| − | The leading French explorer in North America was Jacques Cartier, who attempted from 1534 to 1542 to find a so-called Northwest Passage by water to the Pacific Ocean and then to China (no such pathway by water exists). He tried three times using the St. Lawrence River north of the United States. He got only as far as Montreal and then gave up, and the French did not establish a permanent settlement until Quebec in 1607, founded by Samuel de Champlain. | + | The leading French explorer in North America was Jacques Cartier, who attempted from 1534 to 1542 to find a so-called Northwest Passage by water to the Pacific Ocean and then to China (no such pathway by water exists). He tried three times using the St. Lawrence River north of the United States. He got only as far as Montreal and then gave up, and the French did not establish a permanent settlement until 1607, when Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain. |
| − | "New France" consisted more of territory than actual people. French settlers went to Canada and Louisiana, although France claimed to own vast regions of territory including what later became the Louisiana Purchase much later, in 1803. French fur traders founded some cities, such as St. Louis in 1764, which was named after the French King Louis IX. But again, the French settlements in the United States were much later than the Spanish and English settlements, and few people came over from France to what is the United Stats today, other than explorers and fur traders. | + | "New France" consisted more of territory than actual people. French settlers went to Canada and Louisiana, although France claimed to own vast regions of territory including what later became the Louisiana Purchase much later, in 1803. French fur traders founded some cities, such as St. Louis in 1764, which was named after the French King Louis IX. But again, the French settlements in the United States were much later than the Spanish and English settlements, and few people came over from France to what is the United States today, other than explorers and fur traders. |