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118-587: Fort Caroline was an attempted French colonial settlement in Florida , located on the banks of the St. Johns River in present-day Duval County . It was established under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière on 22 June 1564, following King Charles IX's enlisting of Jean Ribault and his Huguenot settlers to stake a claim in French Florida ahead of Spain. The French colony came into conflict with

236-478: A patache , a small but fast row-sailer, suitable for patrolling the coast. He recruited a number of his relatives to sail with him in search of adventure. In this ship, the young Menéndez won his first victory of command in an engagement with French corsairs who had attacked three slow Spanish freighters off the coast of Galicia . By effective captainship, he separated the two swift zabras (Biscayan frigates) that pursued him and captured them both, and drove away

354-652: A storm suddenly destroyed his fleet. On 20 September 1565 the Spaniards, commanded by Menéndez de Avilés, attacked and massacred all the Fort Caroline occupants including Jean Ribault. The French interest in Canada focused first on fishing off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. However, at the beginning of the 17th century, France was more interested in fur from North America. The fur trading post of Tadoussac

472-488: A France Équinoxiale further North, in what is today French Guiana , in 1626, 1635 (when the capital, Cayenne , was founded) and 1643. Twice a Compagnie de la France équinoxiale was founded, in 1643 and 1645, but both foundered as a result of misfortune and mismanagement. It was only after 1674, when the colony came under the direct control of the French crown and a competent Governor took office, that France Équinoxiale became

590-542: A French expedition departed from Cancale , Brittany, France, under the command of Daniel de la Touche, Seigneur de la Ravardière, and François de Razilly , admiral. Carrying 500 colonists, it arrived in the Northern coast of what is today the Brazilian state of Maranhão . De la Ravardière had discovered the region in 1604 but the death of the king postponed his plans to start its colonization. The colonists soon founded

708-665: A Huguenot aristocrat who had participated in the first Jean Ribault expedition, returned to Florida in 1564 with three ships and 300 Huguenot colonists. He reached the River May on 22 June 1564, sailed up it a few miles, and founded Fort Caroline . The Crown was alarmed by these encroachments on Spanish territory in such proximity to the course of the Spanish treasure fleet. Desiring to protect its claimed territories in North America against further incursions by European powers,

826-457: A Spanish garrison of 200 men further up the coast, he sailed to what is today the Georgia coast making contact with the local Indians of St. Catherines Island before returning to Florida, where he expanded Spanish power throughout southeastern Florida. His position as governor now secure, Menéndez explored the area and built additional fortifications . In 1567, he marched south and encountered

944-632: A few defenders, including Laudonnière, who managed to escape; the rest were massacred. As for Ribault's fleet, all of the ships either sank or ran aground south of St. Augustine during the storm, and many of the Frenchmen on board were lost at sea. Ribault and his marooned sailors marched northwards and were eventually located by Menéndez with his troops and summoned to surrender. Apparently believing that his men would be well treated, Ribault capitulated. Menéndez then executed Ribault and several hundred Huguenots (Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, chaplain to

1062-539: A great military disadvantage against the British. The war between the colonies resumed in 1744, lasting until 1748. A final and decisive war began in 1754. The Canadiens and the French were helped by numerous alliances with Native Americans, but they were usually outnumbered on the battlefield. On May 17, 1673, explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River, known to

1180-635: A haven for the Huguenots , and was ultimately destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567 . On November 1, 1555, French vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (1510–1575), a Catholic knight of the Order of Malta , who later would help the Huguenots to find a refuge against persecution, led a small fleet of two ships and 600 soldiers and colonists, and took possession of the small island of Serigipe in

1298-401: A large expedition of ships, soldiers and supplies was being fitted at Dieppe for a voyage to Florida: it was to have more than 500 arquebusiers , and many dismounted bronze cannons were loaded aboard the vessels. After his release from prison, Menéndez was available again to serve the king's purposes. He was appointed as adelantado of La Florida , with the promise of a large land grant and

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1416-455: A large fleet and hundreds of soldiers and settlers, taking command of the colony. However, the recently appointed Spanish Governor of Florida, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés , had simultaneously been dispatched from Spain with orders to remove the French outpost, and arrived within days of Ribault's landing. After a brief skirmish between Ribault's ships and Menéndez's ships, the latter retreated 35 miles (56 km) southward, where they established

1534-404: A loyal cadre of lieutenants and officials who had blood connection to him, and had invested their own futures in his success. In early 1564 Menéndez asked permission to go to Florida to search for La Concepcion and his son, Admiral Juan Menéndez, who had been its commander. As noted above, they were lost in 1563 in a hurricane. The crown continued to refuse his request. René de Laudonnière ,

1652-492: A nephew of Villegagnon. They were joined by 14 Calvinists from Geneva, led by Philippe de Corguilleray , including theologians Pierre Richier and Guillaume Chartrier. The new colonists, numbering around 300, included 5 young women to be wed, 10 boys to be trained as translators, as well as 14 Calvinists sent by Calvin, and also Jean de Léry, who would later write an account of the colony. They arrived in March 1557. The relief fleet

1770-547: A population of 1,700 people), Newfoundland and Hudson Bay . Under the Sovereign Council, the population of the colony grew faster. However, the population growth was far inferior to that of the British Thirteen Colonies to the south. In the middle of the 18th century, New France accounted for 60,000 people while the British colonies had more than one million people. This placed the colony at

