Early Spanish, French, & English permanent settlements tried to transplant European forms into the "new world" environment, in the effort to make the new world environment look like the old one. Spanish Settlements: Following Columbus voyages to the West Indies, Spanish established sugar plantations; when Natives died they imported African slave labor remaking the population of the Caribbean; in Mexico they used native population to mine the gold; when this population died, the Spanish turned to ranching and farming. The Law of the Indies (1573) where the royal ordinances dictated that settlements should be like a Spanish village, a grid of streets around a central plaza of approximately 5 1/2 acres, with a church at one end and the government/military building at the other. Houses were joined together with common walls along the plaza. Beyond houses were common pastures, woodlots, and private holdings assigned to each family based on their military rank: 106 acres for common people, 2200 for officers; nobility even higher. Settlers received water for irrigation in proportion to their acreage (which was in proportion to rank). There were gates on common "acequia madre" and you were allowed to open them to your fields which was strictly regulated (2-4 hours flow). [Interestingly, Native Americans could also irrigat to grow corn, beans, and squash and Spanish followed and incorporated Native American networks into their own.] Traditions of government regulating land and water use were brought from Spain. Irrigation needs kept Spanish settlements clustered; Spanish towns such as Santa Fe were well established long before Quebec or Jamestown.   French Settlements: hoped to find gold down St. Lawrence river and along the Great Lakes, but developed fishing and fur trading posts instead, trading with the Micmacs. By 1663 there were approximately 2500 French in Canada, mostly in Quebec, Trois-Rivieres, and Montreal. French lived in cities along St. Lawrence River trade route with very little permanent settlement elsewhere.   NOTE: one major way that these Spanish and French settlements differed from those in Europe is sex ratio--there were approximately 90% male. Both Spanish and French had considerable trade with Native population and contacts resulted in substantial metis an