France–Americas relations

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
France-Americas relations span a period of about 500 years.
For relations between France and the United States, see France–United States relations.

France–Americas relations started in the 16th century, soon after the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, and have developed over a period of several centuries.

Early encounters (16th century)

Binot Paulmier de Gonneville explored Brazil in 1504.

Expeditions under Francis I

Main article: New France
Francis I organized the first French expeditions to the New World.

In order to counterbalance the power of the

Charles V, and especially its control of large parts of the New World
through the Crown of Spain, Francis I endeavoured to develop contacts with the New World and Asia.

Giovanni da Verrazzano's voyage in 1524.

In 1524,

South and North Carolina and Newfoundland, including New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay in 1524: in between, John Cabot had already explored Labrador to the North, and the Spanish had already settled parts of Florida. On this expedition, Verrazzano claimed Newfoundland
for the French crown.

In 1531, Bertrand d'Ornesan, Baron de Saint-Blancard tried to establish a French trading post at Pernambuco, Brazil.[2]

In 1534, Francis sent

Jean-François de la Roque de Roberval
to settle Canada and to provide for the spread of "the Holy Catholic faith."

Early Huguenot colonists

Further information: France Antarctique and French Florida
"Brazilian ball" for Henry II of France in Rouen, 1 October 1550. 300 naked men were employed to illustrate life in Brazil and a battle between the Tupinamba allies of the French, and the Tabajares Indians.
Attack of French Villegagnon Island in Rio de Janeiro by the Portuguese, on 15 March 1560.

Soon, the Huguenots, whose Reformist religions was in conflict with the French crown, attempted to colonize the New World to find a new ground for their religion and to contest the Catholic presence there.

La Havana
in 1555.

Huguenot

La Havana was seized by Jacques de Sores in 1555.[3]

The first attempts at colonization were made under vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, who was joined later by Huguenots Pierre Richier and Jean de Léry. After the short-lived establishment of France Antarctique in Brazil from 1555 to 1567, they had to abandon, and finally resolved to make a stand back in France, centering on the city of La Rochelle for the organization of resistance.[4]

The first French expedition to Florida occurred in 1562, composed of Protestants, and was led by Jean Ribault and permitted the short-lived establishment of Fort Caroline, named after the French king Charles IX.[5]

These first attempts at Huguenot colonization would be taken over by

French wars of religion
.

Expansion (17th century)

North America

Further information: New France and Jesuit missions in North America
Map of New France (Champlain, 1612).

Towards the end of his reign

Samuel Champlain initiated the first important French involvement in Northern America, founding Port Royal as the first permanent European settlement in North America north of Florida in 1605, and founding the first permanent French establishment at Quebec
in 1608.

In 1632,

lieutenant-general for New France. He took on military tasks such as ordering the taking of control of Fort Pentagouet at Majabigwaduce on the Penobscot Bay
, which had been given to France in an earlier Treaty, and to inform the English they were to vacate all lands North of Pemaquid. This resulted in all the French interests in Acadia being restored.

Fort Saint Louis in Texas.[6]

The French colonial drive increased in the 17th century, the "conquest of the souls" being an integral part of the constitution of

Jesuit China missions
on the other side of the world.

In France, the Huguenots were finally defeated by Royal forces in the

New Rochelle in the vicinity of today's New York
in 1689.

South America

Further information: Equinoctial France
Tupinambá Indian "Louis Henri" at the court of Louis XIII, in Claude d'Abbeville, Histoire de la mission.

A colonizing party of 500 and a mission of four Franciscans were sent under a 1611 patent letter from the Regent

Marie de Médicis.[7][8]

The colonial enterprise to found "

brazilwood and tobacco.[9] When France and Spain (including Portugal in the Iberian Union) became allied through the marriage of Louis XIII with Anne of Austria in 1615, support for the colony was discontinued and the colonists abandoned.[9] The Portuguese soon managed to expel the French from the colony.[8]

In 1624, settlement along the South American coast in what is today French Guiana began.

West Indies

The French also started to establish smaller but more profitable colonies in the

Treaty of Utrecht
in 1713, when it was occupied in its entirety.

The

Carib Expulsion
of 1660.

The most important Caribbean colonial possession did not come until 1664, when the colony of Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti) was founded on the western half of the Spanish island of Hispaniola.

