John Cabot
On 24 June 1497 he landed somewhere on the N American coast - the actual place of landing most likely being either CAPE BONAVISTA, Newfoundland or CAPE BRETON ISLAND. Cabot claimed the land for England and returned to Bristol, arriving in Aug.
John Cabot, Anglo-Italian navigator, explorer (born perhaps at Genoa, Italy 1449/50); landed probably off the coast of Newfoundland 1498/99). Cabot's voyages of discovery from Bristol, England (1497, 1498), were the first recorded landfalls on the North American continent since the Norse voyages. Cabot conceived the idea of reaching Asia by sailing westward across the Atlantic. In 1496 Henry VII authorized him and his 3 sons to search, at their own expense, for unknown lands to the west. Cabot left Bristol on 2 May 1497 with 18 men.
On 24 June 1497 he landed somewhere on the North American coast - the actual place of landing most likely being either CAPE BONAVISTA, Newfoundland or CAPE BRETON ISLAND. Cabot claimed the land for England and returned to Bristol, arriving in August.
ick here to edit.
On 24 June 1497 he landed somewhere on the N American coast - the actual place of landing most likely being either CAPE BONAVISTA, Newfoundland or CAPE BRETON ISLAND. Cabot claimed the land for England and returned to Bristol, arriving in Aug.
John Cabot, Anglo-Italian navigator, explorer (born perhaps at Genoa, Italy 1449/50); landed probably off the coast of Newfoundland 1498/99). Cabot's voyages of discovery from Bristol, England (1497, 1498), were the first recorded landfalls on the North American continent since the Norse voyages. Cabot conceived the idea of reaching Asia by sailing westward across the Atlantic. In 1496 Henry VII authorized him and his 3 sons to search, at their own expense, for unknown lands to the west. Cabot left Bristol on 2 May 1497 with 18 men.
On 24 June 1497 he landed somewhere on the North American coast - the actual place of landing most likely being either CAPE BONAVISTA, Newfoundland or CAPE BRETON ISLAND. Cabot claimed the land for England and returned to Bristol, arriving in August.
ick here to edit.
Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier, navigator (born between 7 June and 23 December 1491 in Saint-Malo, France; died 1 September 1557 in Saint-Malo, France).
Hochelaga
In Giovanni Battista Ramusio's work, Jacques Cartier and his men are shown being welcomed at the entrance of the village of Hochelaga
One explanation of how Canada may have got its name during Jacques Cartier's first meeting with Iroquoian peoples is provided. (1534)
Jacques Cartier, navigator (born between 7 June and 23 December 1491 in Saint-Malo, France; died 1 September 1557 in Saint-Malo, France). From 1534 to 1542, Cartier led three maritime expeditions to the interior of the Gulf of the St. Lawrence River. During these expeditions, he explored, but more importantly accurately mapped for the first time, the interior of the river, from the Gulf to Montréal. For this navigational prowess, Cartier is still considered by many as the founder of “Canada”, even though, at the time, this term described only the region immediately surrounding Québec. Cartier’s upstream navigation of the St. Lawrence River in the 16th century ultimately led to France occupying this part of North America.
Voyages to the Americas
Cartier’s early life is very poorly documented. Employed in business and navigation from a young age, like his countrymen Cartier probably sailed along the coast of France, Newfoundland and South America (Brazil), first as a sailor and then as an officer. Nonetheless, it was the favorable political context following the annexation of Brittany to the kingdom of France that prompted King François 1 to choose Cartier to replace the explorer Giovanni da Verrazano, who had died on his last voyage.
First Voyage (1534)
Cartier’s orders for his first expedition were to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean in the area around Newfoundland and possibly find precious metals. He left Saint-Malo on 20 April 1534 with two ships and 61 men and reached the coast of Newfoundland 20 days later. During his journey, Cartier passed several sites known to European fishers; he renamed them or noted them on his maps. After skirting the north shore of Newfoundland, Cartier and his ships entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Strait of Belle Isle and traveled south, hugging the coast of the Magdalen Islands on 26 June and reaching what are now the provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick three days later. He then navigated towards the west, crossing Chaleur Bay and reaching Gaspé, where he encountered Iroquois-speaking Aboriginal people from the region of Québec, who had come to the area for their annual seal hunt. After the planting a cross and engaging in some trading and negotiations, Cartier’s ships left on 25 July with two of the Iroquois chief Donnacona’s sons and returned to France by following the coast of Anticosti Island and re-crossing the Strait of Belle Isle.
