The French failed basically because they strained to be excessively consolidated or centralized. They tried to keep very close control of their colonies. Since French policies did not allow people from other European countries to come to their colonies. Also, only the nobles could own land, and only Catholics were allowed to come and settle in North America. And they did not allow dissenting French people to come over either. By contrast, the British allowed to have a large degree of self-government. These things attracted many colonists to the British colonies while the French have few.