character of New France Society - Decapitation vs. Changing Masters

character of New France Society - Decapitation vs. Changing Masters

1. decapitation

   • French connection was necessary and beneficial to start
     • France provided money and provided an export for goods
     • arrets de Marly
   • society of New France was not a carbon copy
     • Filles de Roi chose whether and to whom to marry creating social movement
     • decreased punishments and enforcements due to frontier conditions
     • decreased taxes and tithes
     • boys didn't often join the clergy
     • illegal trading, circumventing decrees, and initiation of industry
     • social distinctions blunted
     • access to fish and wild life for peasants
     • seigneurs had no official military role
     • seigneurs mad money through military, trade and government
     • role of church limited
   • bourgeoisie arose
     • Intendents were members of the new aristocracy and had a lot of power
     • poorer non-noble seigneurs
     • Assemblies and chambers of commerce could act as pressure groups for government
     • society entrepreneurial
     • indigenous class reinvested in colony
     • materialism arose
     • not priest ridden or particularly religious
       • church was the handmaiden of the government - didn't dominate
       • Limited parishes due to lack of money and clergy
       • coureurs de bois not agrarian
       • role of church limited
   • after conquest
     • bourgeoisie left
     • chopped off connection with France and economic leadership
     • upset by British merchants dominating, not bourgeois views
     • became inward looking
     • church took over leadership
       • mystified rural way of life
       • Devil = city and fur trade

2. Changing masters

   • French connection was colonial only
     • ensured necessities for stable communities were provided ex/ hospitals
     • any imperial power could step in and do the job
   • feudal society
     • stuck in societal level
     • entrepreneurship did not exist
   • no idigenous bourgeoisie
     • focus on expansion and economic gain and initiative of France to limit rivals
     • economic development directed by French interests
       • no interest in colony improvement
     • little industry developed
   • church dominated
     • law to be part of Catholic Church
     • Church presided over every stage of life
     • churches values and prejudices permeated law
     • fines for blasphamy, ban on non-religious books
     • society was rural and religious
   • after conquest
     • little impact on economy
       • would have left with the money anyways
     • another imperial power stepped in
     • resented bourgeois not Anglo-AMericans
     • church continued to dominate
     • feudal values continued to prevail