, Canada
In 1627, there were fewer than one hundred Europeans living in Québec.

That year the Compagnie des Cent-Associés was created by Cardinal Richelieu to capitalize on the growing fur trade and colonize and manage the area. The company had one hundred associates or partners, made up mainly of trade leaders. As organized, it was to own and exploit the vast regions of New France with a perpetual monopoly on the fur trade and a monopoly on all other trades for fifteen years. In return, the company was required to send two or three hundred settlers yearly from France to the new colony, to support each new colonist for three years in return for his labor, and to provide each settlement with three priests.

In early 1628, the Compagnie des Cent-Associés sent out its first group of two hundred settlers from the port of Dieppe in more than a dozen ships. However, the flotilla was intercepted at the mouth of the St. Lawrence by the Kirke Brothers, who had claimed the area for England. With three armed ships and two hundred men, the Kirkes won a fierce battle, as a result of which the French ships and their contents became spoils of war and the passengers were sent to England as prisoners. The Kirkes blockaded the St. Lawrence, sacked Québec and shipped settlers to England until 1632, when the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye returned the area to France. In early 1633, there remained six families and five Indian translators living in New France.

New France: Historical Background in Brief (www.lookbackward.com/ perrault/ perr1/ newfrance/ )

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