A. Heritage and Identity · Interactions of Indigenous Peoples and Europeans prior to 1713

Who Ran New France? Offices and Institutions

A3.4 A3.7About 45 minutes

Learning goals

I can name the main offices in New France: king, governor, intendant and bishop.
I can describe what the Sovereign Council, the Church and the seigneurial system did.
I can describe the roles of habitants, seigneurs and captains of militia.
I can compare how New France was governed with how a First Nations confederacy was governed.

Words to know

New France
The French colony in North America. Its heart was along the St. Lawrence River.

governor
The king's top official in New France, in charge of the army and of relations with First Nations allies and other colonies.

intendant
The official in charge of justice, money, trade, roads and the growth of the colony.

bishop
The leader of the Catholic Church in the colony.

Sovereign Council
The colony's main council, set up in 1663. It made rules and was the highest court.

seigneurial system
The way land was shared out in New France: the king gave large pieces of land to seigneurs, who gave farms to habitants.

seigneur
A landholder who was given a large area of land (a seigneury) and had to bring settlers to farm it.

habitant
A farmer who lived on and worked a farm on a seigneury.

captain of militia
A respected habitant in each area who passed on orders and led local men when they were called to defend the colony.

Let's start with a question

Who makes the rules where you live? In Ontario today, we vote for people to make our laws.

In New France, nobody voted. Power came from one person, far away across the ocean: the King of France. So how did a king in Paris run a colony thousands of kilometres away? He needed officials to do it for him.

How the colony changed

1608 to 1627: Québec was a small fur-trading post, run by merchants who held the fur trade monopoly.
1627 to 1663: a trading company, the Company of One Hundred Associates, ran the colony. It was supposed to bring settlers but brought too few.
From 1663: King Louis XIV took direct control. New France became a royal colony with officials who answered to the king.

How New France was governed after 1663. The king chose the officials; the governor, intendant and bishop sat on the Sovereign Council.

Office or institution	Main jobs	A famous example
King of France	Had the final say on everything. Chose the officials.	Louis XIV
Governor	The army; war and peace; relations with First Nations allies and with English colonies	Louis de Buade de Frontenac
Intendant	Justice, money, trade, roads; helping the colony grow	Jean Talon, the first intendant to serve in the colony (arrived 1665)
Bishop and the Catholic Church	Parishes and priests; schools; hospitals; missionaries	François de Laval, first Bishop of Québec (1674)
Sovereign Council	Made rules for the colony and was its highest court	Set up in 1663
Captain of militia	Passed on the officials' orders; led local men when they were called up	One in each parish

The main offices and institutions of New France.

The Church: schools and hospitals

The Catholic Church was very important in New France.

Every area had a parish with a church and a priest.
Nuns ran schools and hospitals. In 1639 the Ursulines, led by Marie de l'Incarnation, opened a school for girls in Québec, including First Nations girls. The same year, the Augustinian nuns opened the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Québec.
Jeanne Mance helped found Montréal and its first hospital.
Missionaries, such as the Jesuits, travelled to First Nations to try to convert them to Christianity. You will learn about the effects of this in the next lesson.

The seigneurial system

The king gave large pieces of land, called seigneuries, to seigneurs. A seigneur had to bring settlers and build a mill to grind grain.

The seigneur divided the land into long, narrow farms that ran back from the river. Every farm got a piece of the river, which was the main "road", for travel in summer by boat and in winter over the ice.

The habitants who farmed the land paid the seigneur a small yearly rent, often partly in grain or animals, and gave a few days of work each year.

An aerial view of long, narrow farm fields stretching back from the shore of a wide river, with farmhouses near the water. — You can still see the seigneurial system on the land along the St. Lawrence River today. Notice how each long, narrow farm touches the river, which was the main "road" in New France. AI-generated image

A seigneury (not to scale): long, narrow farm strips that each reach the river. The small building is the mill.

