Explain the nature of French colonial policy in America and show how conflict grew between the french and the English?

Answer 1

French colonial policy in North America was similar in nature to the general English policy but enacted differently. In this time period, the economic power or wealth of the colonies wasn't important but what was important was their strategic locations or resources. The French and English wished to gain footholds in the New World in order to compete in Europe against one another by controlling this things. However, where as the English did this by settling in the smaller area of the Thirteen Colonies and allowed mass Immigration to occur, leading to the development of agriculture and industry, the French controlled immigration strictly and had much more difficulty bringing people to Canada. The French focused on expanding the geographic extent on their empire by building the fur trade where as the British primarily used the Thirteen Colonies as a place to trade and sell their goods. Conflict between them arose for two main reasons: 1) fighting over the fur trade and cod fishing in the Atlantic; 2) because of conflicts in Europe (conflict in Europe also meant war in America). The fighting between England and France, overall, wasn't so much because of their colonial policy but because of the inherent competitive nature of empire-building in North America and imperial rivalries in Europe.