6
THE R O OTS OF R EVOLUTION
Inthe:eighteen thcentu ryBritain and Pran ce fough t
several majorwars.T hestrugglebetween themWl'!H
allinEurope.Asia and No rthAm eri ca.
InNorthAmer ica.Fran ceclaim edtoO WIICanada
and Lo u isian a. Canada.orN ewFralin ',extended
northfro m the Sf.L J. \'f CIlCTRiverandsout h
towards th e frontie rareasofth e Engl ish co lon ies0 11
the Atlanticcoast. Lo uisiana. nam ed forth e Frenc h
k ing ,Lo u i s X IV. stretchedacro ss the cen ter ofthe
continent.Itin cluded all the land sdrainedbythe
Mississip piRiverand itsrnbu ratic s.
In themiddleoft he eig ht ee nt hn ' lHurymos tofthe
forest s andplains of bot h o f thcscvast areaswe resti ll
unexpl or edbyEuropean s.'n it'French claim to
ownrhcm wasbaseduponjourneysmadein the
previous centu rybytw ofam ou s explo rers.
T he first of't hcscexplorer'>wasSamuelde
Champlain. From 1603 onwards, ChJ.tIIp1J.in
exploredthelandsonbothsideso f the St.Lawren ce
River and set up tradin gpoststhere. T hetwomost
impo rtantoftheseposeslate rgrewintothecitieso f
Q uebecandMontreal.
The o th er French e xplo rerwasIk nr:La Salle. La
Salk' wasJ.fur. trade r, ex plorerand em pireb uilderall
IIIo ne.lnth e 1670she explo red th e valleyofthe
M ississipp i." l risucar fya llso beaut ifu l andso
fert ile,"hewrote."Sofullo f mea dows.brooksand
ri vers: so abo u nd in gIIIfishand venison thatonecan
findh ereallChatis n eed edtosupportflo urishing
colonit's.The soil w ill pro du ceeverythi ngthat is
grown in Fran ce."
TI,,· HririlJ."'M"~·<'11Qu<lH-i.