3.1:  France and Britain Establish Colonies in North America

Student Notes

colony - a region claimed and governed by a country from another part of the world

mercantilism - a regulated economic system that made a country rich from its colonies

monopoly - the complete control of a resource by a single company

charter - a set of rules and privileges granted to a company by a king or queen

primary source - an original piece of information, such as a document or image

Why did Europeans want to colonize the new land?

Originally --> Find a route to Asia

There next intent --> Since there was no direct route to Asia, they decided to colonize in the new land, while still searching for a route to Asia.

          While here, they began to trade with the First Nations. With access to raw goods, the Europeans could trade with the First Nations for these goods, return the products to Europe to be manufactured into profitable goods that were sold to the Europeans.

Think about the game "Monopoly". What is the main objective of this game?

This is exactly what a monopoly is; one company controls all resources.

Examples of modern day monopolies:

Information found on TopTenz:  10 Companies You Probably Never Realized Had Monopolies.  

          When Europeans arrived, the merchants helped establish monopolies to claim the land and resources and to establish the colonies.

          When the rulers of Britain and France told the explorers to establish colonies, they essentially were buying them off. The king would grant only a merchant the opportunity to make money from the monopoly and in return, the merchant would expand the colony to a more permanent settlement and exploit the resources that were needed to make products in Europe.  

Read page 72  of your textbook (embed on this page below) and respond to the following questions.  Use page 9 of your student notes to answer the questions. The instructions in your notes say to do this online, but you will not be. Instead, write your responses on page 9 of your student notes. 

1.  In what way did FN belong to the society established by France?  In what way did they not belong?

2.  What characterized British relations with FN?

3.  In your opinion, which style of imperialism might have had the biggest impacts on FN?  Why?

3.2:  SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FRENCH AND BRITISH COLONIES