A. The Founding of New France

From HCO Jr

Part 3. New France → A. Founding of New France → B. Acadian Saga → C. The Royal Colony → D. Fur Traders & Missionaries → E. Daily Life → F. Wars with the English

Life in Quebec was very different in the 1600s compared to life in Quebec today. For many years the colony was very small. It consisted of only a few buildings made of stone and wood. Around these buildings were large walls made of logs taken from the forests. Only men lived in the colony. They came for only a few years to work in the fur trade then they returned to France.

Developing Quebec was a very slow process. During the first few decades Quebec stayed very small. For a few years it seemed as if Quebec might be abandoned because the Five Nations of the Iroquois (the Haudenosaunee) were attacking the French.

To understand how Quebec grew into a large colony one must understand many different things. First one must study the fur trade, and how First Nations helped the French.

A Colony on the St. Lawrence

Samuel de Champlain was the first French explorer to build a permanent settlement on the St. Lawrence River. In 1608 Champlain and a small group of two dozen men built a small fort. It was on the same spot as the modern city of Quebec. Quebec is an Algonquian word (kebec) which means "the narrows."

The first years of the colony were very hard. Winters were cold, and the summers hot. Men worked hard every day to expand the fort, plant crops, and work in the fur trade. if someone became seriously injured or sick they could die very easily.

Champlain needed help for the colony to succeed. First Nations helped the new colony. These were not the Stadaconan people that Cartier met. When Champlain arrived he met Algonquian people. The French called them Montaignais because they lived in the hilly region north of Quebec.

First Nations taught the French how to cure scurvy by boiling cedar bark and leaves. First Nations hunters brought meat, fish, berries and other things to trade. First Nations supplied the French with all of their fresh meat for over thirty years. Over time the French learned how to gather berries, make maple syrup, and gather other food from the forest. First Nations also taught them how to travel by birch bark canoe in the spring and summer, and by snow shoe and toboggan in the winter.

Champlain helped the First Nations as well. First Nations wanted the trade goods that the French brought to Quebec. Metal knives, axes, cooking pots, and needles were useful tools for First Nations. The French also brought beads, cloth and other goods that First Nations people valued. Champlain also helped the Algonquian people in their battles with the Iroquois. In 1609, for example, Champlain and several other soldiers helped the Algonquians win an important battle against the Iroquois.

Private Companies and Quebec

Quebec had to make a profit. Champlain was an explorer, but he also worked for a people in France who wanted to make money from the fur trade. Trading furs was a very important part of Quebec's economy.

Different companies took control of Quebec over the years. Each of these companies was given a monopoly over the fur trade in the St. Lawrence. This meant no other companies or people could trade furs with the First Nations. In return these companies had to help Quebec grow. A monopoly was the company's reward. It allowd the company to make money while expanding the colony.

In 1627 a company called The Company of 100 Associates bought Quebec. This company had 100 investors in it. An investor is someone who gives their own money to a company. Investors hope that the company will make money, and the cash they invested will grow.

In return for taking over Quebec the Company of 100 Associates promised to bring 4000 French settlers to Quebec by 1642. These settlers could trade furs with First Nations as long as they sold those furs to the Company.

Settlers were important for different reasons. First, settlers would start farms and grow food. This might help Quebec become self-supporting. This means Quebec's farms would produce enough food to feed everyone in the colony. This could save the Company money: it would not have to import (bring in) food from France. When the Company took over there were only 65 colonists at Quebec. It was a very small colony compared to the English colonies in the south. In 1627 the English colony of Virginia had 2000 settlers.

Quebec was so small that three English pirates, the Kirk brothers, conquered Quebec in 1628 with only a small group of men. They took Quebec because England and France were at war. In 1632 England gave Quebec back to France. However, it showed how easily Quebec could be conquered. If Quebec was to survive it needed a larger population.

In 1645 the Company of One Hundred Associates was almost bankrupt. It gave its fur trading monopoly to another company, the Company of Habitants. This company was based in Quebec. It also tried to bring over settlers and expand the colony, but it failed.