Second Voyage (1535-1536)
The expedition of 1535 was more important than the first expedition and included 110 people and three medium-sized ships – the Grande Hermine [the Great Stoat], the Petite Hermine [the Lesser Stoat] and the Émérillon [the Merlin] – which had been adapted for river navigation. They left Brittany in mid-May 1535 and reached Newfoundland after a long, 50-day crossing. Following the itinerary from the previous year, they entered the Gulf, then travelled the “Canada River” (later named the St. Lawrence River) upstream, guided by the Iroquois chief’s sons to the village of Stadacona on the site of what is now the city of Québec. Given the extent of their planned explorations, the French decided to spend the winter there and settled at the mouth of the St. Charles River. Against the advice of Chief Donnacona, Cartier decided to continue sailing up the river towards Hochelaga, now the city of Montréal, which he reached on 2 October 1535. There he met other Iroquois, who tantalized Cartier with the prospect of a sea in the middle of the country. By the time Cartier returned to Stadacona (Québec), relations with the Aboriginal people there had deteriorated, but they nonetheless helped the poorly organized French to survive scurvy thanks to a remedy made from evergreen trees. When spring came, the French decided to return to Europe and took a dozen Stadaconiens with them as hostages. However, rumours of a kingdom rich in precious metals encouraged the French to resume their explorations of the area.
Third Voyage (1541-1542)
The war in Europe led to a delay in returning to Canada, with the further result that the plans for the voyage were changed. This expedition was to include close to 800 people and involve a major attempt to colonize the region. The explorations were left to Cartier, but the logistics and colonial management of the expedition were entrusted to Jean-François de La Rocque, sieur de Roberval a senior military officer who was responsible for recruitment, loading weapons onto the ships, and bringing on craftsmen and a number of prisoners. Just as the expedition was to begin, delays in the preparations and the vagaries of the war with Spain meant that only half the personnel (led by Cartier) were sent to Canada in May 1541 by Roberval, who eventually came the following year. Cartier and his men settled the new colony several kilometers upstream from Québec at the confluence of the Cap Rouge and St. Lawrence rivers. While the colonists and craftsmen built the forts, Cartier decided to sail toward Hochelaga, but when he returned, a bloody battle had broken out with the Stadaconiens.
Jacques Cartier, navigator (born between 7 June and 23 December 1491 in Saint-Malo, France; died 1 September 1557 in Saint-Malo, France).
Hochelaga
In Giovanni Battista Ramusio's work, Jacques Cartier and his men are shown being welcomed at the entrance of the village of Hochelaga
One explanation of how Canada may have got its name during Jacques Cartier's first meeting with Iroquoian peoples is provided. (1534)
Jacques Cartier, navigator (born between 7 June and 23 December 1491 in Saint-Malo, France; died 1 September 1557 in Saint-Malo, France). From 1534 to 1542, Cartier led three maritime expeditions to the interior of the Gulf of the St. Lawrence River. During these expeditions, he explored, but more importantly accurately mapped for the first time, the interior of the river, from the Gulf to Montréal. For this navigational prowess, Cartier is still considered by many as the founder of “Canada”, even though, at the time, this term described only the region immediately surrounding Québec. Cartier’s upstream navigation of the St. Lawrence River in the 16th century ultimately led to France occupying this part of North America.
Voyages to the Americas
Cartier’s early life is very poorly documented. Employed in business and navigation from a young age, like his countrymen Cartier probably sailed along the coast of France, Newfoundland and South America (Brazil), first as a sailor and then as an officer. Nonetheless, it was the favorable political context following the annexation of Brittany to the kingdom of France that prompted King François 1 to choose Cartier to replace the explorer Giovanni da Verrazano, who had died on his last voyage.
First Voyage (1534)
Cartier’s orders for his first expedition were to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean in the area around Newfoundland and possibly find precious metals. He left Saint-Malo on 20 April 1534 with two ships and 61 men and reached the coast of Newfoundland 20 days later. During his journey, Cartier passed several sites known to European fishers; he renamed them or noted them on his maps. After skirting the north shore of Newfoundland, Cartier and his ships entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Strait of Belle Isle and traveled south, hugging the coast of the Magdalen Islands on 26 June and reaching what are now the provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick three days later. He then navigated towards the west, crossing Chaleur Bay and reaching Gaspé, where he encountered Iroquois-speaking Aboriginal people from the region of Québec, who had come to the area for their annual seal hunt. After the planting a cross and engaging in some trading and negotiations, Cartier’s ships left on 25 July with two of the Iroquois chief Donnacona’s sons and returned to France by following the coast of Anticosti Island and re-crossing the Strait of Belle Isle.
