Until New France (Canada) became a royal colony in 1663 under the reign of Louis XIV, it was essentially a commercial enterprise driven by the fur trade -- not by settlement. Most of the settlers were engaged in trapping, trading and export of furs, in addition to missionaries who converted natives and the military who manned the forts: all men. Very few women resided in Canada prior to the 1660's. Those that did were either nuns, or small groups of women who had been recruited by local seigneurs (landowners) to work in agricultural jobs or domestic help.

While New England's population grew exponentially faster, New France's stalled due to its low birth rate. This became a problem for New France, exasperated by disease and frequent attacks by the hostile Iroquois Confederacy, England and its New England colonists. The colony, left unattended, was dying a slow death and this could jeopardize France's hold on its colonial territories there.

Louis XIV committed to reversing this trend and appointed Jean Talon to become Intendant of New France, the colony's chief civil administrator. Talon had the backing of the king's formidable first minister Colbert and an ambitious plan to reorganize the colony's administration, improve its defences, promote mercantilism and -- critically -- raise the colony's birth rate to try to keep pace with the more populated Thirteen Colonies.

Over the next ten years, he recruited up to 800 women, known as les filles du Roi (King's daughters), to settle in Canada. They would be provided by the king with passage to the New World, supplies, a dowry and some household tools for a pioneer's life. Religious orders would house and care for them until a suitable marriage was found, and the women could largely choose their own spouses and even have bad matches annulled by the Church.

Talon saw a gradual uptick in New France's population during this time, though it never caught up with New England's growth. After Talon returned to France in 1673, France became preoccupied with various dynastic disputes in Europe and Talon's grand plans didn't achieve their full potential.

Frequent attacks by the Iroquois and colonial proxy wars with England continued to plague the colony, still located primarily on the St. Lawrence River, until the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701 ended open conflict with the Iroquois. Only then was New France able to safely expand with a string of forts and further settlement in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys over the next 50 years.

New France never caught up with New England's growth, which contributed to its downfall in the conquest of Quebec in 1759. Quebec was heavily dependent on its military alliances with the Huron and other native peoples (as well as reinforcements from France), while New England had a considerably larger colonial militia to bolster the British regular army.

When Wolfe captured Quebec in 1759, the colony only had 70-80,000 colonists, while New England had more than 1M.