French colony in North America from 1535 to 1763
The colony of
Canada
was a
French colony
within the larger territory of
New France
. It was claimed by
France
in 1535 during the second voyage of
Jacques Cartier
, in the name of the French king,
Francis I
. The colony remained a French territory until 1763, when it became a British colony known as the
Province of Quebec
.
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
In the 16th century the
word "Canada"
could refer to the territory along the
Saint Lawrence River
[9]
(then known as the Canada River) from
Grosse Isle
to a point between
Quebec
and
Trois-Rivieres
.
[10]
The terms "Canada" and "New France" were also used interchangeably.
[11]
French explorations continued west "unto the Countreys of Canada, Hochelaga, and Saguenay"
[12]
before any permanent settlements were established. In 1600 a permanent trading post and habitation was established at
Tadoussac
at the confluence of the
Saguenay
and Saint Lawrence rivers. However, because this trading post was under a trade monopoly, it was not constituted as an official French colonial settlement.
The first official settlement of Canada was
Quebec
, founded by
Samuel de Champlain
in 1608.
[13]
[14]
The other four colonies within
New France
were
Hudson's Bay
to the north,
Acadia
and
Newfoundland
to the east, and
Louisiana
far to the south.
[15]
[16]
Canada became the most developed of the five colonies of New France. It was divided
[
when?
]
into three districts,
Quebec
,
Trois-Rivieres
, and
Montreal
, each with its own government.
[
citation needed
]
The governor of the District of Quebec also served as the governor-general for all of New France.
[16]
[
failed verification
]
The
Seven Years' War
of 1756?1763 saw
Great Britain
defeat the French and their allies, and take possession of Canada. In the
Treaty of Paris of 1763
, which formally ended the Seven Years' War,
France
ceded Canada in exchange for other colonies, with a large portion of Canada becoming the British colony of the
Province of Quebec
.
[17]
Territorial evolution
[
edit
]
In the 240 years between
Verrazano
's voyage of exploration in 1524 and the
Conquest of New France
in 1763, the French marked the North American continent in many ways. Whether it was through by land distribution and clearing, the establishment of villages and towns, deploying a network of roads and paths or developing the territory with various constructions, the
French colonists
transformed and adapted the environments according to their needs.
There are three major periods of expansion of the territory of Canada, mostly as a result of exploration efforts. First, the 1534?1603 period, in which Canada's territory comprised the coasts of
Newfoundland
, the entirety of
Prince Edward Island
,
Nova Scotia
and the coasts of
New Brunswick
, the
Saint Lawrence River
and the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence
.
Then 1603?1673, in which, due to westward expansion and conflicts with
Great Britain
, the Canada territory was now composed of the coasts of the
Saint Lawrence River
, of the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence
and of the
Great Lakes
, as well as southern
Ontario
and northern
New England
.
Then, in the last period of 1673?1741, the Canada territory was composed of the coasts of the
Saint Lawrence River
, of the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence
and of the
Great Lakes
, southern
Ontario
, southern
Manitoba
and the north-eastern
Midwest
. It is in this period that Canada was at its largest.
[18]
Pays d'en Haut
[
edit
]
Dependent on Canada were the
Pays d'en Haut
(upper countries), a vast territory north and west of Montreal, covering the whole of the Great Lakes and stretching as far into the
North American
continent as the French had explored.
[16]
Before 1717, when it ceded territory to the new colony of Louisiana, it stretched as far south as the
Illinois Country
. In the Great Lakes area, a mission,
Sainte-Marie among the Hurons
, was established in 1639. Following the destruction of the Huron homeland in 1649 by the
Iroquois
, the French destroyed the mission themselves and left the area. In what are today Ontario and the eastern prairies, various trading posts and forts were built such as
Fort Kaministiquia
in 1679 (at modern
Thunder Bay, Ontario
),
Fort Frontenac
in 1673 (today's
Kingston, Ontario
),
Fort Saint Pierre
in 1731 (near modern
Fort Frances
, Ontario),
Fort Saint Charles
in 1732 (on
Lake of the Woods
located on Magnusens Island on the
Northwest Angle
of
Minnesota
) and
Fort Rouille
in 1750 (today's
Toronto
). The mission and trading post at
Sault Ste. Marie
(1688) would later be split by the
Canada?US border
.