Consolidation and conflict (18th century)

Triangular trade

La Rochelle slave ship Le Saphir ex-voto, 1741.

plantations of the Antilles, and fur trade with Canada. This was a period of high artistic, cultural and architectural achievements for these cities. In the 18th century, Saint-Domingue grew to be the richest sugar
colony in the Caribbean.

Capture of Rio de Janeiro by Duguay-Trouin in 1711.

On 21 September 1711, in an 11-day battle, the Corsaire René Duguay-Trouin captured Rio de Janeiro in the Battle of Rio de Janeiro with twelve ships and 6 000 men, in spite of the defence consisting of seven ships of the line, five forts and 12 000 men; he held the governor for ransom.[10] Investors in this venture doubled their money, and Duguay-Trouin earned a promotion to Lieutenant général de la Marine.

Territorial conflicts in the North

Main articles: French and Indian War and Franco-Indian alliance
Map of North America in 1750, before the French and Indian War, that is part of the greater world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763). – possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange) –

Northern America became an important theater of the conflict between France and Great Britain in the

France and Great Britain, resulted in the British conquest of Canada. The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict
.

To compensate its ally, Spain, for its loss of Florida to the British, France ceded its control of French Louisiana west of the Mississippi. France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the tiny islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in North America.

The eastern half of Hispaniola (modern Dominican Republic) also came under French rule for a short period, after being given to France by Spain in 1795.

American war of independence

Main articles: American Revolutionary War and Franco-American alliance
Cornwallis to French troops (left) and American troops (right), at the Battle of Yorktown
in 1781.

France soon became again involved in North America, this time by supporting the American revolutionary war of independence. A Franco-American alliance was formed in 1778 between Louis XVI's France and the United States, during the American Revolutionary War. France successfully contributed in expelling the British from the nascent United States. The Treaty of Paris was signed on 3 September 1783, recognizing American independence and the end of hostilities.

When the French Revolution led to war in 1793 between Britain (America's leading trading partner), and France (the old ally, with a treaty still in effect), Washington and his cabinet decided on a policy of neutrality. In 1795 Washington supported the Jay Treaty, designed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to avoid war with Britain and encourage commerce. The Jeffersonians vehemently opposed the treaty, but Washington's support proved decisive, and the U.S. and Britain were on friendly terms for a decade. However the foreign policy dispute polarized parties at home, leading to the First Party System.[11][12]


The Jay Treaty convinced Paris that the United States was no longer a friend. By 1797 the French were openly seizing American ships, leading to an undeclared war known as the

Talleyrand, which the Americans rejected. The Jeffersonian Republicans, suspicious of Adams, demanded the documentation, which Adams released using X, Y and Z as codes for the names of the French diplomats. The XYZ Affair ignited a wave of nationalist sentiment. Overwhelmed, the U.S. Congress approved Adams' plan to organize the navy. Adams reluctantly signed the Alien and Sedition Acts as a wartime measure. Adams broke with the Hamiltonian wing of his Federalist Party and made peace with France in 1800.[13]

19th century

Loss of Saint-Domingue

On August 22, 1791, a widespread slave rebellion began the Haitian Revolution, which culminated with the establishment of the independent Empire of Haiti in 1804.

Sales of Louisiana to the United States (1803)

Main article: Louisiana (New France)
US states
that were completely or mostly located inside the borders of old colonial French Louisiana at the time of Louisiana Purchase

Napoleon Bonaparte decided not to keep the immense territory of Louisiana that France still possessed. The army he sent to take possession of the colony was first required to put down a revolution in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti); its failure to do so, coupled with the rupture of the Treaty of Amiens
with the United Kingdom, prompted him to decide to sell Louisiana to the young United States. This was done on April 30, 1803, for the sum of 80 million francs (15 million dollars). American sovereignty was established on December 20, 1803.

Mexico intervention

Main articles: Second French intervention in Mexico and Second Mexican Empire
Battle of Puebla, Mexico.

Under

conservatives who resented the Mexican Republic's laicism. But his imperial dreams in Mexico would end in failure. The United States was unable to prevent this contravention of the Monroe Doctrine because of the American Civil War; Napoleon hoped that the Confederates
would be victorious in that conflict, believing they would accept the new regime in Mexico.

French role in the American Civil War

Stonewall
, was provided by France.