1888-464: A reality. To this day, French Guiana is a department of France. Pedro Men%C3%A9ndez de Avil%C3%A9s Pedro Menéndez de Avilés ( Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpeðɾo meˈnendeθ ðe aβiˈles] ; Asturian : Pedro (Menéndez) d'Avilés ; 15 February 1519 – 17 September 1574) was a Spanish admiral, explorer and conquistador from Avilés , in Asturias , Spain . He is notable for planning

2006-540: A rich and complex History as well as proud descendants far beyond Québec and Acadia original heartlands. A major French settlement lay on the island of Hispaniola , where France established the colony of Saint-Domingue on the western third of the island in 1664. Nicknamed the "Pearl of the Antilles", Saint-Domingue became the richest colony in the Caribbean due to slave plantation production of sugar cane. It had

2124-560: A series of floods resulted in Bienville ordering that the settlement be relocated in 1711 several miles downriver to its present location at the confluence of the Mobile River and Mobile Bay . A new earth-and-palisade Fort Louis was constructed at the new site during this time. By 1712, when Antoine Crozat was appointed to take over administration of the colony, its population had reached 400 persons. The capital of La Louisiane

2242-611: A storm that wrecked three of his ships near what is now the Ponce de Leon Inlet . His flagship was grounded near present-day Cape Canaveral. Informed by Indian allies that the French survivors were walking northward on the coast, Menéndez began to search for them, finding the party at the banks of the Matanzas River 's south entrance. After several parleys with the Spanish, Ribault and the 150–350 Frenchmen with him (sources differ) surrendered. The Spanish executed nearly all of them in

2360-511: A view to establishing a permanent settlement for the defense of the Spanish treasure fleet . He was ordered as well to drive away any intruders who were not subjects of the Spanish crown. On 28 July 1565, Menéndez set sail from Cádiz with a fleet led by his 600-ton flagship, the San Pelayo , accompanied by several smaller ships, and carrying over 1,000 sailors, soldiers, and settlers. On

2478-530: A village, which was named "Saint-Louis", in honor of the French king Louis IX . This later became São Luís in Portuguese,[1] the only Brazilian state capital founded by France. On 8 September, Capuchin friars prayed the first mass, and the soldiers started building a fortress. An important difference in relation to France Antarctique is that this new colony was not motivated by escape from religious persecutions to Protestants (see French Wars of Religion). The colony did not last long. A Portuguese army assembled in

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2596-504: Is an overseas department of France, while St. Barthélemy and St. Martin each became an overseas collectivity of France in 2007. France Antarctique (formerly also spelled France antartique) was a French colony south of the Equator , in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio . The colony quickly became

2714-712: Is now known as Montreal . Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette founded Sault Sainte Marie (1668) and Saint Ignace (1671) and explored the Mississippi River . At the end of the 17th century, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle established a network of forts going from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River . Fort Saint Louis was established in Texas in 1685, but

2832-583: Is today the province of Quebec, Canada, and for a very short period (12 years) also Antarctic France (France Antarctique, in French), in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All of these settlements were in violation of the papal bull of 1493, which divided the New World between Spain and Portugal. This division was later defined more exactly by the Treaty of Tordesillas . France équinoxiale started in 1612, when

2950-571: The Ais (Jece) as he reached the Indian River near present-day Vero Beach . He returned to Spain in 1567 and was appointed governor of Cuba , in October of that year. In December 1571, Menéndez was sailing from Florida to Havana with two frigates when, as he tells it, "I was wrecked at Cape Canaveral because of a storm which came upon me, and the other boat was lost fifteen leagues further on in

3068-590: The Captaincy of Pernambuco , under the command of Alexandre de Moura, was able to mount a military expedition, which defeated and expelled the French colonists in 1615, less than four years after their arrival in the land. Thus, it repeated the disaster spelt for the colonists of France Antarctique, in 1567. A few years later, in 1620, Portuguese and Brazilian colonists arrived in number and São Luís started to develop, with an economy based mostly in sugar cane and slavery. French traders and colonists tried again to settle

3186-473: The Guanabara Bay , in front of present-day Rio de Janeiro, where they built a fort named Fort Coligny . The fort was named in honor of Gaspard de Coligny (then a Catholic statesman, who about a year later would become a Huguenot), an admiral who supported the expedition and would use the colony in order to protect his fellow believers. To the still largely undeveloped mainland village, Villegaignon gave

3304-742: The Huron and Ottawa against their traditional enemies, the Iroquois . Champlain and other French travelers then continued to explore North America, with canoes made from birch bark , to move quickly through the Great Lakes and their tributaries. In 1634, the Normand explorer Jean Nicolet pushed his exploration to the West up to Wisconsin. Following the capitulation of Quebec by the Kirke brothers,

3422-519: The Lesser Antilles at various times. Islands that came under French rule during part or all of this time include Dominica , Grenada , Guadeloupe , Marie-Galante , Martinique , St. Barthélemy , St. Croix , St. Kitts , St. Lucia , St. Martin , St. Vincent and Tobago . Control of many of these islands was contested between the French, the British and the Dutch; in the case of St. Martin,

3540-551: The Mobile River , as the first capital of the French colony of La Louisiane . It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville , to establish control over France's claims to La Louisiane . Bienville was appointed as royal governor of French Louisiana in 1701. Mobile's Roman Catholic parish was established on July 20, 1703, by Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier , Bishop of Quebec . The parish

