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
Catholic Church in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Catholic Church's part of the history of the United States has its background in the European colonization of the Americas. The first Catholics arrived with the Spanish missions in the Americas with Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the New World in 1493. In the 16th and 17th centuries, they established missions in what are now Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas, and later in California. In addition to the Spanish, the French in the 17th century, via New France, began missionary work in Michigan, New York, Wisconsin. French colonization in the early 18th century