News-France

See also: New France (film), New France (re-examined)

The News-France is the name of the immense territory which included/understood all the French colonies of the North America, of the mouth of the Fleuve the St. Lawrence with the delta of the river the Mississippi, while passing by the territory of the valley of Ohio. News-France barred the expansion towards the West of the Thirteen coastal colonies English/British, which caused a war against the French and the Indiens, in which illustrated the British colonel George Washington of the continental Armée (which was to thereafter become the first president of the young republic of the the United States of America).

At the time of the first census carried out in News-France, in 1666, one then counted some 4000 people in the valley of the St. Lawrence (see Canadian) in possession of the France. One century later, the French population rose with 90.000 people.

The capital was the town of Quebec.

History

principal Article: History of News-France

Amerindian ground at the time of the voyages of exploration of Cartier, News-France was gradually occupied by France of the Ancien Mode of 1604 with 1629 and of 1632 with 1760. It remained under British military occupation of 1760 with 1763, while waiting for the results of the Guerre Seven Year old.

In its greater extent, before the Treated of Utrecht (1713), News-France included/understood five areas having each one its own administration:

the Canada (left southern current the Quebec), subdivided in three “governments”: of Quebec, Three-Rivers, of Montreal and a named dependence the Country of in Top including/understanding the current areas Canadian and American Big lakes and whose forts of Pontchartrain (Detroit) and Michillimakinac formed about the single poles of French settlement after the destruction of the Huronie,
the Acadie, (current Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) then, after the transfer, the Royal Île.
the Hudson Bay (current Canada)
establishment of Pleasure on the island of Newfoundland,
the Louisiana (center of the the United States, the Big lakes to the New-Orleans), subdivided in two administrative areas: Low-Louisiana and the Country of Illinois, known as High-Louisiana.

At the time, the territory of Louisiana extended from the Big lakes until the Gulf of Mexico, on approximately a third of the North America. It then included/understood a good part of what was going to become the mid-west of the the United States, including ten current American States (Arkansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and the current Louisiana) as well as pieces of the futures Colorado, Wyoming, Minnesota and Texas.

Canada, most important of the colonies of News-France, was explored by Jacques Cartier in 1534. A French population is established to with it in a permanent way after the foundation of the Ville of Quebec in 1608.

With the treated of Paris, France yielded part of the Louisiana to the Spain and the remainder of News-France to the Great Britain. Spain restored Louisiana in France in 1800 by the Traité of San Ildefonso. But Napoleon sold the Louisiana with the the United States in 1803. France preserved only its territories at the the Antilles and the island of Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon.

Colonial policy and administration of the territory

If the 16th century were the era of the first forwardings and the transitory French establishments, the reign of Henri IV gave an important impulse to the colonization of News-France. First king Bourbon was interested personally in the businesses of overseas. To the 17th century, Richelieu then Colbert leads the colonial policy. The minister of Louis XIV wishes to exploit the resources of the New World in order to reduce the expenditure of France: the Mercantilisme (or colbertism) inspires the decisions taken for News-France. Initially entrusted to the companies of trade to monopoly, the State ends up controlling the colonies: they are placed under the authority of the Secretary of State to the Navy, even if, within the framework of the absolute monarchy, the king only controls lastly. On the spot, administrators and officers represented the king and were to obey the decisions taken with Versailles. The missionaries were charged to convert the Amerindians with the religion of the king: Catholicism.

October 8th, 1612, Louis XIII indicates for his general lieutenant in News-France Charles of Bourbon, count de Soissons, who takes the title of Vice-roi but dies shortly after. The king transmits the load to Henri de Bourbon, prince de Condé, then in Henri II duke of Montmorency, and finally with Henri de Lévis, duke of Ventadour (1625), then with François-Christophe, duke of Damville (1644).

Quebec was the administrative capital of News-France until the defeat of the Bataille of the Plains of Abraham, in 1759. To the beginning of the personal reign of the Sun king, the colony is attached to the royal field. It is always under the cut of a governor (the count de Frontenac during 19 years). Louis XIV dissolves the Compagnie of the Hundred Associated, putting a term at his monopoly. In 1665, it sends the first intendant to Canada, Jean Talon; during its mandate, the French State invests a million books to develop the economy of News-France. The French emigration is also encouraged.

The apogee of News-France

News-France knew years of relative peace where it could take expansion towards the west. It is about the years 1750 qu ' it reaches its apogee territorial which threatened the British colonies. On the chart opposite, we can see the territories controlled by the European powers in North America: the France, the Great Britain and the Spain. It is the French expansion towards the west, for the control of the trade of the furs, which decided the British to act to conquer News-France.

Alliances with the Amerindians

At the beginning of the 17th century, the French colonizers came into contact with the tribes autochtones. They were combined with the Micmacs, the Abénaquis, the algonquins, the Huron Montagnais and finally the . Samuel de Champlain took part in several attacks against the Iroquois, which became the enemies of Huron and Algonquins, because of their competition generated by the trade of the furs with the colonists.

Daily life in News-France

During the first years of colonization, until the end of the XVIIe century, the life of the colonists in News-France is marked by constant constraints: Amerindian raids, climatic conditions for which it was necessary to adapt, distance of the metropolis, trades dubious with France and the Antilles, etc the inhabitants thus owe autosuffire as far as possible by producing their own food products, by adapting French methods and techniques to North-American realities, by adapting cultural elements of the surrounding nations autochtones. These conditions of course create a medium favourable with the development of the local trade associations, and soon appears a colonial lower middle class which stimulates the production of goods and services. In this manner, the capital is not drained towards the metropolis: by buying the local products, the colonists are to support a certain enrichment.

At the XVIIIe century, the population of News-France lives in a certain material ease (especially when one compares their condition with their counterparts of France), more especially as the improvement of the commercial relations with the metropolis and the Antilles allows the entry of food products and imported products, which come to be added to the local products to facilitate the daily life of the colonists. During the Thirty years peace (1713 - 1744), the prosperous colony and population, as a whole, reached a level of material ease which will be unfortunately compromised by the disorders related to the War of succession of Austria then to the Guerre Seven Year old.

Festivals of News-France

Today, the festivals of News-France, which proceed in the district of Old man-Quebec, in the Ville of Quebec, recall the time of News-France. During more than 5 days at the beginning of August, hundreds of observers recreate the environment of the government contracts there while specialists carry out historical animation there. More than 400.000 visitors managed for the tenth edition in 2006.

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