3658-679: The Secretary of State of the Navy to give him the command of Louisiana . He believed that it was close to New Spain by drawing a map on which the Mississippi seemed much further west than its actual rate. He set up a maritime expedition with four ships and 320 emigrants, but it ended in disaster when he failed to find the Mississippi Delta and was killed in 1687. In 1698, Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville left La Rochelle and explored

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3776-536: The Spanish Crown issued an asiento to Menéndez, signed by Philip II on 20 March 1565, granting him expansive trade privileges, the power to distribute lands, and licenses to sell 500 slaves, as well as various titles, including that of adelantado of Florida. Menéndez was commissioned to reconnoiter North America from the Florida Keys to present-day Canada, and report on its coastal features, with

3894-617: The Tequesta and Calusa tribes, proved hostile to Spanish settlement as war continued on and off until 1670. Menéndez later made contact with the less hostile Tequesta at their capital in El Portal (in what is now Miami) and was able to negotiate for three chieftains to accompany him to Cuba as translators to the Arawak . Although Menéndez left behind Jesuit missionaries Brother Francisco de Villareal and Padre Rogel in an attempt to convert

4012-644: The Treaty of Rijswijk until 1701, when the two parties agreed on peace. Then, the war against the English took over in the War of the Spanish Succession . In 1690 and 1711, Quebec City had successfully resisted the attacks of the English navy and then British army. Nevertheless, the British took advantage of the second war. With the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France ceded to Britain Acadia (with

4130-750: The Valley of Ohio , migrated into the Spanish territory West of the Mississippi and were instrumental in pushing further West toward the Pacific through their longer experience of the new continent and its native inhabitants. Only the islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon are still in French hands. In 1802 Spain returned Louisiana to France, but Napoleon sold it to the United States in 1803. The French and their descendants left many toponyms ( Illinois , Vermont , Bayous ...) and ethnonyms ( Sioux , Coeur d'Alene , Nez Percé ...) in North America along with

4248-496: The Yustaga people and unsuccessfully seeking gold and silver mines. Timucua chief Outina twice "coaxed the French into participating in attacks on villages of his rival, [the] Potano , to seize surplus corn." French soldiers who deserted from the fort raided Timucua settlements, souring relations with them. In spring 1565, Outina rebuffed a third request for food and was taken hostage by the French, provoking open confrontation with

4366-591: The continental United States . The mission served nearby villages of the Mocama , a Timucua group, and was at the center of an important chiefdom in the late 16th and 17th century. Menéndez marched his soldiers overland from St. Augustine to destroy the French settlement at Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River . On 20 September 1565, they made a surprise attack and killed all the adult males they encountered, but spared women and children; 132 Frenchmen were killed . Laudonnière and several score Frenchmen escaped into

4484-434: The 1565 massacre. The Spanish rebuilt, but permanently abandoned the fort the following year. The exact location of the fort is not known. When the Spanish conquistador Pedro Menéndez, who had black crew members in his fleet, founded St. Augustine in 1565, he wrote that his settlers had been preceded by free Africans in the French settlement at Fort Caroline. The fort also employed Black slave labor. Together, Fort Caroline and

4602-546: The Bahama Channel, in a river they call the Ais , because the cacique (chief) is so called. I, by a miracle reached the fort of St. Augustine with seventeen persons I was taking with me. Three times the Indians gave the order to attack me, and the way I escaped them was by ingenuity and arousing fear in them, telling them that behind me many Spaniards were coming who would slay them if they found them." The Ais, like

4720-666: The Boroughs Queens and Brooklyn from the upper and lower parts of the harbor until 1609 when the British and the Dutch came to take control of it from the French Verrazzano. He would later give the names Francesca and Nova Gall to that land between New Spain and English Newfoundland, thus promoting French interests. In 1534, Francis I of France sent Jacques Cartier on the first of three voyages to explore

4838-553: The British occupied the city of Quebec and Canada from 1629 to 1632. Samuel de Champlain was taken prisoner and there followed the bankruptcy of the Company of One Hundred Associates . Following the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye , France took possession of the colony in 1632. The city of Trois-Rivières was founded in 1634. In 1642, the Angevin Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière founded Ville-Marie (later Montreal ) which

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4956-525: The Casa de Contratación, accused of accepting bribes and smuggling silver into Spain. In September, he received news that La Concepción , flagship of the New Spain fleet and commanded by his son Admiral Juan Menéndez, had disappeared off the coast of South Carolina, and was assumed to be dead. The ship was lost in a hurricane that scattered the fleet as it was returning to Spain, at the latitude of Bermuda off

5074-584: The Fleet of the Indies. He sailed for the Indies that October as captain general and commanded the galleons of the great Armada de la Carrera , or Spanish Treasure Fleet , on their return voyage from the Caribbean and Mexico to Spain. Menéndez determined the route they followed, which led through the Florida Strait ( Spanish : Estrecho de Florida ) and up the east coast of Florida, taking advantage of

5192-660: The French Explorer Jean Ribault , had landed at the site on the May River (now the St. Johns River ) in May 1562. Here Ribault encountered the Timucuans led by Chief Saturiwa . Ribault took some 28 troops north along the coast, where on present-day Parris Island , South Carolina they developed a settlement known as Charlesfort . Ribault returned to Europe to arrange supplies for the new colony. When he

