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Equinoctial France (French:France équinoxiale) was the contemporary name given to the colonization efforts of France in the 17th century in South America, around the line of theequator, before "tropical" had fully gained its modern meaning:Equinoctial means inLatin "of equal nights", i.e., on the equator, where the duration of days and nights is nearly the same year round. The settlement was made in what is now known as theBay of São Luis and lasted for 3 years.
TheFrench colonial empire in theNew World also includedNew France (Nouvelle France) in North America, extending fromCanada toLouisiana, and for a short period (12 years) also included the colony ofAntarctic France (France Antarctique, in French), in present-dayRio de Janeiro, Brazil. All of these settlements were in violation of thepapal bill of 1493, which divided the New World between Spain andPortugal. This division was later defined more exactly by theTreaty of Tordesillas.
The establishment ofFrance Équinoxiale commenced in 1612, when a French expedition departed fromCancale, Brittany, France, under the command of Daniel de la Touche, Seigneur de la Ravardière, and AdmiralFrançois de Razilly. Carrying 500 colonists, it arrived on the northern coast of what is today theBrazilianstate ofMaranhão. De la Ravardière had discovered the region in 1604 but the death of the king,Henry IV postponed his plans to start its colonization.
The colonists soon founded a village, Saint-Louis, in honor of the French kingLouis IX. This later becameSão Luís inPortuguese,[1] the only Brazilian state capital founded by France. On 8 September,Capuchin friars prayed the first mass, and the soldiers started building a fortress. An important difference in relation to France Antarctique is that this new colony was not motivated by escape from religious persecutions byProtestantHuguenots (seeFrench Wars of Religion).[citation needed]
The colony did not last long. A Portuguese army assembled in theCaptaincy of Pernambuco, under the command of Alexandre de Moura, was able to mount a military expedition, which defeated and expelled the French colonists in 1615, less than four years after their arrival in the land. Thus, it repeated the disaster spelt for the colonists of France Antarctique, in 1567. A few years later, in 1620, Portuguese and Brazilian colonists arrived in number and São Luís started to develop, with an economy based mostly insugar cane andslavery.
French traders and colonists tried again to settle a France Équinoxiale further North, in what is todayFrench Guiana, in 1626, 1635 (when the capital,Cayenne, was founded) and 1643. Twice aCompagnie de la France Équinoxiale was founded, in 1643 and 1645, but both foundered as a result of misfortune and mismanagement. It was only after 1674, when the colony came under the direct control of the French crown and a competent Governor took office, that France Équinoxiale became a reality. To this day, French Guiana is adepartment of France.