Second Voyage (1535-1536)
The expedition of 1535 was more important than the first expedition and included 110 people and three medium-sized ships – the Grande Hermine [the Great Stoat], the Petite Hermine [the Lesser Stoat] and the Émérillon [the Merlin] – which had been adapted for river navigation. They left Brittany in mid-May 1535 and reached Newfoundland after a long, 50-day crossing. Following the itinerary from the previous year, they entered the Gulf, then travelled the “Canada River” (later named the St. Lawrence River) upstream, guided by the Iroquois chief’s sons to the village of Stadacona on the site of what is now the city of Québec. Given the extent of their planned explorations, the French decided to spend the winter there and settled at the mouth of the St. Charles River. Against the advice of Chief Donnacona, Cartier decided to continue sailing up the river towards Hochelaga, now the city of Montréal, which he reached on 2 October 1535. There he met other Iroquois, who tantalized Cartier with the prospect of a sea in the middle of the country. By the time Cartier returned to Stadacona (Québec), relations with the Aboriginal people there had deteriorated, but they nonetheless helped the poorly organized French to survive scurvy thanks to a remedy made from evergreen trees. When spring came, the French decided to return to Europe and took a dozen Stadaconiens with them as hostages. However, rumours of a kingdom rich in precious metals encouraged the French to resume their explorations of the area.
Third Voyage (1541-1542)
The war in Europe led to a delay in returning to Canada, with the further result that the plans for the voyage were changed. This expedition was to include close to 800 people and involve a major attempt to colonize the region. The explorations were left to Cartier, but the logistics and colonial management of the expedition were entrusted to Jean-François de La Rocque, sieur de Roberval a senior military officer who was responsible for recruitment, loading weapons onto the ships, and bringing on craftsmen and a number of prisoners. Just as the expedition was to begin, delays in the preparations and the vagaries of the war with Spain meant that only half the personnel (led by Cartier) were sent to Canada in May 1541 by Roberval, who eventually came the following year. Cartier and his men settled the new colony several kilometers upstream from Québec at the confluence of the Cap Rouge and St. Lawrence rivers. While the colonists and craftsmen built the forts, Cartier decided to sail toward Hochelaga, but when he returned, a bloody battle had broken out with the Stadaconiens.
New France Samuel de Champlain
In 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni de Verrazzano explored the eastern shore and named the new lands Francesca, in honor of King Francis I of France. In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of King Francis I. However, France was initially not interested in backing up these claims with settlement. French fishing fleets, however, continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, making alliances with Native American tribes that would become important once France began to occupy the land. French merchants soon realized the St. Lawrence region was full of valuable fur, especially beaver fur, which was becoming rare in Europe as the European beaver had almost been driven to extinction. Eventually, the French crown decided to colonize the territory to secure and expand its influence in America.
The vast territories that were to be known as Acadia and Canada were in some areas inhabited by nomadic Amerindian peoples or settlements of Hurons and Iroquois. These lands were full of unexploited and valuable natural riches which attracted all of Europe. By the 1580s, French trading companies had been set up, and ships were contracted to bring back furs. Much of what has happened between the natives and the European visitors around that time is not known for lack of historical records.
Map of New France by Samuel de Champlain
Early attempts at establishing permanent settlements were failures. In 1598 a trading post was established on Sable Island, off the coast of Acadia, but was unsuccessful. In 1600, a trading post was established at Tadoussac, but only five settlers survived the winter. In 1604 a settlement was founded at Île-Saint-Croix on Baie François (Bay of Fundy) which was moved to Port-Royal in 1605, only to be abandoned in 1607, reestablished in 1610 and destroyed in 1613 whereby settlers moved to other nearby locations.
In 1608, sponsored by Henry IV of France, Samuel de Champlain founded Québec with six families totalling 28 people, the first successful settlement in Canada. Colonization was slow and difficult. Many settlers died early. In 1630 there were only 100 colonists living in the settlement, and by 1640 there was 359.
Champlain quickly allied himself with the Algonquian and Montagnais peoples in the area, who were at war with the Iroquois. He also arranged to have young French men live with the natives, to learn their language and customs and help the French adapt to life in North America. These men, known as Voyageurs, such as Étienne Brûlé, extended French influence south and west to the Great Lakes and among the Huron tribes who lived there.