5310-556: The French and Indians were usually peaceful. As the 19th-century historian Francis Parkman stated: "Spanish civilization crushed the Indian; English civilization scorned and neglected him; French civilization embraced and cherished him." To boost the French population, Cardinal Richelieu issued an act declaring that Indians converted to Catholicism were considered "natural Frenchmen" by the Ordonnance of 1627: "The descendants of

5428-875: The French established forts and settlements that would become such cities as Quebec , Trois-Rivières and Montreal in Canada; Detroit , Green Bay , St. Louis , Cape Girardeau , Mobile , Biloxi , Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the United States; and Port-au-Prince , Cap-Haïtien (founded as Cap-Français ) in Haiti , Saint-Pierre and Fort Saint-Louis (formerly as Fort Royal ) in Martinique , Castries (founded as Carénage ) in Saint Lucia , Cayenne in French Guiana and São Luís (founded as Saint-Louis de Maragnan ) in Brazil. The French first came to

5546-529: The French who have accustomed to this country [New France], together with all the Indians who will be brought to the knowledge of the faith and will profess it, shall be deemed and renowned natural Frenchmen, and as such may come to live in France when they want, and acquire, donate, and succeed and accept donations and legacies, just as true French subjects, without being required to take no letters of declaration of naturalization." Louis XIV also tried to increase

5664-496: The Generall, as it was possible to receive of any man living. Wherein doubtlesse hee hath wonne the reputation of a good and charitable man, deserving to be esteemed as much of us all as if hee had saved all our lives." The French introduced Hawkins to tobacco, which they all were using, and in turn he introduced it to England upon his return. In late August, Ribault, who had been released from English custody in June 1565 and sent by Coligny back to Florida, arrived at Fort Caroline with

5782-464: The Gulf of Mexico and established a fort at Mobile in 1702. From 1699 to 1702, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was governor of Louisiana. His brother succeeded him in that post from 1702 to 1713. He was again governor from 1716 to 1724 and again 1733 to 1743. In 1718, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville commanded a French expedition in Louisiana. He founded the city of New Orleans, in homage to Regent Duke of Orleans . The architect Adrian de Pauger drew

5900-454: The Illinois River, along with 23 French and 18 Native Americans. In April 1682, they arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi; they planted a cross and a column bearing the arms of the king of France. In 1686 de Tonti left 6 men near the Quapaw village of Osotouy, creating the settlement of Arkansas Post. De Tonti's Arkansas Post would be the first European settlement in the Lower Mississippi River valley. La Salle returned to France and won over

6018-427: The Mississippi River to Britain. This area was made a part of the expanded British West Florida colony. The British changed the name of Fort Condé to Fort Charlotte , after Queen Charlotte . The French were eager to explore North America but New France remained largely unpopulated. Due to the lack of women, intermarriages between French and Indians were frequent, giving rise to the Métis people . Relations between

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6136-408: The New World as travelers seeking a route to the Pacific Ocean and wealth. Major French exploration of North America began under the rule of Francis I, King of France . In 1524, Francis sent Italian-born Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the region between Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the Pacific Ocean. He would find parts of New York Harbor . The French would take narrow land ports of

6254-412: The Sioux as does Tongo, or to the Miami-Illinois as missisipioui ( the great river ). They reached the mouth of the Arkansas and then up the river, after learning that it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico and not to the California Sea (Pacific Ocean). In 1682, the Normand Cavelier de la Salle and the Italian Henri de Tonti came down the Mississippi to its Delta. They left from Fort Crevecoeur on

6372-429: The Spanish forces, identifies them as "all Lutherans," and dates their execution 29 September 1565, St. Michael's Day .) as heretics at what is now known as the Matanzas Inlet . ( Matanzas is Spanish for slaughters. ) The atrocity shocked Europeans even in that bloody era of religious strife. A fort built much later, Fort Matanzas , is in the vicinity of the site. This massacre ended France's attempts at colonization of

6490-442: The Spanish from St. Augustine . An attempt to settle convicts on Sable Island off Nova Scotia in 1598 failed after a short time. In 1599, a sixteen-person trading post was established in Tadoussac (in present-day Quebec ), of which only five men survived the first winter. In 1604 Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain founded a short-lived French colony, the first in Acadia , on Saint Croix Island , presently part of

6608-487: The Spanish settlement to a more defensible position on the north end of the barrier island between the mainland and the sea, building a wooden fort there. In 1572, the settlement was relocated to the mainland, in the area just south of the future town plaza. Secure as governor, Menéndez explored the area and built additional fortifications . He also commissioned the Juan Pardo expedition, to travel from Santa Elena , at Port Royal Sound in present-day South Carolina, into

6726-415: The Spanish, who established St. Augustine on 8 September 1565, and Fort Caroline was sacked by Spanish troops under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on 20 September. The Spanish continued to occupy the site as San Mateo until 1569. The exact site of the former fort is unknown. In 1953 the National Park Service established the Fort Caroline National Memorial along the southern bank of the St. John's River near

6844-418: The St. Augustine area represent some of the earliest points of history for the Black (and Black Catholic ) community of what would become the United States. The original site of Fort de la Caroline has never been determined, but it is believed to have been located near the present-day Fort Caroline National Memorial. The National Park Service constructed an outdoor exhibit of the original fort in 1964, but it