Growing the colony

From 1663 to 1673, the king paid for about 800 young women, the filles du roi ("king's daughters"), to come to New France, where most married settlers and started families. Soldiers were encouraged to stay and farm. The intendant Jean Talon worked to grow the number of people and new businesses.

Comparing governments

New France and First Nations confederacies were governed very differently.

	New France (after 1663)	Haudenosaunee and Wendat confederacies
Who held power?	The King of France, through officials he chose	Councils of chiefs from the nations
How were leaders chosen?	Appointed by the king	Chosen within their clans; Haudenosaunee clan mothers choose the chiefs
How were decisions made?	Officials gave orders	Long discussion until all agreed (consensus)
How were laws kept?	Written down on paper	Oral law, remembered with wampum belts
Women's role in government	Women could not hold office	Clan mothers had important powers

Two very different ways to govern.

Worked example

Who would you go to?

It is 1670. A habitant has three problems: (a) a neighbour's cow broke his fence and they disagree about paying, (b) he wants his daughter to go to school, (c) English raiders were seen nearby. Which office or institution would help with each?

(a) is about justice, a dispute between two people. The intendant handled justice, and big cases could go to the Sovereign Council.
(b) is about school. Schools were run by the Church, for example the Ursulines in Québec.
(c) is about defence. The governor was in charge of the army, and the captain of militia would call up local men.

(a) intendant (or Sovereign Council), (b) the Church (Ursulines), (c) the governor and the captain of militia.

Just for fun

If New France had a group chat, the king would be the boss of it, but every message took weeks to cross the ocean by ship. Imagine waiting that long for a reply to "Can we build a mill?"

Hands-on activity

Draw your own seigneury

You need: paper, a ruler, a pencil and crayons.

Draw a river along the bottom of the page.
Use the ruler to divide the land above it into 8 long, narrow strips, each one touching the river.
Add a mill, a church and the seigneur's house.
Label each strip with an imaginary habitant family's name.
Explain to someone at home: why does every strip touch the river? (Answer: the river was the road, and gave water and fish.)

Bonus: on a map of Quebec, you can still see long, narrow fields along the St. Lawrence today.

Your turn

Who had the final say in New France after 1663?

What were the governor's main jobs?

What did the intendant do?

What was the Sovereign Council?

Why did every farm strip on a seigneury touch the river?

Who were the habitants?

Give one difference between how New France and the Haudenosaunee chose leaders.

More practice: warm-up

Who led the Catholic Church in New France?

Who was the first intendant to serve in New France?

Who opened a school for girls in Québec in 1639?

What did a seigneur have to build for the habitants?

Did people in New France vote for their leaders?

More practice: on your own

Why did the king take direct control of New France in 1663?

Why was the governor in charge of relations with First Nations?

How did the filles du roi help the colony grow?

What did a captain of militia do?

Compare how decisions were made in New France and in a First Nations confederacy.

Challenge

Do you think a habitant had much say in how New France was run? Use evidence.

Why might the bishop and the governor sometimes disagree?

In which system did women have more say in government, and what is the evidence?

Check your understanding

Quiz

Who chose the officials in New France after 1663?

Which official was in charge of justice, money and roads?

What was the Sovereign Council?

Why were seigneury farms long and narrow?

Who opened a school for girls in Québec in 1639?

How did Haudenosaunee councils make decisions?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: New France was a royal colony run from the top down by officials the king chose, with the Church playing a big role, and land shared out through the seigneurial system (A3.4). Comparing it with First Nations confederacies shows very different ideas about power (A3.7).

How to help at home:

Make a "who would you go to?" game: describe a problem in 1670 and have your child name the office.
Compare with today: who makes laws in Ontario, and how do they get the job? (Strand B of Grade 5 social studies looks at government today.)
If you travel in Quebec, look for long narrow fields and old parish churches along the St. Lawrence.

Common difficulties:

Mixing up governor and intendant: governor = army and allies; intendant = justice, money and running things.
Thinking New France was a democracy: no one voted.
The brandy trade: Bishop Laval opposed trading alcohol to First Nations because of the harm it caused. You can explain this simply if your child asks.