Europeans Contacts with Canada's Natives

European Entry into Canada:

Europeans interactions with native Canadians are believed to have taken place around 10th century in regions around the Arctic, Greenland, and Labrador when the Vikings visited Baffin Island and areas along the Atlantic Coast.

Although there’s little documentation of the interaction between the Vikings and native Canadian, but the natives must have resisted the Europeans and putting an end to attempts of the establishment of European’s settlement in Canada at the time. However Europeans still continued to make voyages to Canada with the most notable visit being that of Giovanni Caboto, an Italian explorer in 1497.

He traveled to Newfoundland and later to Cape Breton (present day Nova Scotia), where he met with natives who he referred to as Indians.

Hy, this could be the reason why he is sometimes considered the discoverer of Canada.

However, even during this period of visit no settlement was established.

The Previous Years

In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano also an Italian explorer made a visit to Canada and North America on behalf of the king of France. In his voyage, he was much appalled by the sceneries of the beautiful trees and landscapes and went ahead to name Eastern Canada Arcadia (Acadia).

Later between 1576-1578, Martin Frobisher made three expeditions to the Canadian Arctic via Labrador. This was followed but further explorations by Europeans in the region, which they believed had significant gold deposits though there were minimum contacts with the Inuit who inhabited the area.

In 1583, another English explorer, Sir Humphrey Gilbert managed to take control of the Island of Newfoundland with intentions of settlement in the area bringing in a handful of English settlers.

His intentions were however short-lived because he met his fate on a return voyage when the ship he and his crew was traveling in capsized.

Start of the European Invasion

As years went by explorations became more frequent especially towards the late 16th century when Europeans, began frequenting the North Atlantic for fishing purposes.

It seemed like this was not a problem to the natives…

Well, as long as the fishermen were ready to be involved in trade with the natives and did not attempt to settle on their land.

This contributed to more European visits including the French, Spanish, and Portuguese who came to fish during spring in Newfoundland. By 17th century over 1000 European would arrive each year for fishing as well as fur trade with the natives in the Newfoundland region.

However, the French and British seemed to be the most frequent visitors who integrated most with the natives. Initially, the French were more concentrated on the island of Newfoundland, in Acadia, in the St. Lawrence Valley, and some around the Great Lakes and extending as far as the Ohio Valley down south while the British were left with Hudson and James bays where they later laid claim to Newfoundland, Acadia, and then the entire east coast of North America.

There were also several smaller Dutch and Spanish settlements in the south, while the Russians occupied lands in the northwest, although none of these areas were in Canada.