6962-435: The Tequesta to Roman Catholicism, the tribe were indifferent to their teachings. The Jesuits returned to St. Augustine after a year. Menéndez voyaged to La Florida for the last time in 1571, with 650 settlers for Santa Elena , as well as his wife and family. In August 1572, Menéndez led a ship with thirty soldiers and sailors to take revenge for the killing of the Jesuits of the Ajacán Mission in present-day Virginia. At

7080-533: The Timucua that included "two tense weeks of skirmishes and one all-out battle." The French relented and released Outina. On 20 July, 1565, the English adventurer John Hawkins arrived at the fort with his fleet looking for fresh water; there he exchanged his smallest ship for four cannons and a supply of powder and shot. The ship and provisions gained from Hawkins enabled the French to survive and prepare to move back to France as soon as possible. As Laudonnière writes: "I may saye that wee receaved as manye courtesies of

7198-412: The area around the mouth of the Mississippi. He stopped between Isle-aux-Chats (now Cat Island) and Isle Surgeres (renamed Isle-aux-Vascular or Ship Island) on February 13, 1699, and continued his explorations to the mainland, with his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to Biloxi . He built a precarious fort, called 'Maurepas' (later 'Old Biloxi'), before returning to France. He returned twice in

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7316-401: The city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1, 1565, and fought the Frenchmen for two more years. Helped by a military reinforcement sent by his uncle, on January 20, 1567, he imposed final defeat on the French forces and decisively expelled them from Brazil, but died a month later from wounds inflicted in the battle. Coligny's and Villegaignon's dream had lasted a mere 12 years. Equinoctial France was

7434-469: The coast of La Florida , Menéndez returned to Spain in 1567. He was appointed governor of Cuba , in October of that year. After several more transatlantic crossings, Menéndez fell ill and died on 17 September 1574. Menéndez traveled to southwest Florida, looking for his son. There he made contact with the Calusa tribe, an advanced maritime people, at what is now known as Charlotte harbor . He negotiated an initial peace with their leader, Carlos , which

7552-443: The coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River . He founded New France by planting a cross on the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula . The French subsequently tried to establish several colonies throughout North America that failed, due to weather, disease, or conflict with other European powers. Cartier attempted to create the first permanent European settlement in North America at Cap-Rouge (Quebec City) in 1541 with 400 settlers but

7670-528: The coast of South Carolina. Menéndez conceived a plan for a voyage to La Florida to search for his son, who he believed might have reached there, but he was powerless to initiate it from prison, and his petitions to King Philip II went unanswered. Spain learned of the French expedition to Florida through its spies at ports on the Atlantic coast of France. Philip II was alarmed when Dr. Gabriel de Enveja reported that Jean Ribault had been appointed as "Captain-General and Viceroy of New France". He also said that

7788-418: The colony by calling for more colonists in 1556. He sent one of his ships, the Grande Roberge , to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin. After one ship was sent to France to ask for additional support, three ships were financed and prepared by the king of France and put under the command of Sieur De Bois le Comte,

7906-531: The condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana. The newly married couples were chained together and taken to the port of embarkation. In May 1720, after complaints from the Mississippi Company and the concessioners about this class of French immigrants, the French government prohibited such deportations. However, there was a third shipment of prisoners in 1721. The Mississippi Company arranged for hundreds of German immigrants to move to Louisiana by ships in 1721. Charles Frederick d'Arensbourg

8024-453: The contemporary name given to the colonization efforts of France in the 17th century in South America, around the line of Equator, before "tropical" had fully gained its modern meaning: Equinoctial means in Latin "of equal nights", i.e., on the Equator, where the duration of days and nights is nearly the same year round. The French colonial empire in the New World also included New France (Nouvelle France) in North America, particularly in what

8142-488: The conversion of the Indians to Catholicism. In 1562, a group of Huguenots led by Jean Ribault arrived in territory claimed by Spain and called La Florida . They explored the mouth of the St. Johns River in Florida, calling it la Rivière de Mai (the River May). The French sailed northward and established a settlement called Charlesfort at Port Royal Sound in present-day South Carolina. On 19 August 1563, Pedro Menéndez and his brother Bartolomé were imprisoned by

8260-428: The current of the Gulf Stream . In 1561, however, Menéndez was jailed by Casa officials for alleged smuggling, but he got his case transferred to court and won his release. Menéndez is credited as the chief planner of the formalized Spanish treasure fleet convoy system that became the main link between Spain and her overseas territories. In partnership with Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz , he helped design

8378-417: The dunes near the inlet. It was later known as Matanzas (Spanish for "slaughters"). Having taken control of the Florida coast, Menéndez had his soldiers complete the fort in St. Augustine. He also established missions to the natives for the Catholic Church, and explored the east coast and interior of the peninsula. In May 1566, as relations with the neighboring Timucua Indians deteriorated, Menéndez moved

8496-460: The feast day of St. Augustine , 28 August, the fleet sighted land and anchored off the north inlet of the tidal channel that the French called the River of Dolphins. This was developed as the site of the present-day city of St. Augustine. Menéndez sailed north and confronted Ribault's fleet outside the bar of the River May in a brief skirmish. On 6 September, he returned to his first landfall, naming

8614-482: The first regular trans-oceanic convoys , which became known as the Spanish treasure fleet, and for founding St. Augustine, Florida , in 1565. This was the first successful European settlement in La Florida and the most significant city in the region for nearly three centuries. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited, European-established settlement in the continental United States . Menéndez de Avilés

