Horton High School's Canadian History 12
Web Page and Student Resource

 
 
 

Chapter Six: The Establishment and Workings of New France

•  the demand for furs in France led to the revival of French presence in the New World.
•  the French crown sought to control the New World through two avenues: colonization and Christianization.
•  for the French, the fur trade far outweighed the fisheries. This came to hurt the natives, as they chose to stay on the coast trapping and trading, resulting in less time to fish. This led to an increasing dependence by the natives on the French.
• Tadoussac would become the main trading centre along the St. Lawrence. Cartier’s posts were now in tatters, remnants of the explorer’s work.
• 1603 - Crown gave a monopoly to de Chaste, who gave the expedition to Grave du Pont. One of his sailors was Samuel de Champlain, a former soldier in the Wars of Religion who wished to escape the violence of Europe. Grave went up the St. Lawrence and went as far in as Montreal, befriending the "good Iroquois" - the Huron.
•  returned to France, with established routes of trade with the natives. de Chaste had died, and the monopoly was handed over to de Monts.
•  de Monts had problems in the St. Lawrence, as no one seemed to recognize his monopoly. He looked further south to find furs, and in 1604 his ships, under Champlain’s command, sailed up the Bay of Fundy. Spent the winter of 1604 on an island near New Brunswick’s St. Croix River - a hard winter - with close to half of the 80 sailors and traders dying from scurvy.
•  1605 - the French went across the Bay and settled at Port Royal, where they built a habitation. There they established crops and the first social order in the New World, the Order of Good Cheer. de Mont abandoned Port Royal, seeing it as not a potentially lucrative venture, yet Champlain stayed there and traded with the local natives. Stayed there into 1607, when he too realized that Port Royal was not to be, so it was largely abandoned.
•  1608 - Grave and Champlain returned to the St. Lawrence, and went to the area near Stadacona. There they built a large, walled habitation, and called the new settlement Quebec. The Huron supported this, as they were at war with the Montagnais, an Algonkian tribe. Grave returned to France with furs, leaving Champlain and 27 others to man the fort. This winter was vicious - 20 of the 28 died of scurvy and dysentery - Champlain himself barely survived a bout of scurvy himself. That Spring, Champlain established good relations with the Huron and Montagnais, for he knew he could not be enemies with any of the native peoples.
•  when new French settlers arrived, Champlain made strong ties with the Huron and helped in their wars with the Mohawks to the south by equipping the Huron with muskets. The French, in turn, were given new agricultural and trapping techniques from the Huron - namely the growing of corn.
•  1612 - Champlain made the Lieutenant of New France.
•  1627 - Cardinal Richelieu, for all intents and purposes the leader of France, established the "Company of 100 Associates", a business organization which set out to exploit the resources of New France, as well as colonize.
•  the Company was rocked hard when an English force, under the Kirke brothers, seized Tadoussac and the French ships carrying settlers. The Kirkes later attacked Quebec in 1629, which was low in numbers. Champlain was forced to open the gates, and the English took control of the fort from 1629-1632. Quebec was returned to the French in the ensuing peace negotiations.
•  the Christianization of the New World by the French was handed over to two Catholic religious orders, the Jesuits and the Recollets. The Jesuits were called the "Black Robes" by the native peoples, and were not trusted, as they were seen as bringers of death [in fact, the European colds and other common ailments served to kill many native peoples]. Many Jesuits faced death when they approached. Some, however, became integrated into native societies and established schools and the like.
•  in 1642 - Mont Royal was further developed and settled - known today as Montreal.
•  by 1645, the 100 Associated had gone bankrupt, and was replaced by the Habitants Company, a group of five wealthy businessmen. By this time, New France had only 600 settlers - thus the French expansion of the New World was not going as planned.

Administration:
 

•  by 1700, the French in New France were called Canadiens, and had developed a culture unique to themselves. They spoke their own dialect and developed their own culture. Their government was run by three people: the Governor; the Intendant and the Bishop.

•  Governor: noble and usually a soldier as well. In control of all diplomacy and military operations.
•  Intendant: under the Governor, but a very important role, perhaps the most important in New France. Responsible for justice, public order, settlement, finance and land claims.
• Bishop: a political and religious figure, although his role never became powerful, due to the lack of personnel in New France to spread the word.

•  the Sovereign Council or Superior Council was a lawmaking body of elected councillors along with the Governor, Intendant and Bishop. Dealt with serious criminal cases. Lower courts handled smaller cases for theft and the like.
•  by 1700, the fur trade was replaced by agriculture as the main industry in New France. The population by 1755 had ballooned to 55,000. From the late 1680s to 1800, slaves were common to New France, primarily native slaves called Panis. Some African slaves were in New France as well. Approximately 4,000 slaves were in New France during this time frame. The average Panis lived to be 18, the average African to 25 and the average Habitant lived to be between 25-30.
•  under Colbert, Louis 14th’s Colonial Secretary, New France grew in military might. He believed it had to be compact and strong, thus brought in over 1,000 soldiers in the 1660s and made peace with the Iroquois.
•  Jean Talon, Intendant at the same time, established the Siegneurial System in New France, which was an agricultural system of land holding. The land, ultimately owned by the king, was run by a siegneur, or noble. He would rent the land out in blocks to the Habitants, and would collect taxes. Each siegneury had a mill, village and housing. By 1715 there were over 200 siegneuries in New France. These are still visible today by air.
•  to help populate New France, the king sent young women to New France to marry and bare children. These women were called the "Filles du Roi" or "King’s Girls", and were placed under the protection of the Ursuline Sisters until they married. These women had to be strong in both mind and body, as they would have to help their new husband in clearing the land and settling a rather bleak and harsh land.
•  Indentured workmen, or "Engage", were brought in from France to do the very hard work. This was a form of punishment handed down in France, and these men were sent to New France for three years to do hard labour. After this they were free, although most stayed in New France.
• The Iroquois Confederacy , established late in the 15th century, continued to play an important role in the 1600s. This organization of five, and later six, tribes were mainly enemies of the Huron and their white allies, the French. By the 1640s, the Confederacy was raided French villages, killing people in the hopes of sending the French from their lands. They offered the Huron an alliance, which was refused, as the Huron had adopted Christianity and wished to stay close to the French.
• by 1649, Iroquois raids into Huron territory increased to the point that by the early 1650s the Huron people were all but extinct. Those who survived retreated to Quebec for protection.
• the Huron, which had served as the "middle men" for the French trappers, had been replaced by the "Courier de Bois", French trappers who had adopted the lifestyles of the Native peoples, their language and their culture.
• between 1650-1653, two-thirds of the French settlers were killed in Native raids. Nonetheless, New France's population grew, due to the vast opportunities it offered, so that by 1662 there were over 3000 people in New France.
• In 1660, Adam Dollard, a French soldier, led a raid into the Confederacy's heartland in hopes of easing the stress on New France. With a force of less than 20, Dollard encountered an Iroquois war party of over 400. Dollard and the others were tortured to death. For this, Dollard became a hero to the French, and to this day Quebec celebrates Dollard Day [May 24th] in recognition of this man's attempts to protect Quebec.
• finally, in 1665, King Louis XIV sent 1200 Regular troops to New France in order to protect the colony. Some raids were made into Mohawk territory in order to show the new strength of the French, and this seemed to work, as raids decreased soon after.