From northwest France the shores of North America are only about 2,500 miles 4,023 kilometers away Columbus traveled almost twice that far more than 4,500 miles 7,242 kilometers to get from Spain to the Bahamas where he first landed So it is not surprising that northern Europeans such as the French found it easier to explore the shores of what is now Canada In fact 500 years before Columbus’s voyages Scandinavians known as Vikings had also visited the North American coast and even tried unsuccessfully to settle there Vikings came on ships to North America in search of supplies like timber French fishermen generally did not keep ship logs but their reports of the new land quickly reached the ears of their king François I Increasingly worried about Spain’s growing power in the Americas he sent an Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano across the sea in 1523 Verrazzano’s mission was to establish a claim to North American lands and also look for a water route to the Far East Europeans were always seeking more direct ways to reach China India and present day Indonesia where they could buy valuable trade goods such as silk and spices 6
Verrazzano’s voyage launched a short but remarkable period of harmony and cooperation between Europeans and indigenous peoples that was very different from the conflicts colonists brought to other parts of the New World The success of New France depended on water-based travel At one time New France included the mighty Mississippi River and five immense lakes which hold one-fifth of all of the fresh surface water on Earth Today these lakes Lake Superior Lake Michigan Lake Huron Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are known as the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada Giovanni da Verrazzano’s mission was to navigate the shores between Florida and Newfoundland for a passage to the Pacific Ocean Giovanni da Verrazzano 1485 1528 Verrazzano however never saw the Great Lakes or the Mississippi He reached the Atlantic coast somewhere near present-day North Carolina and sailed to Cape Breton Island northwest of Nova Scotia before turning for home Perhaps because of the region’s heavy fogs he missed the doorway to a part of America that would later be fiercely fought over by Britain and France This doorway was the Gulf of St Lawrence located on the eastern coast of what is now Canada 7
It was up to another explorer Jacques Cartier to find this opening into the North American continent and its riches of fish fur timber and minerals In 1534 Cartier left France in two small ships He was also searching for the waterway to the East and must have thought he had found it when he sailed into the Gulf of St Lawrence He explored its shoreline installed a large cross to claim the region for François I and sailed home Returning in 1535 with three ships and a hundred men he moved up the Fleuve St Laurent or St Lawrence River The river led to a magnificent system of waterways that would prove extremely important to American trade and industry but as Cartier probably realized it did not lead to the Far East Jacques Cartier formed relations with the Iroquois to help him locate riches like silver gold and diamonds to bring back to France 8
Not all of the glaciers in Canada melted There are still many glaciers that can be visited ORIGIN OF THE GREAT LAKES The five Great Lakes exist because of ice More than a million years ago enormous glaciers covered the land They were as thick as 6,500 feet 2,000 meters Their weight depressed the soil where rivers had existed before the glaciers crept southward from the North Pole About 12,000 years ago as the Earth’s climate warmed the glaciers retreated toward the north Large amounts of melted water from the glaciers collected in the depressions forming the five Great Lakes and the many rivers that connect to them 9
