Use the excerpt to answer the question. france took the lead in colonizing the upper midwest region. from the early sixteenth century on, french soldiers, missionaries and fur traders left their slight mark upon the st. lawrence valley, the upper great lakes and points west. for the early french explorers, the more continent they discovered the more their hopes were frustrated. they had hoped that the vast st. lawrence-great lakes waterway was part of a northwest passage to the wealth of the orient. the french presence was asserted by a network of forts, trading posts and missions dotting the lake and river routes traversing the continental interior. —library of congress based on your text and this reading, why was land near water so important for french settlers?