, a lumber mill, a grain mill, etc. • Common land provided a site for social and recreational events.
The Church in New France In the early years of New France, the main focus of the Catholic Church was missionary work with the First Nations. As more settlers arrived, the roles of the Church expanded. Now it also had a social role in the everyday life of the colony. Almost all of the settlers in New France were Catholic, since King Louis XIV had ruled that only Catholics could immigrate there. The Catholic Church was very important to the colony. The Bishop was a member of the Sovereign Council. He gave advice on how to run the colony, and he was responsible for schools and hospitals. New France was divided into parishes. Each parish had its own church and priest. As New France grew, the number of parishes grew, and the colony needed more priests. Bishop Francois de Laval began a seminary in Quebec in 1663 to train more priests for the colony. The church in each parish was the centre of the community. People paid money to the church to help support it and the priest who worked there.
The Church had a role in almost all areas of everyday life. Religious orders taught the children in the colony. Jesuit priests taught the boys, while Ursuline nuns taught the girls. The Church was also responsible for hospitals. The Ursulines established hospitals in Quebec and in Ville-Marie, which later became Montreal.
In 1611, the first Jesuits arrived in New France. They had two immediate goals in mind: • to spread the Roman Catholic religion to the First Nations peoples • to establish schools for boys • They established schools in some of the settlements and sent missionaries out to the First Nations peoples. Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons • In 1634, the Jesuits took their mission to the Huron people who lived to the west of the French settlements. Their plans were to build an agricultural and missionary centre near major canoe routes. • But the Iroquois were enemies of the Huron, and the Jesuits were afraid that a war might break out. So they decided that the centre must be fortified for its own protection. • In 1639, they began construction of Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons, near present-day Midland, Ontario. It had high walls and strong gates made of wood. By 1648, there were about 65 priests, assistants, servants, and soldiers living at Sainte-Marie.
The Iroquois attacked the Huron in 1648. Five Jesuits who worked in Huron villages were killed. The following year, the Jesuits decided to abandon Sainte-Marie. They built a new centre on Christian Island, just off the coast of Lake Huron. But the inhabitants suffered from lack of food, and the new site was no safer than the first one had been. In the winter of 1649, the Iroquois walked across the ice to Christian Island, and destroyed the centre. • Because of hostilities such as these, the Jesuits learned that establishing missions would not be a simple matter.
The French and First Nations Cooperation and the Wendat: In 1609, the Wendat asked the French to become trading partners. The Wendat had a trading network that included the Innu (Montagnais) in the St. Lawrence Valley and the Algonquin people in the Ottawa Valley. They also wanted the French to be their military ally, for support against their enemy, the Iroquois. Between 1615 and 1649, the French missionaries lived in the Wendat villages and missions, hoping to convert the Wendat to Christianity. By 1649, disease and Iroquois attacks destroyed the Wendat people. The remaining Wendat scattered to other places. Conflict and the Iroquois: The Iroquois’ distrust of the French began in 1534. At that time, Jacques Cartier made an alliance with the Wendat. The fur trade caused competition between the Wendat trading with the French and the Iroquois with the English. They became rivals for the fur trade. The Iroquois would ambush the Wendat when they brought back furs along the Ottawa River, and keep them for themselves. The Dutch traded furs for guns with the Iroquois; this made the Iroquois bolder as they raided French settlements and Wendat villages. The Iroquois were determined to drive the French out of the area. The French King sent thousands of soldiers to help protect the colonists from the Iroquois. This army invaded Iroquois territory burning their crops and villages. The Iroquois and English attacked the French settlement of Lachine in 1689. This attack was part of the conflict between English and French. In 1701, the Iroquois signed another treaty, promising to stay neutral in the wars between French and English.
