2. Political
The French Empire started on July
27, 1605 when Acadia was founded
(Canada). The French Empire consisted
of lands around the world that retained
its power starting in the 1600s to
the1960s. In the 19th and 20th
centuries, the French Empire was the
second powerful nation with the British
Empire as the number one in the world.
As the Age of Discovery
dawned, France set its sights on the
Caribbean while England, Spain, and
Portugal went for the Americas. This
began a rivalry between England and
France through wars in the 1700s and
1800s. In the end, France lost
motivation to continue to pursue more
land in the Americas and historians
believe this was the marker for when the
first French empire died. In the 19th
century, France worked to build a new
empire in Africa of which they were
successful.
3. Economic Influences
Starting in the 1500s, boating and
fisherman were key components to the
French economy. In 1608, France
founded Quebec which would become
the fur-trade center for the French
Empire. In the Americas, France
focused on fur trade more than
agriculture because there wasn’t a very
large population of French living in the
New World. The French had to rely on
the Native people for their food supply
and received the reputation of being the
most humane to the Indians than their
rivals, the English and Spanish. Another
advantage that the French had over the
English, is that the French wanted to
befriend the Indians instead of taking
over their lands.
4. Economic Influence
In 1663, New France was turning into
mercantile colonies. In 1699, the French
added Louisiana to it’s empire which
helped the French trading to be expanded
over a large area of land in which was very
profitable to the economy of France.
France gained revenues from it’s colonies
in the Caribbean through food production.
These colonies were French Guiana
(1624), Saint Kitts (1625), Guadeloupe and
Martinique (1635), and Saint Lucia (1650).
All these colonies relied on African slave
labor to produce the food crops. Another
colony that was important to the French
economy was Saint Domingue or known as
Haiti. Saint Domingue became a sugar
production colony. In 1791, France began
to loose Saint Domingue to the slave
revolts as response to the French
Revolution in 1789. By 1801, France had
completely lost the important Saint
Domingue which was the France’s
wealthiest colonies.
5. French Relations
In the late 16th to early 17th
century, France looked to settle in
Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, and
Florida, but were countered by Spain
and Portugal’s drive to keep their
monopoly of land in the Americas. As
France entered into the 18th century, it
faced the ultimate fall of its first
empire. This fall was from conflicts
with the British in a series of multiple
wars spread over 71 years. These
wars started in 1744 with the War of
Austrian Succession, the Seven Years’
War, the American Revolutionary
War, the French Revolutionary
War, and the Napoleonic Wars. All
these conflicts combined are known
as the Second Hundred Years’ War.
6. French Relations
As a result of the Seven Years’ War
of 1756–1763, France lost New
France, colonies in North
America, influence in India, and
most of its Caribbean colonies to
Britain. Heading into the 19th
century, Britain had captured all of
the remaining French
colonies, which were given back to
France in 1802 when the Peace of
Amiens was signed. Shortly after in
1803, Britain took back the French
colonies once again. When the end
of the Napoleonic Wars was
nearing, Britain restored to France
Guadalupe, Martinique, French
Guiana, Senegal trading
posts, Reunion, and Indian
possessions.
7. Geography
Over the 16th to 19th
centuries, the French Empire
was composed of St.
Lawrence River
Valley, Acadia, Louisiana
(1699), French Guiana
(1624), Saint Kitts
(1625), Guadalupe
(1635), Martinique
(1635), Saint Lucia
(1650), Saint-Domingue
(1664), Senegal
(1624), Chandernagore in
1673, Pondicherry in
1647, Yaman in 1723, Mahe
in 1725, Karikal in 1739.
(continue to next page)
8. Geography
Reunion (1664), Mauritius
(1718), Seychelles in
1756, Egypt
(1789), Cochinchina
(1867), Cambodia
(1863), French Indochina
(1887), Laos (1893), Kwang-
Chou-Wan (1900), Shanghai
concession (1849-
1946), Tunisia
(1881), Mauritania, Guinea,
Mali, Cote
d’Ivoire, Benin, Niger, Chad,
Central African
Republic, Republic of
Congo, and French
Somaliland.
