New France

Possessions of France in North America from 1534 to the Treaty of Paris in 1763. After the first land claim for France by Jacques Cartier (1534), the company of New France was established in 1627.

With the explorations by Samuel de Champlain, Jacques Marquette, La Salle, Louis Jolliet, and others, the boundaries of New France expanded beyond the lower St. Lawrence River to include the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. From 1689 rivalry between England and France affected their possessions in North America. The French and Indian War (1754–63) resulted in the cession of Canada and the territory east of the Mississippi River to England and the territory west of the Mississippi to Spain, with France keeping only the islands of St.-Pierre and Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland.