The name New France, or
La Nouvelle France,
is given to all the French colonies in North America established starting at the time of "discovery" by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and continuing until 1763. (2) The King of France at the beginning of this period of exploration was King Francis I. He reigned from 1515 until his death in 1547. It was King Francis I who sent explorer Jacques Cartier to North America (to search for gold, spices, and a passage to Asia) and it is for him that the colonies were referred to as "New France." (3) Cartier is said to have been responsible for the naming of Canada, from the Huron-Iroquois word
kanata
, meaning village or settlement. He was referring to present-day Québec City when he said it, but the name stuck to the whole expanse that was colonized by the French in North America.
The French settled what we now know as Nova Scotia (
La Nouvelle Écosse)
and Prince Edward Island (
L'île du Prince-Édouard)
, as well as parts of New Brunswick (
Le Nouveau Brunswick)
, the Gaspé Peninsula (
La Gaspésie)
, and Maine (
Le Maine
) in 1603, arriving at the Bay of Fundy (
la Baie de Fundy
), known then as
la Baie Française
. Although Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island are now referred to as the Maritime Provinces, or
Les Maritimes,
at the time of discovery the area was named
Acadia
, and the people were referred to as
Acadians.
King Henri IV was responsible for sending Samuel de Champlain, a mapmaker and explorer, along with Sieur Pierre Du Gua de Monts, viceroy and lieutenant general, to the area. It began as a farming community, although the fur trade became very popular. The French were alternately successful and not here, the success or lack thereof revolving around the ability to corner the market on the fur trade industry as well as the ability to survive the harsh winters, which they learned to do from the native Mi'kmaq population. Fishing was a common occupation in the Maritimes.
Some French citizens immigrated to North America at this time as a result of Reformation, the religious revolution of the sixteenth century in Western Europe. (4) They were displeased with what they considered to be corrupt practices and unappealing doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. In particular, they thought that the church had become too involved in politics, too motivated by power and money, and they questioned its moral fiber. So they split from the Roman Catholic church and joined the newly growing Protestant church. This group of French Protestants, known also as Huguenots, had been given political rights and religious freedom under the Edict of Nantes in 1594 under King Henri IV. Some chose to stay in France because it wasn't so bad as long as they had these rights, while others chose to exercise their right to immigrate to North America instead. But in 1685 King Louis XIV revoked the Edict, outlawed Protestantism and ordered French Protestants to convert or be sentenced to death; now immigration was illegal, so those who did immigrate at this time were wealthy enough to afford bribes or false documents. They were also mostly skilled and well educated. Although most of the French Canadian population were and are Roman Catholic, there was and is a small but not insignificant French Protestant population as well.
Selected vocabulary: By boat (
en bateau
) / Explorer (
un explorateur
) / Farmer (
un fermier
,
une fermière
) / Fisherman (
un pêcheur
) / Fur-trader (
un fourreur
) / Fur trapper (
un trappeur
) / King (
Roi
) / Settler (
un colonisateur
)