"The Duel for North America" Study Notes.

France Finds a Foothold in Canada France was another latecomer in the scramble for New World real estate, like England and Holland, and for basically the same reasons. A new era dawned in 1598 when the Edict of Nantes, issued by the Crown, was granted to allow limited toleration to the French Protestants. Religious wars ceased, and in the 1600s France blossomed into the mightiest and most-feared nation in Europe. Even earlier, while the religious wars …

…recent war. Spain was eliminated from Florida, although now entrenched in Louisiana and New Orleans. The London government issued its Proclamation of 1763. It flatly prohibited settlement in the area beyond the Appalachian Mountains, pending further adjustments. But countless Americans, especially land speculators, were dismayed and angered. In complete defiance of the paper Proclamation, they clogged the westward trails. In 1765 an estimated 1000 wagons rolled through the twon of Salisbury, North Carolina, on their way "up west."