New France.

In the early 1600s the North American interests of France lay chiefly in the hands of explorers like Samuel de Champlain and the Company of New France, which possessed a royal monopoly on the French North American (Canadian) fur trade. But New France was reorganized in the 1660s, an effort led by Louis XIV's chief minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. It became a royal colony, with an appointed governor, an army, and a mandate to increase France's economic profit from the fur trade. The principle at work was the same as in the English empire—the colonies existed to further the interests of the mother country.

Government.

As in the Spanish colonies, power in New France was shared among a governor responsible for military and Indian matters, an intendant responsible for civil and local government, and a bishop who headed the...