Why Did France Lose Its North American Colonies?

New France

Between around 1534 and 1803, the French held control of a considerable part of North America

They called this North American colony New France, and it was ruled as a viceroyalty

of the French Empire. At its peak in 1712, they held a gigantic portion of the continent, stretching from

the port of New Orleans in the southern coast of what is today the United States to the very

northeastern tip of Canada in Newfoundland. But despite there being significant French heritage in Canada today, mainly in Quebec

their control and influence over North America was essentially lost. So why

In this video I want to do two things. First, briefly go over New France and provide some historical context as to how it was created

how it expanded and how it worked overall. And second, explain how, after it peaked territorially in 1712, it lost more and more territory

over the next 70 years, reducing French presence in North America to about a couple of very

small islands. If you're only interested in the answer to the question asked in the title and thumbnail

you can skip the historical context through the timestamps. Now, before we keep going, I have to take a minute to thank this week's sponsor who

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French presence in North America dates back to earlier than you may think, and in a different

place than you might immediately think of. The first French-commissioned exploration of North

America was made by Florentine explorer Giovanni de Verrazano in 1523 with the financing of King

Francis I. Like the Portuguese and Spanish before him, he was trying to actually find a sea path to

Asia through the west, but ran into a pretty big obstacle along the way called America. He briefly

explored the Carolina coasts and then moved up to what is today New York, being the first European

to do so and naming it Nouvelle Angoulême, in honor of the French king, the former count of

Angoulême in France. This successful discovery of land led the king to finance more expeditions

and to attempt to establish French colonies in this new continent. And in 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula

and established the first province of New France, Fort Charlesbourg Royal, present-day Quebec City

There were some setbacks and only in 1608 did the permanent Quebec City establish itself

but from there they expanded inwards, establishing alliances with the native people

And while friendly relations were established with a lot of the indigenous populations

the French also used those alliances to fight other natives. In fact, war with the Iroquois was important for their expansion

In 1627, the famous Cardinal Richelieu, advisor to King Louis, founded the Company of 100 Associates to invest in New France

as he wanted their North American colonies to be as important as the British ones were

The company was granted a monopoly to manage the fur trade in the colonies of New France and in return was supposed to settle French Catholics in New France And speaking of the British conflicts between them and the French in Canada began as early as 1632 with the British raiding many of the French colonies

This map, made by Samuel de Champlain, shows us the main French domains at around this time

And we can see French presence was limited to the north-eastern coast

These old maps are always really cool for me, especially in these small, adorned details

like the things they added at sea, the boats, the sea creatures, and the impressive detail

on the map coastline and river that they were exploring and settling along

Despite the impressive looking map and the wide reach of French influence, the colony

of New France itself was quite small. By 1650, it only had 700 colonists, and because of this, the French crown began paying for

passages and offered other incentives to those willing to move to New France. After this

the population grew to about 3,000. Taking more direct control of the colony, local government

was reformed along the lines of the government of France, and in 1665, Jean Talon was appointed

the first Intendant of New France. In this map, we can see it more accurately, it depicts

the political map of North-East North America in 1664. In red are British settlements, in

In yellow, the Dutch, which as we can see still included significant territories here

namely the area of New York, at the time named New Amsterdam

In brown, the Iroquois territories, and in blue and purple, the French

In the color lines, we can see the respective areas of influence. The efforts to boost New France as a colony were at times odd

For instance, since most of the settlers were men, Louis XIV decided to send single women

calling them the King's Daughters, and paying for their passages and dowries

Despite being strange, it worked and boosted the colony's population to 6700 by 1672

At the same time that they encouraged marriages with the natives, the French were always known

for having a more tolerant policy towards indigenous populations when compared to other

European colonizers. Another fun fact, the 1666 census of New France was the first census conducted in North America

Perhaps feeling like the northeast territories were more established by then, the French

decided they wanted more territory in North America. After all, why not

They had been reasonably successful where they were and all other European powers were

reaching out as well. Therefore, they extended their claims to the south and the west, naming this new territory

as La Louisiane after King Louis XIV. In 1682, René Robert Cavallier explored the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippi River

Valley and he claimed the entire territory for France as far south as the Gulf of Mexico

With this, New France would stretch from the Caribbean Sea to the northern Atlantic, splitting

the continent in half. Although despite claiming it, they were yet to actually settle the territory and establish

effective control over it. Here something really funny happened, the same explorer attempted to establish the first

settlement in 1685 at what he thought was the mouth of the Mississippi River

But his map was wrong and so he ended up building it in Texas by mistake outside of the claimed territory

Then most of the settlers died from disease and the survivors were killed in a native attack

so altogether a pretty unsuccessful first attempt. However, they tried again and succeeded, and many French settlements were established in

French Louisiana. This map, through the star icons, points out all the major settlements and forts in New

France at the time. We can definitely see a larger incidence along rivers and lakes

The claim of Louisiana's territory, which was then the territory sold to the US, which we'll get to soon

was much larger than the one effectively colonized and controlled by the French

as well as the areas under their influence, here in blue. However, despite their internal success, conflicts with the British continued

not only through the colonial skirmishes in America, but also full-on wars in Europe

one of which was key for the first step towards France losing Canada, the Spanish War of Succession in 1701

Charles II of Spain died with no children, and this led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs Philippe of Anjou and Charles of Austria Philippe was also in line for the French throne I think and thus was supported by France

perhaps predicting a possible union of the two empires. The British, of course, due to this and other reasons, supported Charles

A war broke out, Habsburg, Spain, Austria, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Portugal

and Savoy on one side, and Bourbon, Spain, France, Bavaria, Cologne and Portugal and

Savoy who changed sides after 1703 on the other. The war was a mess and a bunch of things happened, arguably both sides won and lost, some more

than others. In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht brought peace and Philip was recognized as King of Spain

but renounced his place in the French succession. And most importantly for this video, France had to cede significant parts of its territory

in Canada to the British. They recognized British control over the Iroquois and ceded Nova Scotia and its claims to New

Foundland and territories in Rupert's Land. This was the first significant loss of territory by the French in North America, but more were

to come also at the hands of the British. Surprisingly, the post-war period seemed to boost New France's development, despite the

fact they had lost territories. Industries such as fishing and farming expanded, a road called King's Highway was built between

Montreal and Quebec to encourage faster trade, and the shipping industry also flourished

as new ports were built and old ones upgraded. One really weird thing that happened was the usage of card money

I'm not sure if this is directly related to a growing economy and the lack of minting

capabilities to keep up with it, but in the 17th and 18th centuries, playing cards were

issued as currency by the colonial government of New France, to make up for the low supply

of minted coins. Official cards were embossed with a fleur de lis and the signatures of the intendant, the

governor and the treasurer. And they were so popular that even once supply for real money wasn't low, they kept being

used, with an estimated 2 million livres, the French currency at the time, circulating

in this form. In these images we can see examples of them, they look very easy to falsify so I don't

know how they worked. The population continued to grow and by 1754, when France held its last North American survey

Canada was a self-sustaining colony with over 55,000 people across Quebec and Louisiana

But let's rewind a couple of decades here because despite Louisiana being a part of

the math for the post 1713 success, it wasn't a part of the growth itself

It's sort of that typical one chicken, two people situation. A statistic might tell you that if two people have one chicken together, each is getting

half but that might not be the case. Maybe one has 90% of the chicken and the other only 10%

It's the problem with GDP per capita numbers. It doesn't account for wealth distribution

In this case, it was the opposite and all the growth of New France was due to the Canadian provinces

Louisiana, for whatever reason, kept losing money and the only successful area seemed

to be New Orleans due to its Mississippi River port. It was so bad that the French crown actually transferred control of the territory to a

private banker called Antoine Crozet, a very wealthy advisor to the king, through a 15

year monopoly deal. But just 5 years in, he had lost 4 times his investment and so he gave it up