8732-672: The great galleons that carried the trade between Cadiz in Spain and Vera Cruz in Spanish Mexico . Later, in his capacity as adelantado , Menéndez was required to explore this vast territory, which extended from the Gulf coast of present-day western Florida around the Florida keys to Newfoundland. He also was commanded by the king to establish two or three fortified presidios and settle them with settlers and slaves, and to begin

8850-584: The highest slave mortality rate in the western hemisphere. A 1791 slave revolt, the only ever successful slave revolt, began the Haitian Revolution , led to freedom for the colony's slaves in 1794 and, a decade later, complete independence for the country, which renamed itself Haiti . France briefly also ruled the eastern portion of the island, which is now the Dominican Republic . During the 17th and 18th centuries, France ruled much of

8968-812: The interior of the Southeast. Captain Pardo was to find and supply an alternate overland route to the Spanish silver mines in central Mexico, as the Spanish mistakenly thought the Appalachian Mountains were part of a range extending that far. In the next couple of years, Pardo and his men traveled into present-day South Carolina and Western North Carolina , stopping at the Mississippian chiefdom of Joara , where they built Fort San Juan and wintered over. In total, his expedition built six forts along this route, including one known as San Pedro at Olamico,

9086-569: The island was divided in two, a situation that persists to this day. Great Britain captured some of France's islands during the Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic Wars . Following the latter conflict, France retained control of Guadeloupe , Martinique , Marie-Galante , St. Barthélemy , and its portion of St. Martin ; all remain part of France today. Guadeloupe (including Marie-Galante and other nearby islands) and Martinique each

9204-527: The kingdom of Asturias. He was one of the younger sons of Juan Alonso Sánchez de Avilés, who had served the Catholic Monarchs in the war of War of Granada , and María Alonso y Menéndez Arango. His parents had twenty children, and Pedro was still a child when his father died. After Doña Maria remarried, Pedro was sent to live with a relative who promised to oversee his education. Pedro and his guardian did not get along, and he ran away from home. He

9322-456: The language of northeast Florida. Other scholars have been skeptical of the hypothesis. University of North Florida archaeologist Robert Thunen considers the documentary evidence weak and believes the location is implausibly far from St. Augustine, considering the Spanish were able to march overland to Fort Caroline in two days amid a hurricane. Chuck Meide , archaeologist at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum , expressed similar criticism on

9440-563: The leadership of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny sent Jean Ribault and a group of Huguenot settlers in an attempt to colonize the Atlantic coast and found a colony on a territory which would take the name of the French Florida . They discovered the sound and Port Royal Island, which would be called Parris Island in South Carolina , on which he built a fort named Charlesfort . The group, led by René Goulaine de Laudonnière , moved to

9558-529: The museum's blog, noting that other French and American scholars at the conference seemed similarly skeptical. French colonization of the Americas The first French colonial empire stretched to over 10,000,000 km (3,900,000 sq mi) at its peak in 1710, which was the second largest colonial empire in the world, after the Spanish Empire . As they colonized the New World,

9676-524: The name of Henriville, in honour of Henry II , the King of France , who also knew of and approved the expedition, and had provided the fleet for the trip. Villegaignon secured his position by making an alliance with the Tamoio and Tupinambá Indians of the region, who were fighting the Portuguese. Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who initially took little notice of his landing, Villegaignon endeavoured to expand

9794-548: The new Governor-General of Brazil, received from the Portuguese government the command to expel the French. With a fleet of 26 warships and 2,000 soldiers, on 15 March 1560, he attacked and destroyed Fort Coligny within three days, but was unable to drive off their inhabitants and defenders, because they escaped to the mainland with the help of the Native Brazilians, where they continued to live and to work. Admiral Villegaignon had returned to France in 1558, disgusted with

9912-457: The occasion of the importation of the first African slaves , transported aboard a French supply ship from the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean , where they had first been held. The population of the colony fluctuated over the next few years, growing to 279 persons by 1708, yet shrinking to 178 persons two years later due to disease. These additional outbreaks of disease and

10030-834: The orthogonal plane of the Old Square . In 1718, there were only 700 Europeans in Louisiana. The Mississippi Company arranged for ships to bring 800 more, who landed in Louisiana in 1718, doubling the European population. John Law encouraged Germans , particularly Germans of the Alsatian region who had recently fallen under French rule , and the Swiss to emigrate. Prisoners were set free in Paris in September 1719 onwards, under

10148-591: The point that commemorates Laudonnière's first landing. This is generally accepted by scholars as being in the vicinity of the original fort, though probably not the exact location. The memorial is now managed as a part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve , but it is also a distinct unit under administration of the National Park Service. A French expedition, organized by Protestant leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and led by

10266-570: The population by sending approximately 800 young women nicknamed the " King's Daughters ". However, the low density of the population in New France remained a very persistent problem. At the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the British population in North America outnumbered the French 20 to 1. France fought a total of six colonial wars in North America, (see the four French and Indian Wars as well as Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War ). In 1562, Charles IX , under

10384-597: The population, Louis XIV sent between 800 and 900 ' King's Daughters ' to become the wives of French settlers. The population of New France reached subsequently 7,000 in 1674 and 15,000 in 1689. From 1689 to 1713, the French settlers were faced with almost incessant war during the French and Indian Wars . From 1689 to 1697, they fought the British in the Nine Years' War . The war against the Iroquois continued even after

