Grade by Grade
A. Heritage and Identity · Interactions of Indigenous Peoples and Europeans prior to 1713

Why Did Europeans Come? Explorers and Settlements

A3.3 A2.3 A2.2About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can describe the main reasons Europeans explored Indigenous lands.
  • I can explain why Europeans built permanent settlements.
  • I can place key explorers and settlements on a timeline and a map.
  • I can tell a primary source from a secondary source.

Words to know

explorer
A person who travels to places that are new to them to learn about them, often looking for riches or routes.
motive
A reason for doing something.
Northwest Passage
A sea route around the north of North America to Asia that Europeans hoped to find.
settlement
A place where people come to live for good, not just visit.
colony
A land ruled by a faraway country. New France was a colony of France.
missionary
A person sent to teach their religion to other people.
primary source
Evidence made at the time by people who were there, like a letter, a map, a journal or a wampum belt.
secondary source
Something made later by people who were not there, like a textbook or a museum website.

Let's start with a mystery

In 1497, sailors came home to England with an amazing story. An Italian diplomat in London wrote that John Cabot's crew said the sea near a "new found land" was so full of fish that they could catch them with baskets.

Why would that news make people in Europe excited? Hold that thought!

The first Europeans: the Norse

About 1000 years ago, Norse people from Greenland and Iceland sailed to the northern tip of Newfoundland. You can still see the remains of their buildings at L'Anse aux Meadows, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They did not stay long. Their sagas (stories) tell of meeting the people already living there.

About 500 years later, more Europeans began to arrive, and this time they kept coming.

Grass-covered sod houses with wooden doors stand on a grassy shore beside the grey sea.
Norse people built houses like these, with thick walls and roofs of turf (grass and earth). Reconstructed sod houses at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland show visitors today how the Norse lived about 1000 years ago. AI-generated image

Why did Europeans explore?

Europeans had many motives (reasons):

  1. A route to Asia. Europeans wanted spices, silk and other goods from China and India. They hoped to find a shortcut by sailing west, and later a Northwest Passage around the north of North America.
  2. Fish. Cod were plentiful off Newfoundland. Fishing ships from France, Portugal, Spain (including Basque whalers) and England came every summer.
  3. Riches. Explorers hoped to find gold and other treasure.
  4. Furs. Europeans wanted beaver fur to make felt hats. Beavers had become scarce in Europe.
  5. Power and land. Kings wanted to claim lands before rival countries did.
  6. Religion. Many Europeans wanted to spread Christianity, so missionaries came too.

The lands they "claimed" were not empty. They were Indigenous homelands, with nations who had their own governments and laws.

route to AsiaNfishgold, richesbeaver furland, powerreligion
Six motives for exploring. In the activity, you will use symbols like these on your own timeline.
WhoWhenWhat happened
John Cabot (for England)1497Reached the coast of Newfoundland or Cape Breton (historians debate which). Reported huge numbers of cod.
Jacques Cartier (for France)1534Explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence. At Gaspé he met Stadacona people led by Donnacona and put up a large cross, claiming the land for France.
Jacques Cartier1535–1536Sailed up the St. Lawrence to Stadacona and Hochelaga. His crew got scurvy in winter. The Stadacona people showed them a medicine made from an evergreen tree (probably eastern white cedar), and many sailors were saved.
Samuel de Champlain (for France)1605 and 1608Helped found Port-Royal in Acadia (1605) and founded Québec (1608) as a fur-trading post.
Henry Hudson (for England)1610–1611Searched for the Northwest Passage and sailed into Hudson Bay.
Hudson's Bay Company (English)1670Got a charter from the English king to trade for furs in all the lands draining into Hudson Bay.
Some key explorers and events. Each is a story with Indigenous people in it too.
1497 Cabot1608 Québec1670 HBC1534 Cartier1642 Montréal1713 Utrecht1490
A timeline from 1490 to 1713, drawn to scale. Notice how long it took before the first lasting French settlements (1605 and 1608) after Cartier's voyages. HBC = Hudson's Bay Company. Utrecht = the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which you will learn about later in this unit.

From visiting to staying: settlements

At first, Europeans came in summer and went home. Why did they decide to build permanent settlements?

  • To control the fur trade. A post that stayed open all year, like Québec (1608), let French traders meet First Nations trading partners first, before rivals.
  • To hold the land against rival countries, like England and the Netherlands.
  • To bring missionaries. Récollet missionaries came in 1615 and Jesuits in 1625. Ville-Marie (Montréal) was founded in 1642 by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance as a religious mission.
  • Farming families were later brought to grow food so the colony could feed itself.

