In a quest to find a passage to Asia, Giovanni da Verrazano explored the North American coast as King Francis had ordered in 1524. Consequently, because of the exploration being done Jacquie’s Cartier made voyages between 1534 and 1543. However, Canada’s severe winters made him give up and as a consequence, the French ignored most of Canada only paying attention to a few fur traders and fisherman. As time went on the fisheries began having great success which made them grow in numbers that rivaled those of New Spain in volume of shipping. In 1550 the French spread to Havannah and along the Atlantic coast of Florida. This is where New Spain was settled in. As a Result, Pedro Mendez de Aviles attacked them in 1565, and executed those individuals who did not want to convert to Catholicism. Because of Francis’s wars of religion more efforts were blocked for the rest of the century. Then King Henry IV came into power and believed that the survival of the state should take precedence over religious precedence. Someone with the same ideals was a Catholic Soldier and explorer by the name of Samuel De Champlain. Champlain made voyages to Canada with the hope and belief that Catholics and Huguenots could work together and even intermarry. In 1608 he established friendly relations with local Indians where he established Quebec. In 1625 the French crown declared that only the Catholic faith could be practiced in New France. Furthermore, in 1638, Jesuit Missionaries made great efforts to convert Indians. As a consequence, they were able to convert over 10,000 Indians within 40 years; however problems such as suspicion of witchcraft reduced that number. In 1663 King Louis XIV tried to turn the society into an absolutist society where government was in the hands of two appointive officials. The people paid only a few taxes which was set at half the rate of those within France. Furthermore, there were 774 young women sent over to St. Lawrence by the King for the settlers and soldiers to wed. He offered bonuses to those who had large families and fined those fathers whose children did not wed by their teens. As a result of this, the population in New France grew from 3,000 to 14,000 between 1663 and 1700 even though 70 percent of the immigrants moved back to France.
By the 1690’s wheat began to take hold and Canada was now producing enough to feed itself. By 1700 Colbert’s policies led to a small rebellion to what became known as Illinois.
Lastly, Canada did not remain the center for the French for long as they had begun to settle in the Caribbean. Converting these island colonies into centers of coffee and sugar which became worth more than any other colony in the world