New France a permanent benefit to the French. New France New France () was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris (1763). At its peak in 1712 (before the Treaty of Utrecht), the territory of "New France", also sometimes known as the "French North American Empire" or "Royal New France", consisted of five colonies, each with its own administration: Canada, the most developed
Custom of Paris in New France adopting each other's children (or having the husband adopt the wife's children from a previous marriage). Thus, customary inheritance laws enhanced and facilitated the economic and social blending of families. The general historiographic consensus based on case studies in Quebec is that egalitarian inheritance practices, as stipulated in the Custom of Paris, were observed in the early period of the colony in the 16th and the 17th centuries. However, by the mid-18th century, there were various qualifications favouring preferential treatment. In the early settlement of New France, settlers would practice equality of the division of property post mortem in its