抄録
In the colonial history of early modern France, the research has dealt mainly with the regime of mercantilism. However, New France did have colonial functions, agricultural, commercial, military, and religious. In particular, the religious function was one of the most important at the beginning of 17^<th> century. Accordingly, the aim of this article is to examine the religious character of colonization in connection with the movement of French Catholic reconquest. There are three arguments presented in this article. First, the colonial strategy was to construct "Catholic French colonies" as shown by the religious policy of the Company of New France (Compagnie des Cent-Associes) and its group of investors (associes). In order to carry out this strategy, the royal government planned missionary campaigns of Counter-Reformation across the Atlantic Ocean, in which La Rochelle, an influential French protestant capital, was remodeled into a crossroads of Catholic reconstruction and became the vanguard of the construction of the Colony in New France. Secondly, the mutual relation between private colonial enterprises of La Rochelle and colonial mission is supported by the close combination between merchants and clergy mernbers thr-ough relatives, donations, and presentations, as well as usual net-work between metropolitan areas and this colony formed by sending trade ships, and engage's to Canada. Lastly, not only personnel and commodities, but also pastoral techniques invented and developed by the Counter-Reformation were brought there through missionary organizations and put into practice for the conversion of native Canadians and maintenance of the faith of colonists. At the same time, there was some local conflict among missionary organizations, caused indirectly by structural friction within Catholicism in France. Therefore, these two characters of the colonial mission suggest difficulty for the religious colony to develop singly. However, we can see clearly the character of the origins of colonization as religious ; and this character continued as its foundation through the parish system and educational institutions for maintaining French colonial society until 1763.
