How did British and French colonial administration methods compare before 1763?

Both the French and British participated in the brutal Atlantic Slave Trade. The British enslaved millions of African people who were forced to work on plantations and in households across the South, the Mid-Atlantic, and New England. The French enslaved African people to toil on plantations in the Caribbean and on the plantations of French-held Louisiana. Both empires also directly warred against Indigenous people and participated in state-sanctioned massacres against them and forced removal from their homelands. Both empires also based their colonial wealth on the growing of raw materials and staple crops such as cotton, tobacco, indigo, and sugarcane.

The French and British empires differed in how the colonies were settled by citizens of the colonial empires. The British colonies were much more heavily settled by shiploads of settlers who built towns and homesteads (through the murder and forced displacement of Indigenous people). In addition to poorer settlers, wealthy aristocrats arrived, who built large plantations and brought slavery to the colonies. The French empire did not participate as much in building towns of settlers. In French-held Haiti, the population consisted mainly of thousands of enslaved Africans, overseers, plantation owners, and a handful of government officials. The Taino people of the island were virtually all wiped out through a targeted genocide. The French colonies of the far north were mostly very small trading posts.

Before 1763, the French mainly founded trading posts in the New World. These posts were involved in trading for fur and other materials with the Native Americans, and French settlers often lived in close proximity to Native Americans and intermarried with them. The French government did not allow their colonies to set up their own governments, and the colonies were administered directly by the French crown.

The British colonies, on the other hand, were populated by settlers who set up their own forms of self-government and representative assemblies such as the House of Burgesses, established in Virginia in 1619. Colonists were also allowed to tax themselves. This degree of self-government meant that the British colonies were loathe to give up their independence in the years after 1763, when the British government ended years of "salutary neglect" and attempted to administer their colonies more directly and to enforce the Navigation Acts.

Depending on where they were located, there were similarities and differences between the French and British colonies up until the mid-eighteenth century.

The similarities could be seen in French and British colonial interests in India. Both nations handed over colonial development in India to corporations. There were both French and British East India companies, and both organizations functioned relatively free of direct state control. These colonies were essentially corporations, administered only loosely by their respective national governments.

Differences in French and British approaches to colonization were stark in North America. In this context, one sees important contrasts. The colony of New France was heavily influenced by state involvement, and colonization was pushed by the French crown. The success of the colony was a matter of national pride. These colonies were also motivated by a missionary impulse and saw major involvement on the part of the Catholic Church.

In contrast, the British colonies in North America were largely settled by those who were fleeing state influence, often for religious reasons. These dissenters, like the Pilgrims who settled the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1620, were motivated by a desire for independence and a separation from the British crown right from the beginning.

As a result of conflicts in the mid-eighteenth century between the French and British, especially in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the French actually lost control of most of their colonial holdings in North America and the East.

There were many differences in how the French and the British administered their colonies before 1763. Both countries had colonies in North America, but there were significant differences between them.

The British established thirteen permanent colonies in North America. The French, on the other hand, had few permanent settlements. In the British colonies, people were able to own land. In the French colonies, only the nobles were able to own land. While both countries had dealings with the Native Americans, the French were much more friendly with them. They married Native American women, converted them to Christianity, and traded with them. Most Native American tribes were more comfortable with the French. There were differences in religious practices also. The French only allowed Catholics to settle in their colonies. There was more religious freedom in the British colonies. Because of these differences, the British colonies grew faster than the French colonies. There also was more self-government in the British colonies. The colonies had their own legislatures. In the French colonies, self-government did not exist.

How did British and French colonial administration differ before 1763?

Before 1763, France was under autocratic rule. Therefore, French colonists pledged their allegiance to the Crown. The French king ruled the colonies, and there was no form of representative government. Conversely, British colonists were free to govern themselves in America provided they observed English law and pledged allegiance to their king. They could create local governments and formulate their ways of collecting taxes.

British colonists were mostly agriculturalists, loggers, and convicted criminals. However, French colonists were missionaries and traders. Regarding religion, many British colonists were non-Catholics. On the other hand, French colonists were primarily Catholic. Moreover, unlike the French, the British allowed immigrants into their population.

The economic activities in British colonies included trading and agriculture. Also, the British exported fish and tobacco. However, the French colonies focused on the fur trade and were not as successful as the British when it came to agriculture. A similarity between the British and French colonists during this period is that they were initially friendly and respectful to Native Americans. It is noteworthy that there were several land disputes in the latter years before 1763 between the Indians and the British. Therefore, alliances were formed between the Native Americans and the French especially during their conflicts with the English.