History Unit #1: NEW FRANCE

• 1530s – France began to send explorers to find new, unknown lands

• First Nations peoples lived on North American continent for thousands of years before explorers

• Relied on land for: food, clothing, shelter, transportation and medicine

• Respected: animals, weather, seasons, land & water

1534 – King of France sent Jacques Cartier to explore

Must find two things:• Shipping route to

Orient to import goods to Europe

• Precious gems and metals to make France rich

• In 3 weeks, Cartier arrived off coast of Newfoundland

• He kept going to find “new” land in Quebec and Montreal

• Cartier spent winter (almost all crew got scurvy - disease caused by lack of vitamin C)

• Went back to king with a boat of rocks (not diamonds)• Never came back, felt he had failed at finding route &

discovering riches

• Samuel de Champlain – went in 1603 and made many voyages until 1635 with same goals as Cartier

• Made an alliance with the Huron people (First Nations peoples) – one of his shots killed two Iroquois

• Champlain was a cartographer (map-maker)• 20 years working tirelessly to build a colony for France• Nickname: “Father of New France”

• Jesuit priests were sent as missionaries to New France• 1611 Jesuits arrived with 2 goals: spread Roman

Catholic religion to First Nations & start boys school

• Ursuline Nuns led by Marie Martin in 1639 to go to Quebec and convert the First Nations people to Catholicism

• Started a convent (community of nuns, dedicated to God)• Started girls schools for First Nations and settlers daugthers

Next class... Interactions between Aboriginals & Explorers