France's colonial influence in North America truly began with on July 27, 1605 with the founding of Port Royal in the colony of Acadia in North America, in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. A few years later, in 1608, Samuel De Champlain founded Quebec which was to become the capital of the enormous but sparsely settled, fur-trading colony of New France (also called Canada).
In 1699, French territorial claims in North America expanded still further with the founding of Louisiana in the basin of the Mississippi river. The extensive trading network was maintained through a vast system of fortifications, many of them centered in the Illinois Country and in present day Arkansas.