For the first few decades of Québec's existence, there were only a few dozen settlers there, while the English colonies to the south were much more populous and wealthy. Cardinal Richelieu, adviser to King Louis XIII, wished to make New France as significant as the English colonies. In 1627 Richelieu founded the Company of One Hundred Associates to invest in New France, promising land parcels to hundreds of new settlers and to turn Québec into an important mercantile and population colony. Champlain was named Governor of New France, and Richelieu forbade non-Roman Catholics from living there. Protestants were required to renounce their faith to establish themselves in New France; many chose instead to move to the English colonies. The Roman Catholic Church, and missionaries such as the Recollets and the Jesuits, became firmly established in the territory. Richelieu also introduced the seigneurial system, a semi-feudal system of farming that remained a characteristic feature of the St. Lawrence valley until the 19th century.
At the same time, however, the English colonies to the south began to raid the St. Lawrence valley, and in 1629 Québec itself was captured and held until 1632. Champlain returned to Québec that year, and requested that Sieur de Laviolette found another trading post at Trois-Rivières in 1634. Champlain died in 1635.
The Church, which after Champlain’s death was the most dominant force in New France, wanted to establish a utopian Christian community in the colony. In 1642, they sponsored a group of settlers led by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve who founded Ville-Marie, precursor to present-day Montreal, further up the St. Lawrence. Throughout the 1640s, Jesuit missionaries penetrated the Great Lakes region and converted many of the Huron natives. The missionaries came into conflict with the Iroquois, who frequently attacked Montreal. By 1649 both the Jesuit mission and Huron society in general were almost completely destroyed by Iroquois invasions and sickness.
Samuel de Champlain
In the 1650s, Montreal still had only a few dozen settlers and a severely underpopulated New France almost fell completely to the Iroquois attempts to drive the French out. In 1660, settler Adam Dollard des Ormeaux led a Canadian and Huron militia against a much larger Iroquois force; none of the Canadians survived. In 1663 New France finally became more secure when Louis XIV made it a province of France. In 1665 he sent a French garrison, the Carignan-Salières regiment, to Québec. The government of the colony was reformed along the lines of the government of France, with the Governor General and Intendant subordinate to the Minister of the Marine in France. In 1665, Jean Talon was sent by Minister of the Marine Jean-Baptiste Colbert to New France as the first Intendant. These reforms limited the power of the Bishop of Québec, who had held the greatest amount of power after the death of Champlain.
The 1666 census of New France was conducted by France's intendant, Jean Talon in the winter of 1665-1666. It showed a population of 3215 habitants in New France, many more than there had been only a few decades earlier. But the census showed a great difference in the number of men (2034) and women (1181). As a result, and hoping to make the colony the centre of France's colonial empire, Louis XIV decided to dispatch more than 700 single women, aged between 15 and 30 (known as les filles du roi) to New France. At the same time, marriages with the natives were encouraged and indentured servants, known as engagés, were also sent to New France. One such engagé, Etienne Trudeau, was the ancestor of future Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Talon also tried to reform the seigneurial system, forcing the seigneurs to actually reside on their land, and limiting the size of the seigneuries, in an attempt to make more land available to new settlers. These schemes were ultimately unsuccessful. Very few settlers arrived, and the various industries established by Talon did not surpass the importance of the fur trade.
Since Henry Hudson claimed Hudson Bay, James Bay and surrounding territory for the English, they had begun expanding their boundaries across what is now the Canadian north beyond the French-held territory of New France. In 1670, with the help of French coureurs des bois, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers, the Hudson's Bay Company was established to control the fur trade in all the land that drained into Hudson Bay. This ended the French monopoly on the Canadian fur trade. To compensate, the French extended their territory to the south, and to the west of the American colonies. In 1682, René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle explored the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and claimed the entire territory for France as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. He named this territory Louisiana. Although there was virtually no colonization in this part of New France, there were many strategic forts built there, under the orders of Governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac. Forts were also built in the older portions of New France that had not yet been settled.
In 1689 the English and Iroquois began an assault on New France, after many years of minor skirmishes throughout the English and French territories. This war, known as King William's War, ended in 1697, but a second war (Queen Anne's War) broke out in 1702. Québec survived the English invasions of both these wars, but Port Royal and Acadia fell in 1690. In 1713 peace came to New France with the Treaty of Utrecht. Although the treaty turned Newfoundland and part of Acadia (peninsular Nova Scotia) over to Britain, France remained in control of Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) and Fortress Louisbourg, as well as Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island) and part of what is today New Brunswick.
After the treaty, New France began to prosper. Industries, such as fishing and farming, which had failed under Talon, began to flourish. A "King’s Highway" was built between Montreal and Québec to encourage faster trade. The shipping industry also flourished as new ports were built and old ones were upgraded. The number of colonists greatly increased, and by 1720 Québec had become a self-sufficient colony with a population of 24,594 people. The Church, although now less powerful than it had originally been, had control over education and social welfare. These years of peace are often referred to by the French as New France's "Golden Age" but the aboriginal peoples regarded it as the continued decimation of their nations.
