FranceHistories

North America: Explorations and the Beginnings of New France

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Francis I: The Knight King and the French Renaissance (1515–1547) · RENAISSANCE

Under the reign of Francis I, France began to take a serious interest in explorations in North America, marking the start of the French presence in the New World and the founding of New France.

🗺️ The Context of French Explorations

When Francis I came to the throne in 1515, France was significantly behind in the race for great discoveries: its maritime activities were then largely limited to smuggling and piracy off the African coasts, even though the kingdom had a long maritime seaboard, numerous ports and skilled sailors — assets that his predecessors, focused on their Mediterranean conquests, had never thought to exploit. Spain and Portugal, for their part, had dominated exploration unchallenged since the end of the fifteenth century, a monopoly legitimised by the papal bull Inter Cætera of 1493 and by the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which simply divided the world between the two Iberian crowns.

Francis I refused to accept this division without question. He argued that the scope of the papal bull should be limited to territories already discovered by 1493, and in 1533 obtained from Pope Clement VII a declaration going in this direction. He is credited, on this subject, with a famous retort: “I should very much like to see the clause in Adam’s will that excludes me from a share of the world.” Bolstered by this challenge, the king could now push his envoys towards territories that Spain and Portugal had until then considered exclusively their own.

⛵ The First Expeditions

It was a shipowner from Dieppe, Jean Ango, who became one of the principal promoters of these French explorations: his ships surveyed the coasts of Newfoundland, sailed down to Guinea and Brazil, and even rounded the Cape of Good Hope as far as Sumatra, thus showing the way. An episode of piracy, in 1522, finally convinced the French court of the importance of the New World: Captain Jean Fleury intercepted two Spanish caravels returning from New Spain, laden with the treasures Cortés had just offered to Charles V — a capture that dramatically revealed the scale of the riches held by the American continent.

In 1523, Francis I took under his patronage the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, placing the royal vessel La Dauphine at his disposal, while funding for the expedition was entrusted to Jean Ango and to Florentine capital. Setting out in 1524 in search of a north-west passage leading directly to the Indies, Verrazzano reached the coast of North America and Florida, which he named Franciscana in honour of the king, mapped Newfoundland, founded New Angoulême — on the site where New York would later rise —, before continuing on to Brazil and the Antilles. From this voyage he drew a striking conclusion: “This is a land unknown to the ancients, […] larger than Europe, Africa and almost Asia” — and it was he who first gave these territories the name “New France.”

🇫🇷 Jacques Cartier and the Birth of Canada

It was Jean Le Veneur, Bishop of Lisieux and grand almoner of the king, who recommended in 1534 that Francis I send on an expedition the navigator from Saint-Malo Jacques Cartier, with the mission of discovering “certain islands and lands where it is said there must be found a great quantity of gold and other rich things.” Setting out from Saint-Malo on 20 April 1534, Cartier crossed the Atlantic in just three weeks and took possession, on 24 July, of the coast of Gaspé in the name of the King of France, before returning to Saint-Malo as early as 5 September.

The success of this first mission earned Cartier renewed royal support: setting out on 15 May 1535 at the head of three ships, he discovered the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, sailed up the river and founded the post of Sainte-Croix, on the site of the future Quebec, before reaching the Native American village of Hochelaga, which he renamed “Mont-Royal” — the future Montreal. It was also on this expedition that he gave, from an Iroquoian word, the name “Canada” to part of the discovered territory. The winter this time proved formidable: blocked by ice at Sainte-Croix between November 1535 and April 1536, the French had to contend with scurvy and increasingly strained relations with the indigenous populations, before reaching Saint-Malo again on 16 July 1536, considerably weakened.

The war against Charles V delayed any new expedition for a time, but as early as 1538 Francis I received a “Memorandum of the men and provisions needed for the ships that the King wished to send to Canada.” He now entrusted the governorship of the enterprise to Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval, a military expert in fortification, while Cartier set out again on 23 May 1541 at the head of five ships, with the mission of going “to the lands of Canada and Ochelaga and as far as the land of Saguenay, should he be able to reach it.” He did found a colony, Charlesbourg-Royal, some fifteen kilometres from the island of Sainte-Croix, but difficulties with the Native American populations and another harsh winter forced him to turn back: he crossed paths with Roberval at Newfoundland on 8 June 1542, without waiting for him, and returned to France. Roberval, for his part, reached the colony alone in July 1542, before returning to France in turn in October 1543 — bringing, for the time being, French attempts at settlement in North America to a halt.

📊 The Balance Sheet of the Explorations

In the short term, the balance sheet of these expeditions appears disappointing: no viable colony could be established, and repeated difficulties — scurvy, deadly winters, strained relations with local populations — discouraged, for a time, any new attempt. But the gains were real: precise mapping of the coasts, discovery of the Saint Lawrence, first contacts with indigenous populations, and above all a symbolic taking of possession that, in France’s eyes, directly challenged the Iberian colonial monopoly. It was on these foundations, laid under Francis I, that Samuel de Champlain would be able to build, at the very start of the seventeenth century, to finally found a lasting colony — New France proper.

This distant legacy has, moreover, crossed the centuries in a rather unexpected way: Francis I is today readily presented as the first king of Canada, his portrait still adorning the walls of the Canadian Senate, as the symbolic starting point of a royal succession that, from Francis I in 1534 to Charles III, King of Canada since 2022, ranks among the oldest and most uninterrupted in the world.

🧠 Key Takeaways

  • 1522: capture by Jean Fleury of the treasures sent by Cortés to Charles V, revealing the riches of the New World
  • 1523–1524: expedition of Giovanni da Verrazzano, who explored the east coast of North America and coined the name “New France”
  • 1534: first expedition of Jacques Cartier, taking possession of the Gaspé Peninsula
  • 1535–1536: second expedition, discovery of the Saint Lawrence, founding of Sainte-Croix (Quebec) and Mont-Royal (Montreal), first use of the name “Canada”
  • 1541–1543: third expedition, attempt at a colony at Charlesbourg-Royal with Roberval, failure of lasting settlement
  • An enterprise with no viable colony in the short term, but one that laid the foundations exploited, a century later, by Samuel de Champlain

Next zoom: Domestic policy and the government of Francis I.