Explorers of Early Canada

Waves of Immigration

People Arrival Reason for coming to Canada

First Nations 20-16,000 years ago To hunt, farm, and fish

Inuit 5,000 years ago To hunt and fish

Vikings 1000 years ago To hunt and find new land

English 1497 To fish

French 1534 To hunt, farm, trade furs

Chinese 1870 To build the railroad

Other Europeans 1885-1910 To farm

People from elsewhere Present Freedom to start a new life

The Vikings

First Europeans to arrive, around 1000 CE

Led by Leif Ericson from Sweden

Fights with local aboriginals caused Vikings to leave after one year.

Constantin-NOPE!

In 1453, the Ottomans took over Constantinople

Constantinople was an important city for trade, because it was where Europe met Asia

The Ottomans wouldn’t let Europeans travel through here anymore, so they needed a new way to get to Asia

Christopher Columbus

Sailed West from Europe to find a way to India.

Arrived in North America in 1492 instead.

After he came back to Europe, many explorers followed him

Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot)

Italian navigator and explorer hired by England to sail to the New World in 1497

First European other than Vikings to reach what is now Canada

Claimed Newfoundland for England

Found a lot of cod fish in the Grand Banks, a resource that would pull a lot of Europeans to North America

Jacques Cartier

First French explorer of Canada

Arrived in 1534, sailed along the St Lawrence River, trying to find the Northwest Passage

First to use name Canada, after a mistranslation of Iroquois word for village: “Kanata”

Created alliance with First Nations people and began trading for furs.

Henry Hudson

Explored and mapped much of the Northeast of Canada, in 1610

Tried to find a path to China through the northeast and northwest

Explored the Hudson River (it was named after him)

Found Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay while looking for northwest passage.

In James Bay in 1611, he wanted to keep going west, but his crew mutinied and kicked him off the boat.

Samuel de Champlain

Most important French explorer of Canada.

Was a cartographer and soldier

Helped to found the colony of Acadia (Nova Scotia) and the colony of Quebec in 1608

Called “Father of New France”

Created first fur trading company: “The Company of 100 Associates”

La Vérendrye

Was a military officer, fur trader and explorer

First to explore and map much of the interior of Canada in the 173os

Wanted to find a way to the Pacific, and got as far as the Rockies