French and spanish explorers differed most in terms of their

Basically, the French and the Spanish had a completely different approach: the Spanish wanted to exploit their colonies as much as possible: they extracted silver from the ground and exploited the local population.

They also wanted to convert the indigenous and were even employing violence to do this.

The French were more peaceful and were more interested in trade - of fur.  They were rather cooperating with the indigenous than exploiting them