The five colonies of New France still influence modern day America through language, culture and place names
Learn about the colonies of Nouvelle France: Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and LouisianaJonathan Raymond / Kenneth Summers / Robert Harding Video / Kevin Ruck | Shutterstock
If history had taken a different turn, France would have kept its colonial territories in America, and the primary language in the US would be French. It could have been Macron and Le Pen competing for the presidency of the United French States of America (UFSA).
In 1534, under François I, France staked its claim to part of North America, and thenceforth the viceroyalty of Nouvelle France (New France) expanded until it stretched from Labrador all the way down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Had things gone otherwise, France could have beaten Britain for control of the northern part of the New World, but in reality the opposite happened.
Some of New France was lost to Albion by the Peace of Utrecht (1713) and the rest (except for Saint Pierre and Miquelon) was handed over through the Treaty of Paris (1763).
Nouvelle France comprises five colonies, all of which still influence the modern day USA through language, culture and place names.
1. Canada
In the 18th Century the name applied to only half of the modern country. It meant inland northeastern north America from the St Lawrence River to the Great Lakes region and as far west as Lake Winnipeg, but no further.
Quebec was the capital of Nouvelle France and is still, of course, the heart of a large and significant French-speaking community.
This was a much smaller colony covering what is now the west coast of Canada: Nova Scotia (sometimes referred to by historians as the Acadian peninsula), l’île Saint-Jean (now Prince Edward Island) and l’île-Royale (the present-day Cap Breton Island).
An ethnic group of French expats, the Acadians, developed alongside First Nation people but they were forcibly expelled from their lands by the British between 1755 and 1763.
3. Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay on the globeZelma Brezinska/Shutterstock
The vast, chilly bay nudging up to the polar regions is named after Henry Hudson who first discovered it but died here in unknown circumstances in 1611.
It was an important location for fur trading and this led to innumerable conflicts between French and English settlers – the latter represented by the Hudson’s Bay Company.
4. Terre-Neuve (Newfoundland)
France established a colony on the island of Newfoundland and the neighbouring mainland region of Labrador in 1655, making Plaisance (now Placentia) its capital.
The British gained the colony by the Peace of Utrecht treaty.
5. La Louisiane (Louisiana)
New Orleans, Louisiana skylineKevin Ruck/Shutterstock
The colony, and its successor, the US state, was named in 1682 after the Sun King, Louis XIV.
History has left a rich multicultural, multilingual mix of peoples, noticeably Cajuns and Creoles who are of French descent. The modern state is definitely in the deep south but the French colony stretched almost to what is now the Canadian border.
