France Antarctique

Origins

In 1555 the French admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, backed by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, sailed to Guanabara Bay in Brazil with some 600 settlers. They built Fort Coligny on a small island and allied with the Tupinambá, who traded brazilwood with French merchants.

Rule and society

The colony was intended partly as a refuge for French Protestants, and a group of Calvinists sent from Geneva arrived in 1557, including Jean de Léry, whose account of the Tupinambá became a classic of travel writing. Villegaignon, however, quarrelled with them over doctrine and expelled them, and some were executed. Harsh discipline and desertions weakened the settlement.

Decline and legacy

Governor-general Mem de Sá destroyed Fort Coligny in 1560. His nephew Estácio de Sá founded Rio de Janeiro in 1565 and, with Portuguese and Temiminó forces, drove the remaining French and their Tupinambá allies from the bay by 1567.