After this, control of Louisiana and its very small population of only 700 colonists was

given to the Mississippi Company, then renamed to Company of the Indies, who held a monopoly

for the French crown. But the company also went bankrupt. Due to speculation in land development, it actually serves as one of the earliest examples

in history of an economic bubble. Only one year later, in 1720, the king had Louisiana back in his hands and the territory

saw little to no development for the next 50 years. However, as if the war of Spanish succession hadn't been enough, another major war took

place with Britain and France on opposing sides, leading two alliances at war with each other

The Seven Years' War in Europe, which coincided with the French and Indian War in America

started as a small issue with Austria winning a province back, but then escalated to a global

conflict between European powers who wanted colonial gains from each other The British alliance won and France defeat was costly This along with the Louisiana management disaster is the key moment of the French losing Canada

and North America. One of the terms of the peace treaty of Paris in 1763 was that France would cede all its

Canadian territory to Britain as well as all lands east of the Mississippi, some to Britain

and some to Spain. In addition, Louis XV saw little value in Louisiana, and to compensate Spain for its

losses in the Seven Years War, he transferred the territory to the Spanish king, who also

happened to be his cousin, in 1762. At this point, all of Canada is now under British control, and the French Empire in

North America was reduced to a couple islands in the Caribbean. So now it's 1764, and the French have no North American colonies unless you consider

some Caribbean islands as part of North America, except two small islands off the coast of

Newfoundland, Saint-Pierre and Michelin. We'll get to them in a second because New France wasn't

done yet. You see, Louisiana remained under the control of Spain for a few decades, but then

Napoleon rose to power and wanted to re-establish a French North American empire. So, he demanded

it back from Spain in 1800 in exchange for some territories in Tuscany. However, two factors led

to them changing their mind. First, a revolution in Haiti, which the French held as a colony

was successful. Humiliating the French and proving their colonial capability was gone

And second, the prospect of a new war against Britain meant that all expenses needed to be

directed towards that. The now independent United States had shown interest in buying the port of

New Orleans and made an offer for $10 million, with Napoleon then offering the whole Louisiana

territory for only $15. In 1803, the purchase was concluded in what was previously known as

new France was completely gone from French hands. Part of it now with the British and the rest with

the United States. But what about those small islands I mentioned, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon

You see, technically new France still exists today. Initially being colonized by France

these islands were also lost to Britain in the 1713 peace treaty. However, in the 1763 one

the British granted them back to France, then retaking them in 1783 due to French support of

the US in the Revolutionary War, but finally in 1814, France definitively got them back

and they hold them until today as an overseas collectivity of the French Republic, the last

remaining piece of what was once the Grand Territory of New France, an existing hand-in-hand

with the other remnants of the old French Empire in the Caribbeans, where the two overseas departments

of Guadeloupe and Martinique exist, as well as the other two overseas collectivities of Saint Martin

and Saint Barthélemy, plus of course French Guiana in South America. The modern remnants of

European colonial empires would be a good video topic, but that is another story. So, that is a

brief overview of how France lost North America in two different wars and one pretty bad trade deal

learning how new France was established, how it expanded and grew, always facing issues with the

British along the way. First establishing themselves in eastern Canada but then expanding further into Iroquois territory

and the rest of Quebec. Finally claiming Louisiana and attempting to colonize what is today the central third

of the United States but failing tremendously in various stages. Losing part of Canada as a consequence of the War of Spanish Succession in 1713 and

then losing the rest of Canada in the Seven Years War slash French and Indian War of 1763

being forced to cede to Spain the lands east of the Mississippi River along with Louisiana

with Napoleon attempting to re-establish new France through taking back Louisiana but quickly

realizing his mistake and selling it at a cheap price to the United States, culminating

in the complete destruction of what was once the large colonial territory of the French

in North America. Save the very small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which despite

also jumping around between France and Britain in all those peace treaties, ended up in the

hands of the French up to today being the only remnants of New France

Thanks so much for watching this video, leave a comment with any corrections or additional

information you might have, and subscribe if you want to catch future videos. I will see you next time for more general knowledge