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...england and other european maritime powers, never accepted the pope's right to parcel up the world. france claimed rights to the western hemisphere on the basis of jacques cartier's voyages in the 1530s. preoccupied by the wars of religion, the french were not very aggressive in the colonization race. nevertheless, fishermen from normandy, brittany and the basque country were active in the sea off what is now canada for as much as three decades before cartier and in the middle of the 16th century they began to trade in furs. many of the fishermen and the fur traders sailed from ports like st. malo, dieppe, and la rochelle, areas that, as calvinism spread, became huguenot centers. furthermore, the huguenots had a virtual monopoly on the processing of beaver fur; they held a chemical formula for treating the fur that enabled them to maintain their control of the european beaver fur market even after the revocation of the edict of nantes resulted in their diaspora. if fishing took the french to the st. lawrence valley, it was the fur trade that dept them there. on november 8, 1603, de monts, who had formed a company in partnership with a number of french coastal merchants, obtained a commission from (king) henri iv authorizing him as viceroy to possess and settle that part of north america located between the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of latitude, extending roughly from the present-day city of philadelphia, pa to north of montreal, canada and described in the commission as la cadie, canada, and other parts of new france. cartier had given the name acadia to the northern coastal area of north america, encompassing nova scotia and cape breton island, prince edward island, new brunswick and part of (the state of) maine. although often confused with the greek province, arcadia considered to represent the virtues of archaic simplicity, acadia had o classical connotations. the name was based on a micmac indian...