When settlers came to Quebec they did not always want to farm. Men made more money working in the fur trade then farms. Starting a new farm was also very hard work. Trees had to be cut down, stumps pulled out of the ground, seed planted, tended, and then harvested in the autumn. Trading furs made people money very quickly.

In all this time, from 1608 to the 1640s, only one new settlement was started in Quebec: Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers) in 1634.

The Catholic Church and Quebec

The Catholic Church played a very important role in the development of New France. Even though a private company controlled Quebec it still had another goal: converting First Nations to the Catholic religion.

When Champlain created Quebec had had a vision of what Quebec might become. Champlain hoped that the Algonquian people who lived near Quebec would become Catholic. Over time French and Algonquian people would marry, have children, and start a new society in Canada. This new people would farm and support the colony on the St. Lawrence.

Recollect Missionaries

Récollet Friar

The first Catholic missionaries in Quebec were from the Recollet Order. Priests in the Catholic Church belong to different groups called orders. The Recollects are part of a larger order called the Franciscans.

Champlin invited three Recollect priests to Quebec in 1615. These priests created a seminary at Quebec by 1620. A seminary is a school for men who want to train to become priests. Champlain and the Recollets hoped that Algonquian men would join the seminary. These men, when they became priests, would help to convert other First Nations.

This plan never worked. None of the Algonquian men wanted to give up their religion. Within a few years the seminary closed. It had no students, and there was no money to run it.

The Arrival of the Jesuits

Very soon the Recollets needed help. None of the First Nations they taught wanted to convert. They asked another order of priests, the Society of Jesus, to help them in Quebec.

Priests who belong to this order are called Jesuits. Ignatius Loyola was the founder (creator) of the Jesuit Order in the 1500s. Jesuit priests were trained to be missionaries. During the 1500s in Europe many Catholics converted to a new Christian religion called Protestantism. Loyola hoped that the Jesuits would convert the Protestants back to the Catholic Church.

In 1625 the first Jesuits arrived in Quebec. In 1632 all of the Recollet priests left Quebec. Only the Jesuit Order had priests in Quebec.

Jesuits, like the Recollets, were not very tolerant of other beliefs. They also wanted to convert First Nations to Catholicism.

The Jesuits believed that God wanted them to convert all of the First Nations. However, they tried to convert the Wendat first. They chose the Wendat for a few reasons.

The Wendat lived in villages. This made it easier for the Jesuits to open churches and missions. Following First Nations who moved throughout the year to hunt and fish was difficult.
Since the Wendat lived in villages the Jesuits could live there year round and learn the Wendat language.
Many Jesuits believed that the Wendat were more 'civlized' than other First Nations because they farmed. This made them more like Europeans than other First Nations. The Jesuits did not understand how strong Wendat culture was.

Many Wendat did not want the Jesuits to live amongst them. Samuel de Champlain told the Wendat they must accept the Jesuits in their villages. If they refused the French would not treat them well in the fur trade. This convinced the Wendat to accept the Jesuits.

At first the Jesuits travelled to Wendat villages to preach and convert. After a few years they began to build permanent missions.In 1639, for example, Father Jean de Brebeuf, built the mission of Ste. Marie. Today, Ste. Marie is an historic site. The mission has been rebuilt, and people can visit to see how the French and Wendat lived in this area.

Modern Restoration of Ste. Marie

Ste. Marie became very large. In 1648 there were 18 priests working there, and forty-six lay people. A lay person is someone who is not a priest (or nun), but is a devout Catholic. They agree to work for the Catholic Church. Some of these men were soldiers, and servants. Twenty three of these people were donnés.

Donnés were not priests. They took a vow (a serious promise) to work for the mission. In return they lived and worked with the priests. Donnés were not paid any money.

Reactions of First Nations

First Nations did not react well to the Recollet and Jesuit missionaries. First Nations and the French had very different cultures. For example:

Very few parents sent their children to the Recollet seminary. If a child acted up in a Recollet seminary they were hit and beaten. First Nations did not discipline their children like this. They could not understand why an adult would hit a child.

They did not understand why priests did not marry. In First Nations culture shamans (religious people) married, and had children. They thought that the vow of celibacy that priests took was very odd.

