Socials 9First Contact and Early Settlement in Canada EssaySarah Stride
The First Nations people came into contact with the Europeans when they were fishing along the Grand Banks off of Newfoundland. Their daily lives and activities kept them in constant contact. The two cultures shared and borrowed ideas, as well as influenced each other. Even though the Europeans and First Nations people had some positive contact,much of it was negative.
The Europeans had some positive contact with the First Nations people. The Europeans supplied the First Nations with goods made out of iron, such as tools and cooking utensils. This was good because the First Nations people did not have these tools, so it made it things a lot easier. Some of the tools the First Nations received were knives, axes, pots and hatchets. They also received horses to carry their hunt and supplies. Some of the cooking utensils they received were pots, bowls and spoons. It was easy for the First Nations people to get furs for the Europeans, so the Europeans traded goods that the First Nations could not make. The Europeans had some positive impact on the First Nations people.
Despite the few positive things the Europeans did for the First Nations people there were a lot of negative things that impacted them. The Europeans supplied the First Nations with guns and alcohol. The guns were not very helpful because they were loud which scared the prey, it also can jammed and shot backat the person shooting which injured them or even killed them. First Nations also received alcohol for the Europeans which the First Nations people got addicted. This caused the tribe to break apart and caused conflict between families. Europeans attempted to ″civilize″ the First Nations and covert them to Catholicism. The First Nations people already had a religion they believed in, so they did not want to change their faith. In 1535, Jacques Cartier kidnapped 10 Iroquois who could tell the King of France about the New World. The 10 kidnapped Iroquois would never return back to their homeland and they died from European diseases. The First Nations people became suspicious of the French, so they refused to trade food andthreatened war on the French. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain was starting a colony and brought First Nations people with him which was not their way of living. Champlain promised the First Nations that there was better access to furs in his colony. The French were unfair traders to the First Nations people and were uneven with what they were trading which was a rip off. In 1633, a government was established in New France. The government supplied brandy to the First Nations and the First Nations people get addicted to it. Black robes came to New France and brought European diseases with them. First Nations people got infected with devastating diseases like smallpox and measles. Within 6 years of the Black robes being in Huronia, almost half of the First Nations population died. Overall the Europeans impacted the First Nations people in a very negative way.
In this time Europeans did many things that impacted the First Nations in positive and negative ways. The First Nations people came into contact with the Europeans and the two cultures shared their knowledge with each other. The First Nations had new tools and cooking utensils that made their daily lives much easier. But they also had a lot of bad things happen to them because of the contact, such as diseases, Europeans trying to change their religion, and having addictions that caused conflicts inside the tribes. Based on this evidence the First Nations being in contact with Europeans had its perks but there was so many negative things that the perks did not even matter. First Nations people had it hard and they never deserved what had happened to them.