French and Dutch colonization | Period 2: 1607-1754 | AP US History | Khan Academy

- [Narrator] Although the
Spanish were the first

European colonists in the New World,

they didn't remain alone in
the Americas for very long.

Just three years after Hernan
Cortes captured Tenochtitlan,

the French government
sent its first explorer

to poke around North America

and look for what many European explorers

had searched for from the beginning,

a passage to the East.

Now, although the explorers never found

this Northwest passage
because it didn't exist,

they, like the Spanish, quickly learned

that there were quite a
lot of riches to be had

in the Americas themselves.

In this video, I'd like to
take some time to talk about

two of the lesser known European
colonies in the New World,

New France up here in pink

and New Netherland, this
little orange dot right here.

Now, you can see that compared
to the extent of New Spain,

here in the Caribbean and Mexico

and expanding in South America,

these colonial exploits
were pretty small indeed,

but I think it's important to
learn a little bit about them

because they help us see the ways

in which the different
goals of colonial powers

led to very different types
of settlement in the New World

and very different relationships

between Europeans and Native Americans.

Now, though it's a little
bit hard to see on this map,

these two colonies focused
their efforts around two rivers,

the Saint Lawrence River

and the Hudson River

which runs along this
little orange strip here.

And along these rivers,

you can still see the
cities that were founded

by these colonial ventures
like Quebec City up in Canada,

later Montreal and down here
of course the most famous

which started as New Amsterdam

and later became the city of New York.

Right about here is
the Island of Manhattan

on which New York City,

formerly New Amsterdam, is located.

Now, looking at this
map, you might wonder,

why was it that Spain have
these giant swabs of territory

really from coast to coast

where New France and New Netherland

really only followed along these rivers,

at least to start with?

And the answer really lies
in this idea of goals.

And New France and New
Netherland sat on the rivers,

rivers being the highways of the world

really up until the
invention of the railroad,

because they were primarily
interested in trade.

So let's talk a little
bit more about that.

French and Dutch explorers
were particularly interested

in gaining valuable furs to
trade from Native Americans

living in the Northern
part of North America

that they could then sell in Europe.

Long before European colonization began,

beavers had been hunted pretty
much to extinction in Europe

while beaver pelts
themselves were usually used

to create fancy hats.

This is a hat from a slightly later era,

but you can get the sense here

that Europeans met on
something of an equal basis

with Native Americans in the
process of the fur trade,

so Europeans wanted beaver pelts

and also the pelts of other
animals and often fish,

another thing that was in great supply

in this Northern region which is today

the Northeast United States and Canada.

So how did this focus on
trade affect the relationships

between Europeans and Native
Americans in the area?

Well, primarily they made
relationships between them

considerably friendlier
and more cooperative

than the relationships between the Spanish

and Native Americans for example.

Now, Europeans quickly discovered

that it made a lot more sense
to instead of sending hundreds

upon hundreds of Frenchmen to Canada

to hunt beavers themselves,

they could instead pay Native Americans

to hunt the beavers for them.

And consequently, there
were considerably fewer

French and Dutch settlers in
New Netherland and New France

than there were in New Spain.

And because there were fewer of them,

they generally ended up doing things

more on the terms of Native Americans

so whereas the Spanish
might have used their guns

and their war dogs to
force Native Americans

to labor for them,

the French and the Dutch
were more likely to observe

trading rituals like giving gifts

and also fostering trade relationships

through intermarriage.

French traders learned
the Algonquian language

and married native women
and had children with them

so that they could be
considered part of the family.

They even allied with
Native American Tribes

against their own enemies
and went to war with them

as in the case in 1609

when French explorer Samuel de Champlain

helped Algonquians in their
war against the Iroquois.

And like New France,

New Netherland situated as it
was in this very good harbor,

the Island of Manhattan, was
likewise very focused on trade.

In fact, New Amsterdam was a
little bit of a company town

controlled by the Dutch West India Company

which sought to make the
most of all of the goodies

that could be brought from North America

and then shipped to Europe.

In fact, you can get a sense
of what the major concerns

of the Europeans settling in
this area were from this map.

You can see that they point
out where beavers, turkeys,

foxes, and bears can be found
all with their valuable pelts,

but you also see that
there's an extremely detailed

rendering of where many
Native American Tribes lived

like this detailed
rendering of what I believe

is a Mahican village.

The French and Dutch bothered
to learn all of these names

and map all of this territory
because they cooperated

with the Native Americans
to get these pelts.

It's hard to imagine a Spanish map

that would go into such
detail about native villages.

It's important to remember

that Europeans were
competing with each other

for resources in the New World

hoping that they could secure
the best trade deals for furs

with Native Americans
and prevent other nations

from securing those furs.

For example, the Dutch
allied with the Iroquois

in the New World as trading partners

because the Iroquois were
the long-time enemies

of the Algonquians who were
allied with the French.

So just as the Europeans
recruited Native Americans

into their competitions to
supply Europe with furs,

Native Americans recruited Europeans

into their inter-tribal feuds

to supply the Americas
with European goods.

I wanna finish by just briefly comparing

each nation's colonial
goals with their outcomes

and what sorts of people settled,

what the relationships were
like with Native Americans,

and even how they
attempted or didn't attempt

to convert Native Americans
to a form of Christianity.

Now, as we saw with Spain,

their goal was to quickly
extract natural resources

from the Americas and
to set up plantations

for tobacco and later sugar,

plus to convert as many of the
native people to Catholicism

as possible by force if necessary

and it was frequently necessary.

Consequently, most of the Spanish settlers

who came to the New World
were men and adventurers

who treated native people with
violence and enslaved them

in the encomienda system

and in some cases had
relationships with native women

and African women that resulted
in that very complex set

of racial designations we
see in the caste system.

But France and the Netherlands
by contrast came for trade.

They wanted furs and fish
and so they were very careful

to cultivate very friendly relationships

with Native Americans including
by intermarrying with them

in a deliberate and formal way

so that they could take
advantage of having natives

do the hunting for them

rather than having to do it themselves

so that really only a few men

came to New France and New Netherland,

nothing like the numbers of Spain.

And unlike the Spanish,

although the French did attempt

to convert natives to Catholicism,

they rarely did so by force.

Now, going forward as we talk
about British colonization

in the next few lessons,

I want you to keep both the Spanish

and the French and Dutch modes
of colonization in your mind

so you can compare and
contrast English colonization

with both of them.

And as we'll see,

the goals of the various English colonies

whether it's to found plantations

like in Jamestown, Virginia,

or to escape religious persecution

like in Massachusetts Bay,

that goal will go on to influence

not only who came to the
Americas from Europe,

but also their relationships
with native people.