Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/525

 How England became Queen oj the Ocean 391 Spice Islands and brought Java, Sumatra, and other tropical regions under Dutch control. 672. The French and English in North America. In North America the chief rivals were England and France, both of which succeeded in establishing colonies in the early part of the seven- teenth century. Englishmen settled at Jamestown in Virginia (1607), then in New England, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and else- where. The colonies owed their growth in part to the influx of refugees, Puritans, Catholics, and Quakers, who exiled them- selves in the hope of gaining the right freely to enjoy their par- ticular forms of religion. On the other hand, many came in order to better their fortunes in the New World, and thousands of bond servants and slaves were brought over as laborers. So the popula- tion of the English colonies was very diversified. Just as Jamestown was being founded by the English the French were making their first successful settlements in Nova Scotia and at Quebec. Although England made no attempt to oppose it, the French occupation of Canada progressed very slowly. In 1673 Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, and Joliet, a merchant, explored a part of the Mississippi River. La Salle sailed down the great stream and named the new country which he entered Louisiana, after his king, Louis XIV. The city of New Orleans was founded, near the mouth of the river, in 1718, and the French established a chain of forts between it and Montreal. The contest between England and France for the supremacy in North America was responsible for almost continuous border war, which burst out more fiercely with each war in the Old World. Finally, England was able, by the Treaty of Utrecht, to establish herself in the northern regions, for France thereby ceded to her Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the borders of Hudson Bay ( 642). While the English in North America at the beginning of the Seven Years' War numbered over a million, the French did not reach a hundred thousand.