4. How did the newcomers relate with the English in North America?
Allies or Subjects? • The newcomers could not have survived in New France without the assistance of the First Nations peoples. But what was the relationship between the two to be? Were the First Nations peoples respected allies of the French king? Or, would they become his subjects? If they were allies, they would act as independent peoples who cooperated with the French. If they were subjects, they would be under the control of the king. • There was some effort to assimilate First Nations peoples, converting them to Christianity and French ways, wiping out the differences that made them distinct peoples. But the efforts at assimilation were not consistent. The French devoted more attention to establishing and developing a colony than to assimilation. In the 1670s, the governor of New France held annual meetings to consult with leaders of the friendly First Nations, near present-day Kingston, Ontario. This suggested that the French were prepared to accept the differences between the original inhabitants and themselves. Increased First Nations Rivalries • A number of First Nations peoples occupied the area that became New France. These included the Montagnais, the Algonquin, the Huron, and the Five Nations Iroquois. The Huron and Iroquois had been rivals for a long time. But the creation of the fur trade increased their rivalry. If a First Nation could expand its territory, it could catch more beavers and obtain more goods in return from the French. • In 1609, the Huron persuaded Champlain to help them attack the Iroquois who lived to the south. Champlain recorded in his diary what happened when the French met Iroquois warriors.
I rested my arquebus [an early shotgun] against my cheek and aimed directly at one of the three chiefs. With the same shot two of them fell to the ground, and one of their companions was wounded and afterwards died . . . . The Iroquois were much astonished that two men had been so quickly killed . . . . This alarmed them greatly. As I was loading again, one of my companions fired a shot from the woods, which astonished them again to such a degree that, seeing their chiefs dead, they lost courage, took to flight . . . fleeing into the depths of the woods. • Champlain said the Iroquois “lost courage.” Their behaviour in the face of such a powerful new weapon could also be interpreted as prudent: to retreat rather than remain and have additional losses of life. • After this battle, Champlain named the nearby lake after himself. Lake Champlain is in an area now called New York State. • The French were not the only people interested in the fur trade. The Dutch were trying to set up a fur trade of their own with the Mohawk, one of the Iroquois peoples. The Mohawk were anxious to get more beavers to trade with the Dutch, and they expanded into Huron territory.
Religion and Intermarriage • French efforts to spread Christianity assumed that First Nations spiritual beliefs were wrong and that they needed changing. The missionaries did not respect the traditional spiritual advisors. They dismissed Aboriginal legends and teachings as foolish. Treating traditional spirituality in this way offended First Nations people. As a result, they sometimes targeted French religious centres when they went to war against the colonizers. Intermarriage • You have already learned there was a shortage of single women in New France. Many of the coureurs des bois lived with or married First Nations women. This helped them to have a closer relationship with the people who could get furs for them. It also helped them to learn valuable survival skills in the severe climate of the area. A very small number of French women married First Nations men. • In New France, the Catholic Church tried to regulate these relationships. It did not oppose intermarriage if the First Nations partner was baptized into the Church. But it was hard for the Church to control such matters, and many relationships existed without Church approval. • These relationships produced a new people. They had a First Nations parent and a French parent, and were called Métis, which meant “mixed” in old French. As they intermarried with one another, their numbers grew. In the 1800s, the Métis were to become an important part of the development of the West. The Métis are a recognized Aboriginal people in Canada today.
Other Effects of European Newcomers • One of the most disastrous results of the arrival of the settlers was that they brought new diseases with them. Diseases such as smallpox were unknown in North America until then, and the First Nations peoples had no resistance to them. Smallpox was first recorded in New France in 1616. It spread quickly among First Nations peoples, causing many deaths. In later centuries, cholera, typhus, and influenza had similar effects. • Alcohol was also unknown in First Nations societies before fur traders and settlers arrived. The Roman Catholic Church in New France opposed trading alcohol for furs. But the government felt that the Dutch and the English would do it, and the French had to compete. So they sometimes supplied their trading partners with brandy for furs. This practice had a negative effect on the First Nations way of life. • The trade goods that the newcomers brought also affected the First Nations way of life. For centuries they had cooked in clay pots, made their own stone knives and hatchets, kept warm with fur robes and animal-skin clothes, and hunted with bow and arrow. As they traded for manufactured items such as iron cooking pots, knives, axes, blankets, clothes, and rifles, they became dependent on these new items. Conclusion • The French brought supplies to the First Nations peoples that made their lives easier (knives, hatchets, metal pots, for example). Their purpose was to trade and to spread Christianity among the First Nations peoples. There was an increase in rivalries and competition to get the most furs to trade with the French. Alcohol and disease took a great toll on First Nations societies.