10502-468: The principal town of Chiaha in southeastern Tennessee. Pardo left the expedition for other business. In 1568 all the Spanish men but one in the garrisons were killed by Native Americans resisting their treatment, and the forts were destroyed. The Spanish did not attempt other colonization in this region. Confident that he had fulfilled his primary contract with the King, including construction of forts along

10620-489: The religious tension that existed between French Protestants and Catholics, who had come also with the second group (see French Wars of Religion). Urged by two influential Jesuit priests who had come to Brazil with Mem de Sá, named José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega , and who had played a big role in pacifying the Tamoios, Mem de Sá ordered his nephew, Estácio de Sá to assemble a new attack force. Estácio de Sá founded

10738-516: The royal treasury with this Florida enterprise, as it was to include the development of agriculture, fisheries, and naval stores . This ambitious venture was supported materially and politically by his kinship alliance of seventeen families from northern Spain, all tied by blood relations and marriage. They pledged their persons and fortunes to the adelentado, hoping to enrich themselves later with large grants of lands and royal honors of civil and military offices in La Florida . This support gave Menéndez

10856-491: The settlement of St. Augustine . Ribault pursued the Spanish with several of his ships and most of his troops, but he was surprised at sea by a violent storm lasting several days. Meanwhile, Menéndez launched an assault on Fort Caroline by marching his forces overland during the storm, leading a surprise dawn attack on Fort Caroline on 20 September. At this time, the garrison contained 200 to 250 people. The only survivors were about 50 women and children who were taken prisoner and

10974-402: The settlement was abandoned the next year after bad weather and attacks from Native Americans in the area. A small group of French troops were left on Parris Island, South Carolina in 1562 to build Charlesfort , but left after a year when they were not resupplied by France. Fort Caroline established in present-day Jacksonville, Florida , in 1564, lasted only a year before being destroyed by

11092-470: The site it after the Catholic saint, disembarked his troops, and quickly constructed fortifications to protect his people and supplies. Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, the chaplain of the expedition, celebrated the first Thanksgiving Mass on the grounds. The formal Franciscan outpost, Mission Nombre de Dios , was founded at the landing point, perhaps the first mission in what would become

11210-590: The south where they founded the Fort Caroline on the Saint John's river in Florida on June 22, 1564. This irritated the Spanish who claimed Florida and opposed the Protestant settlers for religious reasons. In 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés led a group of Spaniards and founded Saint Augustine , 60 kilometers south of Fort Caroline. Fearing a Spanish attack, Ribault planned to move the colony but

11328-418: The southeastern Atlantic coast of North America until 1577–1578 when Nicholas Strozzi and his crew built a fort after their ship, Le Prince , was wrecked at Port Royal Sound. The Spanish destroyed Fort Caroline and built their own fort on the same site. In April 1568, Dominique de Gourgues led a French force which attacked, captured and burned the fort. He then slaughtered the Spanish prisoners in revenge for

11446-455: The spring of 1604, conducted by Pierre Du Gua de Monts . It helped the foundation of a settlement on Saint Croix Island , the first French settlement in the New World, which would be given up the following winter. The expedition then founded the colony of Port-Royal . In 1608, Champlain founded a fur post that would become the city of Quebec , which would become the capital of New France. In Quebec, Champlain forged alliances between France and

11564-596: The state of Maine , which was much plagued by illness, perhaps scurvy. The following year the settlement was moved to Port Royal , located in present-day Nova Scotia . Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec (1608) and explored the Great Lakes . In 1634, Jean Nicolet founded La Baye des Puants (present-day Green Bay ), which is one of the oldest permanent European settlements in America. In 1634, Sieur de Laviolette founded Trois-Rivières. In 1642, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve , founded Fort Ville-Marie which

11682-402: The survivors were rescued in English waters. Another French force reestablished a fort at the site in 1577–1578. Meanwhile, René Goulaine de Laudonnière , who had been Ribault's second-in-command on the 1562 expedition, led a contingent of around 200 new settlers back to Florida, where they founded Fort Caroline (or Fort de la Caroline ) on 22 June, 1564; the site was on a small plain formed by

11800-607: The third. The exploits of Pedro Menéndez soon became a topic of conversation on the waterfronts of Spain and France, and in the royal courts. Meanwhile, the Seville merchants and the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) were chagrined by Menéndez's success and his growing influence with the Crown. Menéndez is credited as the Spanish leader who first surveyed and authorized the building of the royal fortresses at major Caribbean ports. He

11918-492: The title of marquis if he was successful. He advised the king of the strategic importance of exploring the Florida coast for discovery of trade passages to the riches of China and Molucca. There was the hope that such waterways might also lead to the mines of New Spain in central Mexico and to the Pacific. He proposed colonizing several areas to defend the territory against incursions by the Indians and foreign powers. Menéndez expected to make vast profits for himself and to increase

12036-492: The western slope of the high steep bank later called St. Johns Bluff. The fort was named for King Charles IX of France. For just over a year, this settlement was beset by hunger and desertion, and attracted the attention of Spanish authorities who considered it a challenge to their control over the area. The French colonists "had to rely heavily on the Indians" for both food and trade. The Timucua welcomed them. French soldiers also traveled across Timucuan territory, encountering

12154-405: The woods. Menéndez left a Spanish garrison at the captured fort, now renamed San Mateo. (In 1568 French soldiers led by Dominique de Gourgues returned and destroyed it, killing the Spanish garrison in retaliation for the 1565 massacre.) Menéndez pursued Jean Ribault, who had already left with four ships to attack the Spanish at St. Augustine. After Ribault had put out to sea, he was surprised by