The French settlements in the
Pays d'en Haut
among and south of the Great Lakes were
Fort Niagara
(1678) (near modern
Youngstown, New York
),
Fort Crevecoeur
(1680) (near the present site of
Creve Coeur, Illinois
, a suburb of
Peoria, Illinois
),
Fort Saint Antoine
(1686) (on
Lake Pepin
in
Wisconsin
),
Fort St. Joseph
(1691) (on the southernmost point of
St. Joseph Island
, Ontario on
Lake Huron
),
Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit
(1701) (today's
Detroit
, Michigan),
Fort Michilimackinac
(1715) (on the
Straits of Mackinac
at
Mackinaw City, Michigan
),
Fort Miami
(1715) (modern
Fort Wayne, Indiana
),
Fort La Baye
(1717) (today's
Green Bay, Wisconsin
), and
Fort Beauharnois
(1727) (in
Florence Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota
).
Today, the term
Les Pays-d'en-Haut
refers to a
regional county municipality
in the
Laurentides
region of the present Province of
Quebec
, north of Montreal, while the former
Pays d'en Haut
was part of the District of Montreal.
Domaine du roy
[
edit
]
The
Domaine du roy
, established in 1652, was a vast region of
New France
, which stretched north from the
St. Lawrence River
to
Hudson Bay
. It was located between the eastern limit of the
seigneurie
of
Les Eboulements
and Cape Cormorant. The territory had an area of more than 460,000km2. After the
Conquest of New France
, the territory's name was changed to
Rupert's Land
.
[19]
Population surveys
[
edit
]
A population survey was done in 1740 to estimate Canada's population. The survey of the
Saint Lawrence River
valley counted about 44,000 colonists in total. The majority of them were born in Canada and lived in a rural environment. Of the colonists, 18,000 lived under the Government of
Quebec
, 4,000 under the
Government of Trois-Rivieres
and 22,000 under the Government of
Montreal
. As for colonists not living in the Saint Lawrence River valley,
Ile Royale
(now
Cape Breton
) counted 4,000 inhabitants (of which 1,500 were in
Louisbourg
), and Ile Saint-Jean (now
Prince Edward Island
) had 500 inhabitants.
[20]
Successors and legacy
[
edit
]
In 1791, the Province of Quebec was separated into
Lower Canada
(now
Quebec
) and
Upper Canada
(now
Ontario
). Lower Canada and Upper Canada were fused into the
Province of Canada
in 1841, before separating again into the modern-day provinces of
Quebec
and
Ontario
during the
Confederation of Canada
in 1867. Because of the historical and geographical continuity, as well as the continued use of the French language,
civil law
, customs, cultural aspects and the ruling power of the
Catholic Church
in
government
until the
Quiet Revolution
of the 1960s, the province of
Quebec
is considered by many to be the
modern-day continuation
of the Canada colony of New France.
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
Still today, the majority of the
Quebec population
is descended from the original French-speaking
Canadien
of Canada, and the
cultural distinctiveness
of Quebec from the rest of the country has led to the emergence of a
Quebecois identity
and the
Quebec sovereignty movement
.
[25]
Descendants of the original
Canadien
of Canada (New France) living outside of Quebec are now often referred to by a name which references their province of residence (ex.
Franco-Ontarian
). Francophone populations in the
Maritime provinces
, however, are more likely to be descended from the settlers of the French colony of
Acadia
. They are therefore called
Acadians
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
New York State Historical Association (1915).
Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association with the Quarterly Journal: 2nd-21st Annual Meeting with a List of New Members
. The Association.
It is most probable that the Bourbon Flag was used during the greater part of the occupancy of the French in the region extending southwest from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, known as New France... The French flag was probably blue at that time with three golden fleur-de-lis ....
- ^
"Fleur-de-lys | The Canadian Encyclopedia"
.
