France Antarctique

thumb|upright=1.5|1550s accounts–based 1660s French map of [[Guanabara Bay]]

France Antarctique (formerly also spelled France antartique) was a French colony in Rio de Janeiro, in modern-day Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. The colony quickly became a haven for Huguenots, and was ultimately destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567.

Colonization attempt

Europeans first arrived in Brazil in April 1500, when a fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral on behalf of the Portuguese crown arrived in present-day Porto Seguro, Bahia. Except for Salvador (the first Brazilian capital city) and São Vicente (the first Portuguese settlement), however, the territory still remained largely unexplored half a century later.

Early French involvement with Brazil

thumb|left|At the [[royal entry of Henry II in Rouen, 1 October 1550, about fifty naked men were employed to illustrate life in Brazil and a battle between the Tupinambá allies of the French, and the Tabajara Indians.]]

Early expeditions of French Norman sailors to the New World have been suggested: Jean Cousin has been said to have discovered the New World in 1488, four years before Christopher Columbus, when he landed in Brazil around the mouth of the Amazon, but this remains unproven. His travels were succeeded by that of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville in 1504 onboard L'Espoir, which was properly recorded and brought back a Tupi Indian named Essomericq.

France continued to trade with Portugal, especially loading brazilwood (Pau-Brasil), for its use as a red dye for textiles. In 1550, in the royal entry for Henry II of France, at Rouen, about fifty men depicted naked Indians and a battle between the Tupinamba allies of the French, and the Tabajaras Indians.

1557 Calvinist arrival

thumb|left|"Salutations larmoyantes" ("[[Tearful salutations"), in Histoire d'un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil (1578), Jean de Léry, 1580 edition]]

Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who initially took little notice of his landing, Villegaignon endeavoured to expand the colony by calling for more colonists in 1556. He sent one of his ships, the Grande Roberge, to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny, and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin.

After one ship was sent to France to ask for additional support, three ships were financed and prepared by the king of France and put under the command of Sieur De Bois le Comte, a nephew of Villegaignon. The new colonists, numbering around 300, included 5 young women to be wed, 10 boys to be trained as translators, as well as 14 Calvinists sent by Calvin, and also Jean de Léry, who would later write an account of the colony. Admiral Villegaignon had returned to France in 1558, disgusted with the religious tension that existed between French Protestants and Catholics, who had come also with the second group (see French Wars of Religion).

Urged by two influential Jesuit priests who had come to Brazil with Mem de Sá, named José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega, and who had played a big role in pacifying the Tamoios, Mem de Sá ordered his nephew, Estácio de Sá to assemble a new attack force. Estácio de Sá founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on 1 March 1565 and fought the Frenchmen for two more years. Helped by a military reinforcement sent by his uncle, on 20 January 1567 he imposed final defeat on the French forces and decisively expelled them from Brazil, but died a month later from wounds inflicted in the battle. Coligny's and Villegaignon's dream had lasted a mere 12 years.

Largely in response to the two attempts of France to conquer territory in Brazil (the other one was named France Équinoxiale and occupied present-day São Luís, State of Maranhão), between 1612 and 1615, the Portuguese crown decided to expand its colonization efforts in Brazil.

Other French in Brazil

thumb|Capture of [[Rio de Janeiro by Duguay-Trouin in 1711]]

In 1502, two years after the discovery of Brazil, the Portuguese king created a monopoly company to trade in brazilwood. One year later the French appeared along the coast, trading metal goods for Brazilwood. Frenchmen were often left along the coast to learn the languages and organize the next year's load. Brazilian Indians were taken to France where they, and reports of them, inspired European ideas of the state of nature and the noble savage. Portuguese and French traders fought each other and Portuguese warships were sent to drive off the French without clear success, notably in 1516.

In 1555 the French tried to settle in what is now Rio de Janeiro (above). They were driven out in 1567.

In the 1530s the 900-man João de Barros/Aires da Cunha expedition was sent to colonize the northern coast. It was wrecked on the shore and almost everyone died. After this disaster the Portuguese neglected the north coast and the French moved in, trading along the north coast and as far south as the mouth of the São Francisco River. They allied with the local Potiguar. In 1582 a Portuguese expedition destroyed five French ships on the Paraíba do Norte River but was driven off by the Potiguar. In 1612 the French tried to settle France Équinoxiale at what is now São Luís but they were driven out two years later. After a few decades the French were gone, except for French Guiana.

Notes

References

Francis Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World, University of Nebraska Press, 1996.
André Thevet, Les singularités de la France antartique, 1558, new ed. (Paul Gaffarel, ed.) 1878.

External links

French in Brazil: Saint-Alexis, France Antarctique (Rio de Janeiro) and Sao Luis de Maranhao