New France (French: Nouvelle-France) is the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763.

At its peak in 1712 (before the Treaty of Utrecht), the territory of New France, also sometimes known as the French North American Empire or Royal New France, extends from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.The territory is divided into colonies, each with its own administration: Canada, Acadia, Newfoundland (Plaisance), and Louisiana.

The Treaty of Utrecht results in the relinquishing of French claims to mainland Acadia, the Hudson Bay and Newfoundland, and the establishment of the colony of Île Royale, now called Cape Breton Island, where the French build the Fortress of Louisbourg.

Acadia has a difficult history, with the Great Upheaval, remembered on July 28 each year since 2003.

The descendants are dispersed in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, in Maine and Louisiana in the United States, with small populations in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia and the Magdalen Islands.France cedes the rest of New France, except the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, to Great Britain and Spain at the Treaty of Paris, which ends the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War).

Britain receives Canada, Acadia, and the parts of French Louisiana that lie east of the Mississippi River–except for the Île d'Orléans, which is granted to Spain, along with the territory to the west – the larger portion of Louisiana.In 1800, Spain will return its portion of Louisiana to France under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso.

However, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte in turn will sell it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, permanently ending French colonial efforts on the North American mainland.