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
.
- ^
"INQUINTE.CA | CANADA 150 Years of History ~ The story behind the flag"
.
inquinte.ca
.
- ^
M. Gough, Barry (2021).
Historical Dictionary of Canada
. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 471.
ISBN
9781538120347
.
- ^
Lamb, W. Kaye (19 March 2018).
"Canada"
.
The Canadian Encyclopedia
(online ed.).
Historica Canada
.
- ^
Conrick, Maeve; Regan, Vera (2007).
French in Canada: Language Issues
. Peter Lang. p. 11.
ISBN
978-3-03910-142-9
.
- ^
Rayburn, Alan (2001).
Naming Canada: Stories about Canadian Place Names
. University of Toronto Press. p. 13.
ISBN
978-0-8020-8293-0
.
- ^
Parkman, Francis
(1996).
Pioneers of France in the New World
. University of Nebraska Press. p. 202.
ISBN
0-8032-8744-5
.
- ^
Boswell, Randy (22 April 2013).
"Putting Canada on the map"
. National Post.
- ^
Cartier, Jacques (1993). Cook, Ramsay (ed.).
Voyages of Jacques Cartier
. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p.
43
.
- ^
Warkentin, Germaine; Podruchny, Carolyn (2001).
Decentring the Renaissance: Canada and Europe in Multidisciplinary Perspective, 1500-1700
. University of Toronto Press. p. 234.
ISBN
978-0-8020-8149-0
.
- ^
Cartier, Jacques (1993). Cook, Ramsay (ed.).
Voyages of Jacques
. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p.
96
.
- ^
New, William H. (2002).
Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada
. University of Toronto Press. p. 190.
ISBN
978-0-8020-0761-2
.
- ^
Kelley, Ninette; Trebilcock, Michael J. (2010).
The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy
. University of Toronto Press. pp. 27?28.
ISBN
978-0-8020-9536-7
.
- ^
"Canada at the Time of New France"
.
Site for Language Management in Canada
. University of Ottawa. 2004. Archived from
the original
on 2017-03-25
. Retrieved
March 24,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Le territoire"
.
La Nouvelle-France. Resources francaises
. Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication (France). 1998. Archived from
the original
on 17 August 2021
. Retrieved
2 August
2008
.
La Nouvelle-France designait l'ensemble des territoires de l'Amerique du Nord sous administration francaise, avant 1763. Dans sa plus grande dimension, avant le Traite d'Utrecht (1713), la Nouvelle-France comprenait cinq colonies possedant, chacune, une administration propre : le Canada, l'Acadie, la Baie d'Hudson, Terre-Neuve, la Louisiane.
- ^
"His Most Christian Majesty cedes and guaranties to his said Britannick Majesty, in full right, Canada, with all its dependencies, as well as the island of Cape Breton, and all the other islands and coasts in the gulph and river of St. Lawrence, and in general, every thing that depends on the said countries, lands, islands, and coasts..."
Treaty of Paris (1763)
– via
Wikisource
.
- ^
"Colonies et Empires-Expansion territoriale et alliances"
. Canadian Museum of History. 2021.
- ^
Michel Lavoie (2010).
Le Domaine du roi 1652-1859
. Septentrion.
- ^
"New France circa 1740"
.
The Atlas of Canada
. Natural Resources Canada. 6 October 2003. Archived from
the original
on 10 December 2007
. Retrieved
13 December
2009
.
- ^
"Quebec"
. The Canadian Encyclopedia. April 2021. Government and Politics.
- ^
"History Of Quebec"
. Britannica. April 2021. History Of Quebec.
- ^
"Breve histoire du Quebec"
. Histoire du Quebec. 2019. La chute de la Nouvelle-France.
- ^
"History of Quebec and Canada-Social Sciences"
(PDF)
. Government of Quebec. 2017. 1760-1791 The Conquest and the change of empire.
- ^
"The story of New France: the cradle of modern Canada"
. National Geographic. 2020. The fall of New France. Archived from
the original
on March 2, 2021.
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History
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Colonies
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