During the American Civil War, Napoleon III positioned France to lead the pro-Confederate European powers. For a time, Napoleon III inched steadily toward officially recognizing the Confederacy, especially after the crash of the cotton industry and his exercise in regime-changing in Mexico. Some historians have also suggested that he was driven by a desire to keep the American states divided. Through 1862, Napoleon III entertained Confederate diplomats, raising hopes that he would unilaterally recognize the Confederacy. The Emperor, however, could do little without the support of the United Kingdom, and never officially recognized the Confederacy.

During the tail end of the 19th century French foreign policy was focused on the Scramble for Africa, colonies in Asia, dealing with rising Germany in Europe. The Americas were not a priority concern.

20th century

French relations with the New World suddenly became of great importance, in the context of a wider search for new allies, once France was

French Canadian population, however, was less than enthusiastic about the war, despite the appeals to defend the ancestral homeland. The eventual entry of the United States into the war was major boost to the Allies on the Western Front, including France, and it also paved the way for Latin American allies of the United States to declare war on the Central Powers (although they did not send troops to Europe) including Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Haiti. Brazil
did send a naval contribution against German submarines.

Following the war, France was again occupied with European and colonial matters, and especially with the threat of German rearmament. Following the

de Gaulle landed at Juno Beach
, where the Canadians had first come ashore.

Following the war, France entered into the

Vive le Québec libre speech
in Montreal.

Since the 1950s, France has also been involved in building the

agricultural subsidies
and tariffs.

21st century

Security relations between France and the United States were greatly strengthened by the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, and France's participation in the American-led invasion of Afghanistan. This closeness was short lived, however. Political relations between France and the United States were strained by vocal French popular and governmental opposition to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. However, most New World nations, especially the more populous ones, sided with France and not the United States on this occasion. El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua participated in Multi-National Force – Iraq, whereas the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela were publicly in opposition to the Iraq War.

Since the replacement of George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac by Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, respectively, Franco-US relations have improved. France has been involved in disputes with Latin American countries, however, including with Colombia over the fate of Íngrid Betancourt, and with Mexico over Florence Cassez. Relations with Canada under Stephen Harper are quite close.[citation needed]

The election of US President

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen
reflect the parallel rise of nationalistic sentiments among conservatives in both the United States and France, perceiving immigration and globalism as threats to prosperity and security.

France now has three

Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy
.

In 2015, Martinique joined the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS); this was followed by Guadeloupe in 2019 which acquired associate member status, and the Collectivity of Saint Martin which was also admitted as an observer member of the bloc. There is also uninhabited Clipperton Island off the west coast of Central America.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b North America: the historical geography of a changing continent Thomas F. McIlwraith, Edward K. Muller p.39ff [1]
  2. ^ Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I by R. J. Knecht p.375 [2]
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84520-374-0
  4. ^ Fortress of the soul: violence, metaphysics, and material life by Neil Kamil p.133 [3]
  5. ^ Ceremonies of possession in Europe's conquest of the New World, 1492–1640 by Patricia Seed p.48 [4]
  6. ^ From a watery grave by James E. Bruseth
  7. ^ The Cambridge history of the native peoples of the Americas p.110
  8. ^ a b c d Decentring the Renaissance by Germaine Warkentin p.103ff
  9. ^ a b c A new world of animals Miguel de Asúa, Roger French p.148
  10. ^ The influence of sea power upon history, 1660–1783 Alfred Thayer Mahan p.230 [5]
  11. ^ Samuel Flagg Bemis, Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy (1923)
  12. ^ Bradford Perkins, The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795–1805 (1955).
  13. ^ Alexander De Conde, The quasi-war: the politics and diplomacy of the undeclared war with France 1797–1801 (1996).

Further reading

  • Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (2007).
  • Blumenthal, Henry. France and the United States; Their Diplomatic Relation, 1789–1914 (1970).
  • Boucher, Philip P. France and the American Tropics to 1700: Tropics of Discontent? (2007).
  • Brazeau, Brian. Writing a new France, 1604–1632: empire and early modern French identity (2009).
  • Dickason, Olive Patricia. The Myth of the Savage: and the Beginnings of French Colonialism in the Americas (1984).
  • Eccles, W. J. The Canadian Frontier, 1534–1760 (1983).
  • Eccles, W. J. France in America (1990).
  • Moogk, Peter N. La Nouvelle France: the making of French Canada: a cultural history (2000).
  • Roberts, Walter Adolphe. The French in the West Indies (1971).


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