Peace lasted until 1744, when William Shirley, governor of Massachusetts, led an attack on Louisbourg. Both France and New France were unable to relieve the siege, and Louisbourg fell. France attempted to retake the fortress in 1746 but failed. It was returned under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, but this did not stop the warfare between the British and French in North America. In 1754 the French and Indian War began as the North American phase of the Seven Years' War (which did not technically begin in Europe until 1756), with the defeat of a small army led by Colonel George Washington by the French militia in the Ohio valley.
New France now had over 50,000 inhabitants, a vast increase from earlier in the century, but the British American colonies greatly outnumbered them with over one million people (including a substantial number of French Huguenots). It was much easier for the British colonists to organize attacks on New France than it was for the French to attack the British. In 1755 General Edward Braddock led an expedition against the French Fort Duquesne, and although they were numerically superior to the French militia and their Indian allies, Braddock's army was routed and Braddock was killed.
In 1758 Great Britain again captured Louisbourg, allowing them to blockade the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. This was essentially the death sentence of New France. In 1759 the British besieged Québec by sea and an army under General James Wolfe defeated the French under General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September. The garrison in Québec surrendered on September 18, and by the next year New France had been completely conquered by the British. The last French governor-general of New France, Pierre Francois de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, surrendered to British Major General Jeffrey Amherst on September 8, 1760. France finally ceded Canada to the British in the Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763.
French culture and religion remained dominant in most of the former territory of New France, until the arrival of British settlers led to the later creation of Upper Canada (today Ontario) and New Brunswick. The Louisiana Territory, under Spanish control since the end of the Seven Years' War, remained off-limits to settlement from the 13 American colonies. Following Napoleon Bonaparte's defeat of Spain, he took back the Louisiana Territory and in 1803 sold it to the new United States. This sale represented the end of the French colonial empire in North America except for the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon which it still controls to this day.
The Treaty of Paris 1763
The Treaty of Paris was signed on February 10, 1763, by the Kingdom of Great Britain, France and Spain with Portugal in agreement. Together with the Treaty of Hubertusburg, it ended the French and Indian War and the Seven Years' War. The treaties marked the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside of Europe.
While the bulk of conquered territories were restored to their pre-war owners, the British made some substantial overseas gains at the expense of France and, to a lesser extent, Spain. Preferring to keep Guadaloupe, France gave up Canada and all claims to territory east of the Mississippi River to Britain. Spain ceded Florida to the British but later received New Orleans and French Louisiana from France, and Cuba was restored to Spain. France retained Saint Pierre and Miquelon and recovered Guadeloupe and Martinique in exchange for Grenada and the Grenadines going to the British. In India the French lost out to the British, receiving back its "factories" (trading posts) but agreeing to support the British puppet governments as well as returning Sumatra and agreeing not to base troops in Bengal.
Britain returned the slave station on the isle of Gorée to the French but gained the Senegal River and its settlements. Britain agreed to demolish its fortifications in Honduras but received permission from Spain to keep a logwood-cutting colony there. Britain confirmed in the treaty the rights of its new citizens to practice the Roman Catholic religion and received confirmation of the continuation of the British king's right as an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.
Height of slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
Arab–Swahili slave traders and their captives along the Ruvuma River (in today's Tanzania and Mozambique) as witnessed by David Livingstone.
Slavery had long been practiced in Africa Between the 7th and 20th centuries, Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East) took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries (500 years), the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World More than 1 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries.
In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local politics. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.
A slave being inspected, from Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver.
Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.
In 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni de Verrazzano explored the eastern shore and named the new lands Francesca, in honor of King Francis I of France. In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of King Francis I. However, France was initially not interested in backing up these claims with settlement. French fishing fleets, however, continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, making alliances with Native American tribes that would become important once France began to occupy the land. French merchants soon realized the St. Lawrence region was full of valuable fur, especially beaver fur, which was becoming rare in Europe as the European beaver had almost been driven to extinction. Eventually, the French crown decided to colonize the territory to secure and expand its influence in America.
The vast territories that were to be known as Acadia and Canada were in some areas inhabited by nomadic Amerindian peoples or settlements of Hurons and Iroquois. These lands were full of unexploited and valuable natural riches which attracted all of Europe. By the 1580s, French trading companies had been set up, and ships were contracted to bring back furs. Much of what has happened between the natives and the European visitors around that time is not known for lack of historical records.