Conflict between French and English • In Europe, France and England were often at war. The countries fought for land and power. These conflicts spread to North America as each country expanded its empire. Control of land in North America on which country won the wars in Europe. Control of the Fur Trade In 1670, an English-owned company began to compete with the French for the fur trade. This company was called Hudson’s Bay Company and was located in Rupert’s Land on Hudson Bay. The location made it easy for First Nations, such as the Cree, who live along the rivers leading to the bay, to bring their furs there by canoe. The French also built trading posts in the same area. They were trying to expand the French fur trade west of the St. Lawrence River. In 1713, after the British won a victory in Europe, Britain, and France signed the Treaty of Utrecht. Because of the treaty, the French had to give up their forts around Hudson Bay. To keep more of the fur trade for themselves, the French built new trading posts along the river that ran into the British territory. These posts were closer to where the First Nations lived. As a result, many trappers took their furs to the French posts, instead of traveling all the way north to Hudson Bay.
Acadia was the earliest area of settlement in New France. Its location was important to both the French and British as a gateway to the St. Lawrence River and the fur trade. From 1613 to 1655, Acadia went back and forth between British control and French control. • The British won control of Acadia again in 1713 in the Treaty of Utrecht. The French moved to the nearby Cape Breton Island, where they built the Fortress of Louisbourg in 1720 to protect the route to the fur trade. • In 1745, the British captured Louisbourg. At this time, the French settlers remained on their farms. They did not take sides with either the French or the British. They wanted to stay with their families in Acadia. • In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la Chapelle returned Louisbourg to the French. This made the British who were living in the New England colonies afraid of a French attack. As a result, in 1749 the British built the town of Halifax so that they could be ready to defend themselves. They built Halifax on a harbour. This was a good location for bringing supplies and troops.
The Expulsion of the Acadians • The British were concerned that the French settlers in Acadia outnumbered the British settlers. They wanted Acadians to swear an oath of loyalty to Britain. The settlers would only agree to take an oath of neutrality. This meant they swore loyalty to neither Britain nor France. They did agree to obey the King of England, but they refused to fight for Britain. This might mean fighting friends and family still living in France. • When Governor Charles Lawrence arrived in 1753, he insisted on punishing the Acadians for refusing to take the oath. He expelled them from their land and sent them to other British colonies in North America. He allowed Acadians to take whatever they could carry. • British soldiers burned their homes and churches and split up their families. Boats took them to the Thirteen Colonies, where they were unwelcome. Some Acadians went to France, while others went to Louisiana Territory, which France still controlled. Many died aboard ship. • Eventually, Britain allowed Acadians to return to New France, but British settlers had claimed their homes and farms. Those Acadians who did return had to settle in other areas of the Maritime colonies.
The Fall of New France Before the Seven Years’ War • The Seven Years’ War began in Europe in 1756. Before the war, the French claimed the largest territory in North America—which stretched from Louisbourg to Quebec and Montreal and west and south to the mouth of the Mississippi River on the Gulf of Mexico. • They controlled this area with the help of First Nations peoples. The British claimed the territory from Halifax to the Thirteen Colonies along the Atlantic Ocean. The British-owned Hudson’s Bay Company controlled Rupert’s Land, west and north of New France. • New France had a smaller population and fewer resources than the British colonies. Because Britain was a strong sea power, British ships were able to block French ships bringing supplies and troops to New France.
During the Seven Years’ War • France decided to keep most of its troops at home to fight the war in Europe. The French thought their troops in New France were enough to fight off any attack from the British. • Britian on the other hand, sent thousands of troops to North America. They saw this as an opportunity to finally win control of the St. Lawrence River. They planned attacks on Louisbourg, the Ohio Valley, and Quebec. • The British strategy worked. They captured Louisbourg in 1758. The British fleet then sailed up the St. Lawrence to attack Quebec City. Major General James Wolfe led the British forces. Major General Louis-Joseph the Marquis of Montecalm, led the French forces from within the walled town of Quebec. • After several months of fighting, Wolfe had his men climb up a steep riverbank at night. His men waited for the French in a large open area outside the city walls of Quebec. This place was the Plains of Abraham. • Montecalm brought his troops to meet the British at the Plains. The French were not used to fighting out in the open on a battlefield. Unlike the British, the French were not professional soldiers (many of them weren’t). The British quickly won the battle. Wolfe died on the battlefield, Montecalm died of wounds the next day. After the Seven Years’ War • The colonists hoped that New France might be returned to the French before the war ended. But in 1763, France gave up its colonial empire in North America.
