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The French first came to the New World as travelers seeking a route to the Pacific Ocean and wealth. Major French exploration of North America began under the rule of Francis I, King of France. In 1524, Francis sent Italian-born Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the region between Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the Pacific Ocean.
The Age of Discovery (c. 1418 – c. 1620), [1] also known as the Age of Exploration, was part of the early modern period and largely overlapped with the Age of Sail. It was a period from approximately the late 15th century to the 17th century, during which seafarers from a number of European countries explored, colonized, and conquered regions ...
The first French colonial empire stretched to over 10,000,000 km 2 (3,900,000 sq mi) at its peak in 1710, which was the second largest colonial empire in the world, after the Spanish Empire. [33] [34] In the French colonial regions, the focus of the economy was on sugar plantations in the French West Indies.
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne (22 May 1724 – 12 June 1772) was a French privateer, East India captain and explorer. The expedition he led to find the hypothetical Terra Australis in 1771 made important geographic discoveries in the south Indian Ocean and anthropological discoveries in Tasmania and New Zealand.
The French Empire Between the Wars: Imperialism, Politics and Society (2007) covers 1919–1939; Thompson, Virginia, and Richard Adloff. French West Africa (Stanford UP, 1958). Wellington, Donald C. French East India companies: A historical account and record of trade (Hamilton Books, 2006) Wesseling, H.L. and Arnold J. Pomerans.
The French feared that their colonies were vulnerable to a potential attack from its neighboring colonies. In 1681, French nobleman Robert Cavelier de La Salle launched an expedition down the Mississippi River from New France, at first believing he would find a path to the Pacific Ocean. [1] Instead, La Salle found a route to the Gulf of Mexico.
From the early 15th century to the early 17th century the Age of Discovery had, through Portuguese seafarers, and later, Spanish, Dutch, French and English, opened up southern Africa, the Americas (New World), Asia and Oceania to European eyes: Bartholomew Dias had sailed around the Cape of southern Africa in search of a trade route to India; Christopher Columbus, on four journeys across the ...
The following is a list of French people known as explorers. Before 1500. Jean de Béthencourt (Canary Islands) Gadifer de la Salle (Canary Islands) 16th century