Map of New France by Samuel de Champlain
Early attempts at establishing permanent settlements were failures. In 1598 a trading post was established on Sable Island, off the coast of Acadia, but was unsuccessful. In 1600, a trading post was established at Tadoussac, but only five settlers survived the winter. In 1604 a settlement was founded at Île-Saint-Croix on Baie François (Bay of Fundy) which was moved to Port-Royal in 1605, only to be abandoned in 1607, reestablished in 1610 and destroyed in 1613 whereby settlers moved to other nearby locations.
In 1608, sponsored by Henry IV of France, Samuel de Champlain founded Québec with six families totalling 28 people, the first successful settlement in Canada. Colonization was slow and difficult. Many settlers died early. In 1630 there were only 100 colonists living in the settlement, and by 1640 there was 359.
Champlain quickly allied himself with the Algonquian and Montagnais peoples in the area, who were at war with the Iroquois. He also arranged to have young French men live with the natives, to learn their language and customs and help the French adapt to life in North America. These men, known as Voyageurs, such as Étienne Brûlé, extended French influence south and west to the Great Lakes and among the Huron tribes who lived there.
For the first few decades of Québec's existence, there were only a few dozen settlers there, while the English colonies to the south were much more populous and wealthy. Cardinal Richelieu, adviser to King Louis XIII, wished to make New France as significant as the English colonies. In 1627 Richelieu founded the Company of One Hundred Associates to invest in New France, promising land parcels to hundreds of new settlers and to turn Québec into an important mercantile and population colony. Champlain was named Governor of New France, and Richelieu forbade non-Roman Catholics from living there. Protestants were required to renounce their faith to establish themselves in New France; many chose instead to move to the English colonies. The Roman Catholic Church, and missionaries such as the Recollets and the Jesuits, became firmly established in the territory. Richelieu also introduced the seigneurial system, a semi-feudal system of farming that remained a characteristic feature of the St. Lawrence valley until the 19th century.
At the same time, however, the English colonies to the south began to raid the St. Lawrence valley, and in 1629 Québec itself was captured and held until 1632. Champlain returned to Québec that year, and requested that Sieur de Laviolette found another trading post at Trois-Rivières in 1634. Champlain died in 1635.
The Church, which after Champlain’s death was the most dominant force in New France, wanted to establish a utopian Christian community in the colony. In 1642, they sponsored a group of settlers led by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve who founded Ville-Marie, precursor to present-day Montreal, further up the St. Lawrence. Throughout the 1640s, Jesuit missionaries penetrated the Great Lakes region and converted many of the Huron natives. The missionaries came into conflict with the Iroquois, who frequently attacked Montreal. By 1649 both the Jesuit mission and Huron society in general were almost completely destroyed by Iroquois invasions and sickness.
Samuel de Champlain
In the 1650s, Montreal still had only a few dozen settlers and a severely underpopulated New France almost fell completely to the Iroquois attempts to drive the French out. In 1660, settler Adam Dollard des Ormeaux led a Canadian and Huron militia against a much larger Iroquois force; none of the Canadians survived. In 1663 New France finally became more secure when Louis XIV made it a province of France. In 1665 he sent a French garrison, the Carignan-Salières regiment, to Québec. The government of the colony was reformed along the lines of the government of France, with the Governor General and Intendant subordinate to the Minister of the Marine in France. In 1665, Jean Talon was sent by Minister of the Marine Jean-Baptiste Colbert to New France as the first Intendant. These reforms limited the power of the Bishop of Québec, who had held the greatest amount of power after the death of Champlain.
The 1666 census of New France was conducted by France's intendant, Jean Talon in the winter of 1665-1666. It showed a population of 3215 habitants in New France, many more than there had been only a few decades earlier. But the census showed a great difference in the number of men (2034) and women (1181). As a result, and hoping to make the colony the centre of France's colonial empire, Louis XIV decided to dispatch more than 700 single women, aged between 15 and 30 (known as les filles du roi) to New France. At the same time, marriages with the natives were encouraged and indentured servants, known as engagés, were also sent to New France. One such engagé, Etienne Trudeau, was the ancestor of future Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Talon also tried to reform the seigneurial system, forcing the seigneurs to actually reside on their land, and limiting the size of the seigneuries, in an attempt to make more land available to new settlers. These schemes were ultimately unsuccessful. Very few settlers arrived, and the various industries established by Talon did not surpass the importance of the fur trade.
