today we're looking at french and spanish colonization in north america
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the questions down in the description so although we've spent most of our time looking at english
colonization of what would become the united states of america starting at jamestown in 1607
we have to stop and recognize that there were other european powers seeking to get a foothold
in the north american continent namely france and spain starting with the french it is important to
recognize that the french were less interested in getting land which was one of the english's
primary motives for coming to america but more interested in trapping animals for fur and they
became heavily involved in the fur trade beaver fox mink and otterfers were all in high demand
and in 1608 samuel dacia plain established a french trading post at approximately the site of
present-day quebec in canada the french continued to push further into the interior of north america
west of the appalachian mountains establishing trading posts along rivers as they went
several of these trading posts have transformed into major cities today such as detroit little
rock and st louis it is extremely important to note the fact that the french sought trade and
not taking land which led to a much better relationship between the french and native
americans living throughout the region this would be very important as we move further in history
in 1663 new france became a royal colony but unlike the english colonies along the east coast
there was not a huge rush of colonists to live there in fact if you look at the population of
french colonists in new france in 1760 it's only around 80 000 with most of those living
in what would be present-day canada compare that to the english colonies at the same time that had
a population of approximately 1.1 million in the late 1600s french explorers such as louie joliet
and jacques marquette explored up and down the mississippi river and in 1682 robert cavalier
sewer de la salle traveled all the way down the mississippi river to the gulf of mexico
he claimed the region and named it louisiana named after king the king of france louis
xiv in 1718 new orleans was established at the mouth of the mississippi river
as it emptied into the gulf of mexico becoming one of north america's primary port cities
the spanish had an even longer history than france and britain in north america in fact christopher
columbus established the first european colony in north america known as isabella on the island of
hispaniola on a second voyage to the new world in 1493. from there the spanish became the dominant
european power colonizing areas such as the caribbean mexico central and south america one of
their earliest ventures into what would eventually become the united states was at saint augustine in
present-day florida and today is it st augustine is referred to as the oldest city in the united
states the spanish founded it in september of 1565 20 years before the failed colony at roanoke
and almost 30 years before the establishment of jamestown as english settlers moved in along the
east coast and the french pushed into the interior of north america the spanish became concerned that
these other european powers might threaten their colonies further south so about the same time
that jamestown was being established the spanish were claiming land in present day new mexico and
arizona and building forts and missions which missions were small settlements established by
the catholic church to convert native people in the surrounding area to christianity
by the early 1700s they began to move further west into present-day texas and built a mission
at san antonio and called it the alamo in 1718. further west in the mid to late 1700s the spanish
continued to build more missions along the west coast which would later become major cities such
as san diego and los angeles as the english french and spanish continued to expand and
grow their american colonies it was inevitable that eventually they would come into conflict
with each other many times fighting back in europe between these nations would spill over into north
america as well and unfortunately native people were caught between these warring superpowers
this would lead to major conflicts that would shape the future of the
north american continent so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you