From A Brief History of Canada by Roger Riendeau, 2000
Prior to sustained European contact, in essence, the Native peoples had already laid the foundation for future human development in northern half of North America in 3 significant respects. First, a sustainable economy was based on the exploitation of abundant, albeit unevenly distributed, natural resources. Second, society was invariably multicultural and multilingual. Third, geography dictated the persistence of regionalism as the basis for political or social organization. Accordingly, lines of communication and exchange for the Native peoples were more often north and south than east and west.
A partial explanation for the ambiguous beginning of European contact in North America lies in the serendipitous nature of the European “rediscovery” of the “new world” and the disappointment that inevitably followed. Disillusioned by their failure to fulfill their destiny, the early explorers tended to make a cursory note of Canada’s existence and continued hopefully in their quest for more rewarding discovers.
Norsemen, or Vikings, ventured northwesterly from European mainland to discover and colonize Iceland in 874 and Greenland in 985. Trader Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off course on his way from Iceland to Greenland in 986 when he became the first known European to sight mainland North America. Having likely reached the coast of Labrador, he decided against landing concluding, “This land is unwinsome and ungainsome.” In other words, the 1st recorded opinion about North America was that it was neither pretty nor profitable.
Around 1001, Leif Eriksson, son of Greenland colonizer Erik the Red, sailed west to investigate the resources of this strange territory. He and his crew therefore became the first known Europeans to set foot on North American soil. He landed in several places and wintered in Vinland—no one knows for sure where this is located. Leif Eriksson’s brother, Thorvald, led an expedition to Vinland in 1004. The following year the 1st recorded contact between Europeans and Native North Americans ended in violence. The men retreated to Greenland. Icelander Thorfinn Karlsefni brought over 160 settlers in 1011. The colonists bartered with local Native people, but conflict again erupted, and the Norse were driven back to Greenland within two years. Norse traders periodically explored and returned to Greenland with timber but eventually settlements in Greenland too were abandoned.
Knowledge of these exploits was derived from Greenlanders Saga and Erik the Red Saga both of which consist of stories passed down orally before they were written down in the late 12th and middle 13th centuries. Accordingly, the sagas were designed to serve more of a literary than a historical purpose, with the result that the distinction between fact and legend often became blurred. Not until 1960 did archaeologists unearth indisputable evidence of Norse settlement…it was clear that the Norse had visited Canada at least 5 centuries earlier than had any other Europeans.
In the 15th century, Europeans had discovered the New World for a third time. Columbus was seeking a route to the “Indies” which meant south and East Asia, including India and China. European access to goods like cinnamon, pepper, silk, precious stones was limited because of the rising Islamic empire that gained control of overland trade routes. Economic and military supremacy was bound up in the quest for a direct route to the Indies. Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) landed on the coast of Labrador in 1497. Claiming the land for England he believed he was on the northeast coast of China. He made two important discoveries: 1. He found the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, a fertile breeding ground for cod. 2. He found the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which led into the interior. These discoveries stimulated further interest in pursuing a northern sea route to Asia.
Eventually the Portuguese, Spanish, French, English and Basque came too. The huts and storehouses of the fishermen were the 1st semblance of European settlement. The English concentrated in Newfoundland. By the 1520s it was becoming clearer that the land Columbus and Caboto had discovered was not an extension of Asia. When Balboa crossed the narrow strip of land at Panama, and sighted the Pacifica Ocean in 1513, it became apparent that the land mass of undetermined size lay between Europe and Asia. By 1524 Giovanni de Verrazano explored the Atlantic coastline from Florida to Newfoundland. In 1534 Jacques Cartier left France intending to find a sea route through the land mass to Asia. In the process he became the 1st European to penetrate inland and to leave detailed surviving account of his adventures, beginning with Voyages au Canada en 1534. Cartier met the native Mi’kmaq people who “set up a great clamour and made frequent signs to us to come on shore, holding up to us some furs on sticks.” The eagerness of the Native peoples to trade their furs for metal goods suggests that Cartier’s expedition was probably preceded by European fishermen who left no record of their contact. Cartier’s exchange represents first recorded exchange of furs between Native peoples and Europeans and the first trading exchange of any kind since the Norse voyages. From the native peoples, Cartier heard highly embellished but intriguing tales of a great waterway leading to the west and the rich kingdoms to be found in that direction. He gazed upon the St. Lawrence River, which he mistook as a strait leading to the Pacific Ocean.
