Answer:
Gold, trade and religion are the three reasons.
Step-by-step explanation:
The French explored and colonized northern North America in order to obtain gold from these lands, for trading and change the religion of the natives. To make New France an official colony which allowed the French to thrive and prosper in the region because with the expand of the French empire, they get more resources of the new captured lands which boost the economy of the empire. After the French claimed the Mississippi River and all its surrounding land, their goals of exploration change into expanding their empire through wars. René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle was a Frenchmen who explored the Oklahoma territory as well as Mississippi River for the empire.