First Nations people did not understand the Catholic religion. For example, in First Nations' religion there is no idea of Heaven or Hell. When someone died they went to the same afterlife as everyone else. In this afterlife the person met friends and family who died earlier.

Priests told people who converted to Catholicism that they would go to Heaven. They said that people who did not convert went to Hell. Families did not want to be split up in the afterlife.

Priests brought disease into Wendat villages. They did not do this deliberatey. Priests and French men who worked with them brought diseases like infuenza, chicken pox, small pox and measles to the villages. The Wendat had never experienced these diseases before. With a few years thousands of Wendat died. Some began to blame the priests. Some villages attacked and destroyed Jesuit missions because they blamed the priests for the disease.

The Jesuits divided the Wendat. By the 1640s more Wendat became Catholic. Other Wendat did not like this, and did not the new Catholics living with them. Wendat who converted told others that their old religion was wrong. Soon the Wendat villages became divided between those who converted and those who did not.

Eventually Catholic Wendat left their villages. Some went to live at Ste. Marie. Others travelled to the St. Lawrence. They lived in First Nations communities near Montreal and Quebec.

Female Orders: The Ursulines

Jesuits opened schools for First Nations boys. They did not allow girls to attend their schools. It was common at this time for boy and girls to attend different schools.

Nuns were needed to open a school for girls. A nun in France decided to travel to Quebec to convert First Nations girls. Her name was Marie de l'Incarnation. She was part of an order of nuns called Ursulines.

Marie and two other nuns arrived in Quebec in 1639. They built a boarding school. This meant that the girls would live at the school. Some First Nations parents sent their girls to the Ursuline school. Most of the girls ran away from the nuns.

Despite this early failure the Ursulines stayed in Quebec. Over the years they opened schools and taught the girls of French families in Canada.

The Early Fur Trade

French explorers rarely traded furs with First Nations people. During the first years of the fur trade First Nations traded travelled to Quebec each spring. Hundred of canoes arrived loaded with furs. The most valuable was beaver pelts. Other furs were brought as well: mink, marten, and muskrat. Beaver pelts were the most valuable because they were used to make beaver felt hats in Europe.

Without the First Nations there would not have been a fur trade in Canada. While some French explorers, such as Etienne Brulé, lived with the Wendat and travelled with them, they did not trade very much. Brulé's job was to keep the Wendat as allies of the French, and learn about the interior of the country.

Huronia settlements at the time of Champlain

The early fur trade was based on First Nations' trading systems. Long before Europeans arrived in Canada the different First Nations traded to obtain food and other material. They traded for the same reason countries trade today: to get food and other materials they did not have.

Much of the fur the Wendat brought to Quebec was not from their land. They obtained those furs from the Nipissings. Even the Nipissing people, however, could not trap that many animals. They traded with the Cree who lived further north to get more furs.

First Nations in the north wanted corn and tobacco from the south. The Wendat grew corn, and they purchased tobacco from First Nations that lived further south. Nipissings traded furs for this, and they provided the Wendat with fish. The Nipissings traded with the Anishinabe who lived further west for copper. Cree people in the north also wanted corn and tobacco, and the Nipissings traded maple syrup and sugar with them too. The Wendat also traded extra European tools to get furs: knives, axes, pots, beads and cloth.

By the time beaver furs arrived in Quebec a lot of trading had taken place among the First Nations. Historians believe that more than half the furs brought to Quebec each spring came from the Wendat. Those furs, however, actually came from many different First Nations.

The Loss of Huronia

Huronia and the Wendat people were very important to the French. They traded with them. French missionaries lived with the Wendat. They provided warriors to help the French if they needed to defend themselves against the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee).

In the 1640s this relationship ended. Iroquis warriors attacked Huronia and either killed, captured or drove away the Wendat. In March, 1649, Haudenosaunee attacked a Wendat village. They killed or captured almost everyone in the village. Some of the Haudenosaunee were actually Huron warriors who were captured in earlier raids.

Martyrdom of Brébeuf & Lalement

Other villages were attacked. Haudenosaunee even travelled to Lake Nipissing and attacked the people there. Soon all of Huronia was under the control of the Haudenosaunee.