The French king gave trading companies the right to all the fur trade (a monopoly) if they promised to bring settlers. Many companies made money from furs but brought very few settlers.

Worked example

Let's sort the motives

Sort these into reasons to explore or reasons to settle: (a) finding a route to Asia, (b) running a trading post all year, (c) building farms to feed the colony, (d) looking for gold.

  1. Exploring means travelling to look for something new. (a) and (d) are things explorers searched for.
  2. Settling means staying for good. (b) and (c) only make sense if people live there all year.

Explore: (a) route to Asia, (d) gold. Settle: (b) year-round trading post, (c) farms.

Worked example

Primary or secondary?

Is Champlain's own map from 1632 a primary or secondary source? What about a 2024 website about Champlain?

  1. Ask: was it made at the time, by someone who was there?
  2. Champlain drew his map in his own lifetime, from his travels and from what First Nations guides told him. That is a primary source.
  3. The website was written almost 400 years later by people who were not there. That is a secondary source.

Champlain's map: primary. The 2024 website: secondary. Both are useful, but always ask whose perspective each one shows.

Hidden helpers

Many European maps and journals from this time were made with help from First Nations guides, who drew maps on bark or in the sand and explained the rivers. Explorers often did not give them credit.

Just for fun

John Cabot's crew said the cod were so thick you could scoop them up in baskets. Imagine going fishing with a laundry basket instead of a rod!

Hands-on activity

Make a motives timeline

You need: a long strip of paper (tape two sheets together), a ruler, a pencil and coloured pencils.

  1. Draw a line and mark 1490 at one end and 1713 at the other. Mark every 20 years in between. (Count with a grown-up: 1490, 1510, 1530 ...)
  2. Add each event from the table at about the right place.
  3. Beside each event, draw a small symbol for the motive: a fish for fishing, a beaver for furs, a compass for a route to Asia, a cross for religion, a crown for claiming land.
  4. Which symbol appears most? Talk about what that tells you.

Bonus: find Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Québec and Hudson Bay on a map of Canada.

Your turn

1

Give three motives Europeans had for exploring.

2

Who founded Québec, and in what year?

3

What were Europeans hoping the Northwest Passage would be?

4

Why did Europeans want beaver fur?

5

Who showed Cartier's sick crew a cedar medicine in the winter of 1535–1536?

6

Is a journal written by an explorer at the time a primary or secondary source?

More practice: warm-up

1

Where are the remains of the Norse buildings?

2

Which country did Jacques Cartier sail for?

3

What fish was plentiful off Newfoundland?

4

What city began as Ville-Marie in 1642?

5

What is a settlement?

More practice: on your own

1

Why was a trading post open all year better for French traders than summer visits?

2

Why is it wrong to say Europeans "discovered" an empty land?

3

Cartier put up a cross at Gaspé in 1534. Why might Donnacona have been unhappy about it?

4

A museum website from 2023 describes Cartier's voyage. Primary or secondary? Why?

5

Why did trading companies bring very few settlers, even when they promised to?

Challenge

1

Explain how fish, furs and religion were each a reason for a different group of Europeans to come.

2

Cabot's report came to us through a diplomat's letter about what the sailors said. Why should we be a little careful with this source?

3

Champlain's maps used knowledge from First Nations guides. What does this tell us about who "explored" the land?

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which was a main reason Europeans explored North America?

2.

Who founded Québec in 1608?

3.

Beaver fur was wanted in Europe mainly to make...

4.

Which is a primary source?

5.

Why did Europeans build permanent settlements?

6.

Who helped Cartier's crew survive scurvy?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Europeans came for many reasons: a route to Asia, fish, furs, riches, land and religion (A3.3). This lesson also introduces timelines and maps (A2.3) and primary vs secondary sources (A2.2).

How to help at home:

  • Ask "What was the motive?" when you read about any explorer.
  • Point out the difference between "new to Europeans" and "new". The word "discovered" leaves out the people already living here.
  • Look at old maps online (Library and Archives Canada has many) and ask, "Who helped make this map?"

Common difficulties:

  • Mixing up explorers: a timeline helps. Cabot (1497, England), Cartier (1534, France), Champlain (1608, France), Hudson (1610, England).
  • Primary vs secondary: the test is "made at the time, by someone who was there?"
  • Dates: Cabot's exact landing place is still debated by historians; it is fine to say so.