New France
New France () was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris (1763).
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Voltaire's famous quotations about New France were for the most part written between 1753 and 1763, shortly before, and then during, the Seven Years' War. Voltaire was living in Switzerland during most of this period. During the war, he sometimes appeared to favor the Prussian king Frederick II (allied to Britain against France), with whom he was maintaining a regular personal correspondence during the war (the two men being again in better terms after their quarrel of 1753). Voltaire was also at the same time in correspondence with some French ministers. He thus corresponded with both sides of the belligerents in the war, although mostly on a personal and literary level more than a political level. He thought that the war was a mistake for France and he used several opportunities to ask the French ministers to simply quit the war. Boundary disputes in their American colonies had been an early (1754) between Britain and France in this war, which was later (1756) further complicated by purely European considerations and ended seven years later (1763). Voltaire's position that France should let go of its North American colonies was in accord with his position about the war in general. For him, handing over New France would appease Britain. His position about the European war likely increased his tendency to paint New France as being of little value.