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French in Michigan French Settlements
Before any permanent English colonies were well established they became involved in domestic difficulties with the national government, having ceased to favor such enterprises or pay much regard to them ; and their neglected infancy was one of the reasons why they at last became so independent of trans-Atlantic management as to outgrow it entirely.
Between the beginnings of French colonization and the time when the English colonies began to increase, French institutions had been tending more and more towards centralization. At the time when the first settlements were made in Michigan, the absolutely personal government of Louis XIV. had become supreme, and was as active in this region—then known as New France—as it was in France itself. The king was also zealous in enforcing religious uniformity. While there was considerable jealousy between the two great clerical orders of the colony, the Jesuits and the Recollets, or Franciscans, they held between them substantial authority over all religious matters.
Early Michigan
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