12272-554: Was a leader of the settlement called the German Coast . By the end of 1720, the Mississippi Company failed. Later, more Germans immigrated to Louisiana during the 1750s and 1770s. The last French and Indian War resulted in the dissolution of New France , with Canada going to Great Britain and Louisiana going to Spain , although mainly absent. French colonists descendants or "Canadiens" that had settled in

12390-473: Was appointed by the Crown in 1554 as Captain-General of the Fleet of the Indies, the Spanish treasure fleet; that year he departed with the fleet and brought it back safely to Spain. He was affirmed in his belief of the strategic importance of the Bahama Channel and that Havana , on the island of Cuba , was the key port to conduct a rendezvous of the annual Flota of treasure galleons. The appointment

12508-485: Was at that time, a fort as protection against Iroquois attacks (the first great Iroquois war lasted from 1642 to 1667). Despite this rapid expansion, the colony developed very slowly. The Iroquois wars and diseases were the leading causes of death in the French colony. In 1663 when Louis XIV provided the Royal Government , the population of New France was only 2,500 European inhabitants. That year, to increase

12626-515: Was captured and briefly imprisoned in England on suspicion of spying related to the French Wars of Religion , he was prevented from returning to Florida. After a year without supplies or leadership, and beset by hostility from the native populations, all but one of the colonists left Charlesfort to sail back to Europe. During their voyage in an open boat, they were reduced to cannibalism before

12744-661: Was composed of: Doctrinal disputes arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinists, especially in relation to the Eucharist, and in October 1557 the Calvinists were banished from Coligny island as a result. They settled among the Tupinamba until January 1558, when some of them managed to return to France by ship together with Jean de Léry , and five others chose to return to Coligny island where three of them were drowned by Villegagnon for refusing to recant. In 1560 Mem de Sá ,

12862-459: Was destroyed by Hurricane Dora in the same year. Today, the second replica, a near full-scale "interpretive model" of the original Fort de la Caroline, also constructed and maintained by the National Park Service, illustrates the modest defenses upon which the 16th-century French colonists depended. On 21 February 2014, researchers Fletcher Crowe and Anita Spring presented claims at a conference hosted by Florida State University that Fort Caroline

12980-493: Was found six months later in Valladolid and taken back to his foster home. Eventually Menéndez entered the military and went off to fight in one of the wars with France. He served at sea in a small armada against the French corsairs who harassed the maritime commerce of Spain. After two years of fighting, Menéndez returned to his family, having conceived a plan to use part of his inheritance to build his own vessel. He built

13098-496: Was founded in 1600. Four years later, Champlain made his first trip to Canada on a trade mission for fur. Although he had no formal mandate on this trip, he sketched a map of the St. Lawrence River and in writing, on his return to France, a report entitled Savages (relation of his stay in a tribe of Montagnais near Tadoussac). Champlain needed to report his findings to Henry IV . He participated in another expedition to New France in

13216-505: Was gone by 1688. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit (modern-day Detroit ) in 1701 and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville founded La Nouvelle Orléans ( New Orleans ) in 1718. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founded Baton Rouge in 1719. The European settlement of Mobile, Alabama began with French colonists, who in 1702 constructed Fort Louis de la Louisiane , at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on

13334-553: Was highly prestigious, and it was unusual for the Crown to make the appointment. In the past the Casa de Contratación had controlled this position. King Phillip II and Menéndez maintained a close relationship. The Crown invited him to be a part of the Royal Party when Phillip married Mary I, Queen of England . In 1559, Philip II again appointed Menéndez as Captain General, and his brother Bartolomé Menéndez as Admiral, of

13452-626: Was located not on the St. Johns River, but on the Altamaha River in southeast Georgia . The scholars proposed that period French maps, particularly a 1685 map of " French Florida " from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France , support the more northern location. They further argued that the Native Americans living near the fort spoke Guale , the language spoken in what is now Coastal Georgia, rather than Timucua ,

13570-415: Was moved in 1720 to Biloxi , leaving Mobile to serve as a regional military and trading center. In 1723 the construction of a new brick fort with a stone foundation began and it was renamed Fort Condé in honor of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon . In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Seven Years' War , which Britain won, defeating France. By this treaty, France ceded its territories east of

13688-559: Was solidified by Menéndez's marriage to Carlos's sister, who took the baptismal name Doña Antonia. The peace was uneasy, and Menéndez's use of his new wife as a hostage in negotiations with her people, as well as his negotiating with the Calusas' enemies, the Tocobagas , helped cause the decline of relations to all out war, which continued intermittently into the next century. Menéndez was unsuccessful in locating his son Juan. Establishing

13806-406: Was the first governor of La Florida (1565–74). By his contract, or asiento , with Philip II, Menéndez was appointed adelantado and was responsible for implementing royal policies to build fortifications for the defense of conquered territories in La Florida and to establish Castilian governmental institutions in desirable areas. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was born to an old noble family in

13924-512: Was the first French Catholic parish established on the Gulf Coast of the United States . In 1704 the ship Pélican delivered 23 French women to the colony; passengers had contracted yellow fever at a stop in Havana . Though most of the " Pélican girls" recovered, numerous colonists and neighboring Native Americans contracted the disease in turn and many died. This early period was also

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