This is a pretty big subject with a great deal of diversity in a thorough response. So, instead of giving a thorough response, I'll make some broad generalizations that might help lead someone to more helpful answers. Since it’s beginning, French colonialism in New Franc less successful and enduring than Spanish or British colonialism because it couldn't sustain popular homeland support.
British colonialism really took off in the late 1500s, peaked late in the 19th Century, and took a precipitous nosedive in the wake of World War II. Spanish colonialism began a little bit sooner, peaked much earlier, and was more or less obsolete before the 20th century began. France, however, was somewhere in the middle. It began fairly early in New France and parts of the Caribbean, but France's global footprint never really grew commensurately with its influence over Europe. There were a number of factors involved, but considering how powerful France was compared to Spain or Britain in the early modern period, it would seem like they should have had more holdings in the New World or in Asia.
To generalize, New France was regarded as a lazy cash cow for France, not as a serious expansion of its frontiers. Cities like Québec, New Orleans, and Montréal are gorgeous, historic, and impressively European, so it might be tempting to point to them as examples of France trying to settle Canada. There's some truth, but remember how small of an area those cities represent compared to how much they were governing. Huge swaths of the American Midwest, the Great Lakes region, the entirety of the Mississippi River basin... those were just hunting grounds. They'd be mapped out by
Voyageurs in enormous canoes, the indigenous languages would be studied by some Jesuits, and a couple outposts would be installed to facilitate trade. Yet there were no migrations of families and slaves like there were to Jamestown or Plymouth or Havana.
The overwhelming majority of Frenchmen to come over were just that--men, on personal adventure, who wished to make their fortunes by trapping furs. Finally, lucrative economic opportunities in New France were limited to a chosen few under a monopolistic system under royal fiat. Under this system, colonists were forbidden to settle west of Montreal to protect the fur trade monopoly.
Actually the French were generally more in control of their colonies than the British were, which is part of the problem. French control was always from the centre, British control was pushed to the periphery, this is partially from the lessons of the American revolution, and partially because they left empire building to private organisations like the EIC (or even before that, out and out pirates), whereas the French, even when they set up trading companies, were still controlled by the Crown or later the French state. The outcome was that the British were often expanding territory before anyone in power even knew it had happened,
The
manorial system of
New France was the semi-
feudal system of
land tenure used in the North American
French colonial empire. Both in nominal and legal terms, all French territorial claims in North America belonged to the
French king. French monarchs did not impose feudal land tenure on New France and the king’s actual attachment to these lands was virtually non-existent. Instead, landlords were allotted land holdings known as manors and presided over the French colonial agricultural system in North America.
Actually the French were generally more in control of their colonies than the British were, which is part of the problem. French control was always from the centre, British control was pushed to the periphery, this is partially from the lessons of the American revolution, and partially because they left empire building to private organisations like the EIC (or even before that, out and out pirates), whereas the French, even when they set up trading companies, were still controlled by the Crown or later the French state. The outcome was that the British were often expanding territory before anyone in power even knew it had happened,
So, French colonialism didn't "work" because it didn't invest very much into moving France into its territories, it simply focused on sucking resources out of the territories. One factor behind this is that there was never much impetus for French people to suddenly up and move to a new continent. Spanish noble families were motivated to move away because there were limited opportunities for economic growth in the Iberian Peninsula at that time; it didn't have the raw ingredients for a solid manufacturing economy, and agriculture is boring. England was becoming overcrowded and suffering from constant religious infighting, so it had no shortage of people willing to leave it behind. France, though, had a fairly stable agricultural economy with a centralized monarchy that was reasonably stable. People in France had their quotidian grievances against the king and their way of life, but nothing so severe that they would chuck it all and take a boat to the other side of the world.
The only religious group that might have wanted to escape France to live their dissident religion freely might have been the
huguenots (protestants), but they were not allowed to emigrate to New France, reason why they moved en masse to the British colonies instead...
Finally while it was true that British naval domination was a key factor in Britain’s relative success in comparison to France, that domination was effectively a response to early French (and Dutch) dominance in the Empire business; it was France, not Britain, who were the dominant power up until the Seven Years’ War.
So, to sum up.
- have a less stable France and more incentives to leave
- send more women into Nouvelle France (historically 1/5 were women)
- exile the Huguenots to Nouvelle France (I wrote about it somewhere else in the forum)
- less early friendliness with the natives
- avoid a centralized control and the creation of monopolies
- abolish the seigneurie system as early as possible
- no stupid settlement laws blocking colonization
- move further to the south to keep Ohio river and valley
- reinforce Fort Carillon, later named Fort Ticonderoga
- improve Louisbourg Forteress and fortify all Nova Scotia
- create a lot of forts along the Saint Laurent
- build more forts between Montreal and the British
- set a network of forts, not only along waterways
- start early before the Seven Years war and win it
- expell or drastically reduce the size of British involvement in North America
- lose Haïti or other Caribbean colonies
- focus on Nouvelle France
- etc.
