The French in Canada

New Mexico Cont.

Onate was focused on gaining support for the colony via silver mines which failed to materialize He then turned to the Great

Plains and the pacific coast but found nothing

As a result the Pueblo’s fell victim to Spanish atrocities due to Onate’s inability to lead

Finally in 1607 Onate was removed from power and the Franciscan’s took control of the colony

While the colony continued to remain poor and weak the Franciscans did enjoy success converting the Pueblo’s

By 1628 the friars had spread 50 missions through the Rio Grande Valley mainly in existing Pueblo villages

The French had developed a few colonies (Fort

Carolina) near the Spanish but all had been destroyed

They decided to form their next colony in the far North where the Spanish lacked influence

In 1541 the French sent up a colony along the St. Lawrence River in modern Canada The cold terrain, scurvy, and the hostile natives soon

defeated the colony Despite the failure of the colony the French soon

found two valuable commodities in Furs and Fish

French Exploration

The first Europeans to visit North America found the

natives wealthy in furs Used for high fashion in Europe Allowed easy profit by Europeans without messy colonialism

Traders brought with them metal objects, glass beads, and alcohol

Trade was conducted via traditional native protocol As it changed over from the late 16th into the early 17th

century trade became more widespread This lead to increased native European contact We also see natives begin to increase their demands on

their environment

The Fur Trade

Despite value of the Fur Trade the French first

began to form trading posts only at the beginning of the 17th century

The first Canadian settlements were small all male settlements around Acadia All of these settlements were ineffective and short

lived The Final of these settlements was destroyed by

the English in 1613 After the failure of these early colonies the French

refocused on the St. Lawrence Valley

Canada

Canada Cont.

Samuel de Champlain led the settlement of the first permanent colony of New France in 1608 with Québec After 20 years of settlement

New France only had 82 all male settlers

The Settlers relied on the good will of the local tribes

Due to the necessity of the alliances with local tribes the French made a powerful enemy in the Iroquois

Despite the focus of New France on the Fur trade the real support came from the Jesuit missionaries

The Iroquois

The Iroquois confederacy was made up of five powerful tribes They were previous enemies who

were united by Deganawida and Hiawatha

The Confederacy had a central capital as well as a yearly meeting of their chiefs

The Tribes focus was heavily on war and military The tribes typically were

constantly fighting “Morning Wars”

Due to the focus on internal peace they began to push to the North eventually conflicting with the French

The Iroquois also benefited from trade with the Dutch of the Hudson Valley

The Jesuits sustained the weak French colonies early

on in Canada Jesuits founded in 16th century by Ignatius of Loyola Focused on Conversion, founding schools, and

research First attempt to evangelize the northern Natives took

place in 1615 called the Recollet Natives held the upper hand in the relationship from

the beginning After 10 years the Recollet found only minimal success The Jesuits came into the region in 1625 and took

control of conversion

The Jesuit Expansion

The Jesuits focused at first on the Huron tribes to

the West The Huron's were more settled and connected to the

French than other northern tribes The Jesuits also focused on local conversion through

native languages and missions Despite the advances the Jesuits made in converting

the local population we do see issues arise Jesuits were expected to take on the same roles as

traditional shamans Conflict between Christianity and traditional

religion/culture

Jesuits cont.