New France
Kingdom of France in the Americas | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
 | |
| Capital | Quebec |
| Largest city | Montreal |
| Official languages | French |
| Minority languages | Métif Cree Spanish English Plains Sign |
| Government | Constitutional monarchy |
| Establishment | |
• Exploration by Jacques Cartier | 1534 |
• First settlement | 1608 |
• New France made royal province | 1664 |
• Treaty of Vienna; cession of the Upper Country | 1755 |
• Bourbon flight to Quebec | 1793 |
The Kingdom of France in the Americas (French: Royaume de France en Amérique), commonly known as New France (Nouvelle France), is a country located in northeastern America. It is bordered to the north by Rupert's Land and to the south by New England, New Netherland, and Tussenland. New France's government is uniquely one of two surviving endemic monarchies in America alongside that of the Blessed Isles. It is also one of the only countries in the world with Roman Catholicism serving as the state religion.
In 1795, the colonial province of New France became the seat of the exiled Bourbon monarchy during the Augustine Wars. The 19th century saw the creation of a constitutional monarchy with the 1863 Constitution and the abandonment of Salic law. During the early 20th century, New France aligned itself with the Cordial League during the Great War as a reaction to the growth of republicanism around the world.
History
In 1664, exactly sixty years after first settlement, Louis XIV made New France a royal province and viceroyalty with the formation of the French West India Company. The fur trade, Jesuit and Franciscan evangelization missions, and the arrival of new colonists had prompted development of the colony's government.
The English notable Sir William Crowne had purchased land rights from Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, the governor of the Acadian peninsula in 1656. Throughout the next decade, he established the towns of Williamstown and Stowe (modern Saint-Jeanne-Génolhac). In the 1667 Treaty of Breda, the French victors demanded that England drop its claims to Acadia. In return, the Masonia Panhandle was ceded to New England, a stretch of land connecting the country to the Saint Lawrence River. After the Treaty, Crowne and other colonists managed to maintain their properties in Acadia through bribery of officials, fostering the growth of an Anglo-Acadian community for the next century.
The signing of Treaty of Perpetual Alliance between the Iroquois Confederacy and New Netherland in 1658 led to the pillaging of the French city of Montreal in 1659 during the Quiripi Wars. The later half of the 17th century saw the arrival of troops from mainland France in order to defend the colony against foreign incursions. In 1697, the Great Peace of Montreal established peace between the Iroquois and the French while simultaneously stunting any French aspirations to expand their territories south along the Mississippi River.
During Prince Maurice's War of the early 1750s, New France had lost all its territories west of Lake Toronto, known as the Upper Country (Pays d'en Haut) to the Dutch colony of Tussenland. This was followed by an explusion of English settlers in Acadia who had been accused by the government of conspiring with Great Britain against France's interests during the war. By 1765, over 3,000 Anglo-Acadians had been deported under the supervision of Governor de Montmorency, with most fleeing to the nascent British colony of Carolina.
In February 1793, a popular mob marched on the Palace of Versailles, prompting Philip VIII to flee to New France with several members of his family. Philip VIII passed away shortly after his arrival in Quebec, passing the throne to his son, Louis XV. Quebec became the de facto seat of the Bourbon dynasty and capital of the Kingdom of France thereafter. After the rise of the Valentine dynasty in mainland France in 1815, New France began to consider itself a truly distinct and sovereign entity from European France.
Under Henry VI, the Treatise on Enlightened Rule (Ordre de la souveraineté rationnelle) was issued in 1856, declaring the monarchy's intention to abide by constitutional government. In 1863, the Royal Constitution came into effect, enacting a number of reforms. Almost three decades later in 1890, New France normalized relations with Paris in the Treaty of Amity. This was followed by efforts to improve relations with surrounding republican nations like New Netherland, which had experienced a revolution in 1903. In opposition to this amicable foreign policy were irredentists and ultramonarchists, many of whom intentionally incited civil unrest by rallying for various causes such as the reannexation of Meerenland and the reversal of recent reforms.
In 1908, Catherine of Bourbon became the first Capetian queen regnant, rejecting centuries of Salic law. During the Great War, New France aligned itself with the United Kingdom and the Cordial League. In response to recent events, the country would elect the monarchist and liberal Sauvegarde-St. François party in 1940. A struggle between between communard, republican, and monarchist schools of thought ensued, manifested in multiple infamous, and perhaps performative, attempts to abolish the Bourbon monarchy through a majority vote in the States-General.