On a second voyage to the St. Lawrence, Cartier and his crew landed at Stadacona and met Chief Donnacona. Viewing the French as powerful trading partners, Donnacona objected to their intention to proceed inland to a larger Iroquois village at Hochelega. The Chief apparently had the right to a monopoly over upriver traffic; ignoring his wishes and thus foreshadowing future European reaction to Native land and trading rights, Cartier arrived at Hochelega. Cartier learned from the Natives that the St. Lawrence River stretched another 3 months inland, thus giving Europeans their first sense of the vastness of the continent. Due to impending winter, Cartier returned to Stadacona too late in the year to return to France. Cartier and his men were not prepared for the nightmarish 5 month winter in which their fort and ships were buried under several metres of snow and ice. Furthermore, one quarter of Cartier’s men died from scurvy. Cartier strained relations with the Native peoples even further by abducting Donnacona, his two sons, and seven of their companions in order to retain tribal support in anticipation of a third French expedition to the St. Lawrence region. Cartier promised that they would return safely the following year. None of them would survive the return to their homeland.
So unimpressed was King Francis I with Cartier’s accomplishments that five years would pass before a third expedition received royal support. In the meantime, Francis I was preoccupied with war against Spain, which was challenging France’s rights to exploit the wealth of the new world on the basis of tradition. IN response the French monarch invoked the new doctrine of imperialism to assert his right to exploit lands not previously occupied by another Christian power. In essence, France argued, national claims to territory in the Americas and elsewhere would henceforth rest not on papal decrees but on prior discovery, conquest and settlement.
Cartier reached Stadacona again in 1541 and announced Donnacona had died of old age but the other Iroquois had decided to stay in France. Cartier decided to settle his 150 colonists 16 km upriver from Stadacona. This distance was insufficient to prevent cultural conflict. The Iroquois kept the French under constant siege and killed 35 colonists. Another crown supported explorer, Jean Francoise de la Roque de Roberval was forced to abandon his settlement in 1543 due to Native hostility. The dismal failure of Roberval and Cartier fostered an image of Canada as an inhospitable and uninhabitable country with little of value to offer the economy of France. French imperial interest for the rest of the century focused on the tropical regions to the south, in the Caribbean.
Several more trips made by several more explorers eventually ended in disinterest by France, Spain and Portugal in the northwest. Consumed by war in England, the powers of the time (esp. Spain and Portugal) faded fast. Two emerging rivals for European supremacy, France and England, would give the northern American frontier a second look in the 17-18th centuries and comprehend the potential resources that could be exploited—and the souls that could be converted to Christianity.
By the end of the 16th century, a thriving trade in beaver pelts would change North American history. French trappers and traders came in great amounts to capture the sought-after pelts. Enterprising merchants appealed to the French crown to grant them trading monopolies to stabilize prices. This would become the hallmark of French imperialism in North America. Samuel de Champlain was sent to investigate the commercial and settlement potential in 1603. He embodied the spirit of 17th century French imperialism. He was inspired by a sense of patriotism, a religious zeal to spread the Catholic faith and a passion for adventure. In 1617 he convinced Parisian pharmacist Louis Hebert to bring his family to Quebec in 1617 to become the first permanent settlers dedicated to the cultivation of the land. Marie Rollet, his wife, is believed to be the first European woman to till the Canadian soil. But the fur trade monopolists had no interest in encouraging settlement which would hurt the fur trade. This inherent conflict between the fur trade and settlement would persistently undermine Quebec’s evolution from outpost to colony.
In order to establish good relations with the northern Native tribes, Champlain assisted the Algonquin people in raids against their long standing Iroquois enemies in 1609. A few shots fired from French muskets scattered the Iroquois, which had never previously seen guns. However, this apparently easy victory had the unexpected effect of mobilizing a power and relentless foe: the Iroquois would imperil French colonization throughout the century.
Champlain continued to align himself with the Algonquins and continued successful raiding attacks against the Iroquois. He even had young company representatives live among the Native people to learn their language, customs and values. He also learned from his Native allies the basic tactics for survival including manufacturing canoes, snowshoes and toboggans. Champlain arranged for a few of his people to live with the Huron too. In addition to trade, Champlain hoped that supporting the Algonquin-Huron war effort would help overcome their reluctance to lead him into the interior. The Huron lived in the Huron Confederacy, an alliance of several tribes with a population exceeding 30000 living in villages containing upwards of 2000 people each. The Huron war party set out with Champlain to attack the Iroquois, but the Iroquois had Dutch firearms and were able to turn back this assault, and a wounded Champlain retreated to Huronia with his Native allies. Despite this setback, it had far-reaching significance for the development of Canada. Champlain gained much knowledge about the relationship between the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, thereby opening the way for further westward exploration.