Since Henry Hudson claimed Hudson Bay, James Bay and surrounding territory for the English, they had begun expanding their boundaries across what is now the Canadian north beyond the French-held territory of New France. In 1670, with the help of French coureurs des bois, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers, the Hudson's Bay Company was established to control the fur trade in all the land that drained into Hudson Bay. This ended the French monopoly on the Canadian fur trade. To compensate, the French extended their territory to the south, and to the west of the American colonies. In 1682, René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle explored the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and claimed the entire territory for France as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. He named this territory Louisiana. Although there was virtually no colonization in this part of New France, there were many strategic forts built there, under the orders of Governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac. Forts were also built in the older portions of New France that had not yet been settled.
In 1689 the English and Iroquois began an assault on New France, after many years of minor skirmishes throughout the English and French territories. This war, known as King William's War, ended in 1697, but a second war (Queen Anne's War) broke out in 1702. Québec survived the English invasions of both these wars, but Port Royal and Acadia fell in 1690. In 1713 peace came to New France with the Treaty of Utrecht. Although the treaty turned Newfoundland and part of Acadia (peninsular Nova Scotia) over to Britain, France remained in control of Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) and Fortress Louisbourg, as well as Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island) and part of what is today New Brunswick.
After the treaty, New France began to prosper. Industries, such as fishing and farming, which had failed under Talon, began to flourish. A "King’s Highway" was built between Montreal and Québec to encourage faster trade. The shipping industry also flourished as new ports were built and old ones were upgraded. The number of colonists greatly increased, and by 1720 Québec had become a self-sufficient colony with a population of 24,594 people. The Church, although now less powerful than it had originally been, had control over education and social welfare. These years of peace are often referred to by the French as New France's "Golden Age" but the aboriginal peoples regarded it as the continued decimation of their nations.
Peace lasted until 1744, when William Shirley, governor of Massachusetts, led an attack on Louisbourg. Both France and New France were unable to relieve the siege, and Louisbourg fell. France attempted to retake the fortress in 1746 but failed. It was returned under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, but this did not stop the warfare between the British and French in North America. In 1754 the French and Indian War began as the North American phase of the Seven Years' War (which did not technically begin in Europe until 1756), with the defeat of a small army led by Colonel George Washington by the French militia in the Ohio valley.
New France now had over 50,000 inhabitants, a vast increase from earlier in the century, but the British American colonies greatly outnumbered them with over one million people (including a substantial number of French Huguenots). It was much easier for the British colonists to organize attacks on New France than it was for the French to attack the British. In 1755 General Edward Braddock led an expedition against the French Fort Duquesne, and although they were numerically superior to the French militia and their Indian allies, Braddock's army was routed and Braddock was killed.
In 1758 Great Britain again captured Louisbourg, allowing them to blockade the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. This was essentially the death sentence of New France. In 1759 the British besieged Québec by sea and an army under General James Wolfe defeated the French under General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September. The garrison in Québec surrendered on September 18, and by the next year New France had been completely conquered by the British. The last French governor-general of New France, Pierre Francois de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, surrendered to British Major General Jeffrey Amherst on September 8, 1760. France finally ceded Canada to the British in the Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763.
French culture and religion remained dominant in most of the former territory of New France, until the arrival of British settlers led to the later creation of Upper Canada (today Ontario) and New Brunswick. The Louisiana Territory, under Spanish control since the end of the Seven Years' War, remained off-limits to settlement from the 13 American colonies. Following Napoleon Bonaparte's defeat of Spain, he took back the Louisiana Territory and in 1803 sold it to the new United States. This sale represented the end of the French colonial empire in North America except for the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon which it still controls to this day.
The Treaty of Paris 1763
The Treaty of Paris was signed on February 10, 1763, by the Kingdom of Great Britain, France and Spain with Portugal in agreement. Together with the Treaty of Hubertusburg, it ended the French and Indian War and the Seven Years' War. The treaties marked the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside of Europe.
While the bulk of conquered territories were restored to their pre-war owners, the British made some substantial overseas gains at the expense of France and, to a lesser extent, Spain. Preferring to keep Guadaloupe, France gave up Canada and all claims to territory east of the Mississippi River to Britain. Spain ceded Florida to the British but later received New Orleans and French Louisiana from France, and Cuba was restored to Spain. France retained Saint Pierre and Miquelon and recovered Guadeloupe and Martinique in exchange for Grenada and the Grenadines going to the British. In India the French lost out to the British, receiving back its "factories" (trading posts) but agreeing to support the British puppet governments as well as returning Sumatra and agreeing not to base troops in Bengal.
Britain returned the slave station on the isle of Gorée to the French but gained the Senegal River and its settlements. Britain agreed to demolish its fortifications in Honduras but received permission from Spain to keep a logwood-cutting colony there. Britain confirmed in the treaty the rights of its new citizens to practice the Roman Catholic religion and received confirmation of the continuation of the British king's right as an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.