Ste. Marie was destroyed. Wendat living there either fled to Christian Island in Georgian Bay, left to join other First Nations, or fled to Quebec. Two Jesuit priests, Fathers Brébeuf and Lalemant, were captured by the Haudenosaunee. They were tortured and killed by the warriors. They became martyrs. This means they died for their religious beliefs.

Why did the Haudenosaunee Attack?

It is very difficult for historians to discover why things happened in the past. Sometimes there are not records to look at. Historians have to look at the evidence they have and develop a theories. A theory is an idea that tries to explain why or how an event happened. There are two different theories about why the Haudenosaunee attacked the Wendat.

One theory is the Haudenosaunee needed furs. They traded with Dutch who lived in what is today New York. After a few years the Haudenosaunee trapped almost all of their beaver. They wanted to trade with First Nations in the north, like the Nipissings, to get more furs.

The Wendat and the French refused to let the Haudenosaunee do this. Both the Wendat and the Haudenosaunee were enemies before the fur trade started. Perhaps the Wendat did not trust the Haudenosaunee. French traders and leaders did not want the Dutch to get access to the furs. If they offered the First Nations better prices the French fur trade might suffer.

Another theory states that the Haudenosaunee attacked the Wendat to bring more people into their nation. European diseases were killing many Haudenosaunee (and other First Nations as well). In First Nations' warfare it was common for warriors to capture women and children from the enemy side. These women and children were adopted into the Haudenosaunee. Wendat warriors did the same thing. Perhaps the Haudenosaunee attacked the Wendat to help replenish (build-up) their population.

The Wendat after Huronia

Some Wendat travelled west and joined with First Nations in Michigan. Others travelled south and joined with the Haudenosaunee. Wendat who were Catholic left for Quebec. They lived on land set aside by the Jesuits in an area called Lorette. The descendants of those Wendat still live there today.

Quebec after the Fall of Huronia

French traders lost an important source of furs when Huronia fell. Haudenosaunee kept attacking French settlements at Quebec, Ville Marie (Montreal) and at Trois-Rivères. These attacks became so bad that French farmers would not leave their homes and work in their fields. Haudenosaunee warriors hid in the forests at the edge of the fields and waited for farmers.

When the French lost the Wendat they lost an important military ally. While some Wendat lived at Quebec there were not enough to help defend against the Haudenosaunee.

Losing Huronia also meant the French had to go into the forest to trade. They could not wait for the furs to come to them at Quebec. They had to trade in the bush, or convince First Nations to come to Quebec.

French fur traders went north and lived with the Algonquian nations. They returned in the spring with the people and their furs. Traders could not use the traditional route along the St. Lawrence River because it was too dangerous. Haudenosaunee war parties might attack there, or on the Ottawa River. French traders and the Algonquians used the rivers that flowed from the north to reach Quebec. These were safer routes than the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers.

The Settlement of Montreal

Jacques Cartier was the first European to explore the island of Montreal. By the 1630s it was an important trading area. French fur traders sailed up to it each spring and met First Nations who brought their furs. There was no real French settlement on the island.

In the late 1630s a group in France called the Societe de Notre Dame decided to create a settlement on the island. It hoped that the settlement would be a Christian town. The Society hoped that First Nations people would settle in the town and would convert to Catholicism.

Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve was chosen to lead people to the new settlement. It was a dangerous time to start a new colony. Iroquois warriors were attacking French settlements. Maisonneuve and his settlers had very little protection. However, in 1642 they left Quebec and travelled to Montreal Island. They founded the new settlement and named it Ville Marie. Late it became known as Montreal. At first only 40 people lived in the tiny settlement.

At first the new settlement of Ville Marie did not do very well. Iroquois attacks killed many people. The Iroquois attacks were so strong that settlers in all three of the French villages (Ville Marie, Trois Riveres and Quebec) thought they might have to abandon Canada.

In 1663 France sent over 1000 professional soldiers to Quebec. With the arrival of these troops Montreal was safe. The French King took over Quebec, and renamed it New France. With these soldiers the French could now protect their settlements.