The Duel for North America - Chapter 6: AP US History: PERIOD 2-3 (1608-1763) - THE AMERICAN PAGEANT 16th EDITION (AP EDITION)

IV - France Finds a Foothold in Canada

• France was a latecomer in the scramble for New Old

  • 1500s-convulsed by foreign wars and domestic strife, clashes between Roman Catholics and Protestant Huguenots

  • On St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572, over 10,000 Huguenots-- men, women, and children were butchered

• 1598 - Era of the Edict of Nantes

  • Issued by King Henri IV - granted toleration to French Protestants

  • France was led by brilliant ministers & by King Louis XIV, who reigned for 72 years (1643-1715) and took a deep interest in overseas colonies

• 1608 - Permanent beginnings of a French empire were established at Quebec: Efforts led by Samuel de Champlain “Father of New France” - established friendly relations w/ Huron Indians, Iroquois tribes of the upper NY area

• French explorers:

  • Cartier - France - Claimed Eastern Canada for  France - 1535

  • Samuel de Champlain - France - Est. Quebec (1st perm. French colony in N. America) - 1608. Montreal (1642) - Canada - Control St. Lawrence River/access to interior of N. America

  • Antoine Cadillac founded Detroit “city of Straits”

  • Robert de La Salle explored Mississippi in 1682, named interior basin “Louisiana” after Louis XIV

  • Failed to find Mississippi delta, landed in Spanish Texas and in 1687 was murdered

• French-built forts in what is now Mississippi and Louisiana

  • New Orleans founded 1718, 

• Illinois country - grain garden of France’s N. America empire

• The population of Catholic New France grew slowly

  • The late 1750s - only 60,000 or so whites were in N. France

  • Landowning French peasants had little motive to move

  • French Huguenots denied refuge

  • French gov. Favored its Caribbean islands

II. New France Fans Out

• N. France contained one valuable resource - the beaver

  • European fashion setters valued beaver-pelt 

  • Colorful coureurs de bois trapped beavers 

  • Place names: Baton Rouge (red stick), Terre Haute (high land), Des Moines (some monks)

  • Most effective colonial power in their relations with Amerindians Beaver and fur trade was basis of colonial economy, Indians became valued trading partners (not exploitive like Spain)

  • Developed a close giving relationship with Native peoples Coureurs de bois

    • Fur Wars begin

  • Gov. of New France (Canada) finally fell under direct control of the king. French gov. Strictly controlled the colonies but made little effort to encourage settlement

    • Regime was almost completely autocratic 

    • People elected no representative assemblies

    • No right to trial by jury, as in English colonies

  • Catholic missionaries (Jesuits) tried to save Indians for Christ and from fur-trappers

    • Some suffered torture by Indians

    • Few converts but did play vital role as explorers/geographers

    • Other explorers sought neither souls nor fur, but empire to block English/Spanish expansion

  • French voyageurs recruited Indians into the fur business, Indian fur flotilla that arrived in Montreal in 1693 numbered 400 canoes, mass slaughter of beavers violated many Indian religious beliefs and caused ecological damage

Imperial Wars in America

1. 1688-1763: 4 world wars with England, France, Spain, all involving American colonists

2. King William’s War (1689-97) was a stalemate

3. Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) Victory for England

4. War of Jenkin’s  Ear (1739-1748) England vs. Spain

• Merged into larger King george’s war (Austrian Succession)

• Fought in Caribbean, georgia

• France allied with Spain

4. King george’s War (1744-1748)/War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

• New England colonials capture Fort Louisbourg

• Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle- Louisbourg was returned to France 3 years later, in exchange for the city of Madras in India

• Colonials angry at English diplomats for returning Louisbourg

France’s American Empire at Its greatest Extent, 1700

• France and its Spanish ally badly beaten: Britain gained

• French-populated Acadia (British renamed Nova Scotia), Newfoundland and Hudson Bay

• Losses pinched France’s settlements on the  St. Lawrence thus sealing their ultimate doom

III - The Clash of Empires

• American colonies then experienced decades of “salutary neglect” -- fertile soil for roots of independence

• British also won limited trading rights in Spanish America, which led to smuggling

• British captain Robert Jenkins had one ear sliced off by a Spanish official, which led to the War of Jenkin’s Ear in 1739

Causes of the French and Indian War

• English-French rivalry worldwide erupts into World War

• War begins over land disputes in the Ohio Valley

• British want part of fur trade 

• England and the 13 Colonies fight together to defend their empire

• Against the French, Indian allies and Spanish

• George Washington starts this war

IV - George Washington Begins War with France

• Ohio Valley became the center of conflict b/t French/British

  • British - critical area for westward movement

  • French - needed it to link their Canadian holdings to those of the Lower Mississippi Valley

  • British colonists were determined to fight for economic security and supremacy

• Ohio Valley rivalry increased tensions:

  • French erected a chain of forts along the Ohio River

  • Fort Duquesne - at the key point where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers join to form the Ohio River - the later sight of Pittsburgh

  • 1754 - gov. of Virginia sent younge George Washington to Ohio Country to secure Virginia's claim

  • In this skirmish

    • Washington met some French troops about 40 miles from Fort Duquesne and fired

    • French leader killed and his men retreated

    • French returned and surrounded Washington

    • Washington, after 10-hour siege, surrendered but was allowed to march troops away with honor

    • In response, the British brutally uprooted French Acadians and scattered them as far as Louisiana: descendants are “Cajuns”’