Height of slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
Arab–Swahili slave traders and their captives along the Ruvuma River (in today's Tanzania and Mozambique) as witnessed by David Livingstone.
Slavery had long been practiced in Africa Between the 7th and 20th centuries, Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East) took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries (500 years), the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World More than 1 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries.
In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local politics. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.
A slave being inspected, from Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver.
Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.
The Viking Settlements
Vinland (pronounced "Winland") was the name given to part of North America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Eiríksson, about year 1000. Later archeological evidence of Norse settlement in North America was found in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. Whether this was the Vinland of the Norse accounts is the subject of debate. It must be recognized that the Vikings did not perceive the exploration and settlement of Greenland and Vinland as any different than that of founding Iceland. It was merely an extension of their homeland and notions as to a different world only surfaced upon meeting the natives, noticeably different from Irish monks in Iceland. The colonization of the "New World" only occurred some time after Christopher Columbus discovered Central America for economic reasons. Vinland was first recorded by Adam of Bremen, a geographer and historian, in his book Descriptio insularum Aquilonis of approximately 1075. To write it he visited King Svend Estridson, who had knowledge of the northern lands.
Landing at L'Anse aux Meadows reenactment 2000
The main source of information about the Viking voyages to Vinland can be derived from two Icelandic sagas, The Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. These sagas were written down approximately 250 years after the settlement of Greenland and are open to significant interpretation. Combining those two, it seems that there were a few separate attempts to establish a Norse settlement in Vinland, including one led by Þorfinnur Karlsefni, none of which lasted for more than two years. The disbandment of the small Viking colony probably had several causes. Disagreements among the men about the few women that followed on the trip, and fighting with the skrælingjar (Native Americans) already living on the land, are both indicated in the written sources.
The story tells that after the settlement of Greenland by the Vikings, a merchant by the name of Bjarni Herjólfsson, who was on his way to Iceland from Greenland, strayed off course due to a storm and thus accidentally discovered the east coast of America in 985 or 986. He then afterwards told the story and sold the ships to Leifur Eiríksson, who, according to the stories, sailed back to those areas. It was late in the summer, and he did not want to stay over winter in this new land, which he noted was covered with forests, so he did not land and managed to reach Greenland before winter fell. With wood being in very short supply in Greenland, the settlers there were eager to explore the riches of this new land. Some years later Leifur Eiríksson explored this coast, and established a short-lived colony on a part of the coast that he called Vinland.
The first discovery made by Leifur was according to the stories Helluland ("flatstone land"), possibly Baffin Island. Markland ("wood land"), possibly Labrador Peninsula was discovered next (there is some evidence that the tree line in northern Labrador has been diminished or eroded since circa 1000) and lastly Vinland (commonly interpreted as "wine land", but interpreted as "pasture land" by others), possibly Newfoundland. The expedition included both families and livestocks and the aims were to begin new settlements. Straumfjörður was the name of the northern settlement and Hóp was the name for the southern settlement. However, according to the stories it was cancelled soon due to conflicts with the "skrælingjar" (possibly the later Beothuks, or Dorset people). New voyages for woodcutting etc. seem to have been discussed even as late as the 1300s.
Until the 19th century, the idea of Viking settlement in North America was considered by historians to be the product of mere folk tales. The first scholarly theory for the idea was put forth in 1837 by Danish literary historian and antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn in his book Antiquitates Americanæ. Rafn had made an exhaustive examination of the sagas, as well as potential settlement sites on the North American coast and concluded that Vinland was a real place in North America that had been settled by the Norse.
Historians do not agree on the location of Vinland. Rafn believed that Vinland was probably in New England. In the 1960s a Viking settlement was discovered and excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and many historians believe that this was Leifur's settlement, thus connecting Vinland to Newfoundland. Others have followed Rafn in sharing the belief that Vinland was farther to the south. In this view, L'Anse aux Meadows was perhaps part of an undocumented later attempt at settlement.
Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.
*Your 2nd test on North American geography, i.e. Canada and the United States, will take place on Friday October 2 from 2:00 pm to 3:01pm.
*Your test on chapter 1 Part B: The early explorers will take place on Tuesday October 6 from 11:16 am to 12:18 pm.
*Your test on chapter 1 Part B: The early explorers will take place on Tuesday October 6 from 11:16 am to 12:18 pm.
October 14
- Geographically speaking, what are your coordinates?
- Answer questions 1-4 on page 11.
- Answer questions 1-5 on page 13.