Canadian History

Chapter Three

European Exploration and Colonization

CHAPTER 3 Outcomes Students will…  Learn how First Peoples and Europeans interacted in the Northwest, and what the results were

The Rise of the Hudson’s Bay Company – p. 78-82 Word Bank

Prince Rupert Nonsuch fur trade Hudson’s Bay Company Baymen Rupert’s Land Orkney Islands Hudson Bay voyageurs York Factory

 In the early 1600s, the French had  In 1659, Radisson and Groselliers established the colony of Nouvelle- returned to Montreal with a plan to set France along the St. Lawrence River. up a trading post in Hudson Bay, which The British had started colonizing would cut down on the cost of Atlantic Canada. transporting furs from the Northwest to  The Northwest – the area north and Europe. They hoped the French king west of Lake Superior, was mostly would help finance this plan. unknown to Europeans, but after 1670,  They hoped to be welcomed by the the French began to travel west more French king, but instead were punished often. for trading furs without a license and  The desire for furs, especially the had their furs confiscated. beaver, had led to the growth of the  1665 – Radisson and Groselliers ______, and the exhausting of the presented their Hudson Bay fur trading supply of furs around the eastern Great plan to the British. King Charles II Lakes. agreed to sponsor the plan. The king’s  In order to find new supplies and cousin ______helped organize increase profits, the French began the finances for the journey. building fur-trading forts further west  1668, two ships left England, bound for along the St. Lawrence River and Great Hudson Bay. One ship, The Eaglet, Lakes. turned back off the coast of Ireland. The other ship, the ______, completed the  In 1654 two coureurs de de bois, journey, reaching as far as James Bay, Médard Chouart Des Groseilliers and within Hudson Bay. After a successful his brother-in-law Pierre Espirit trading period during the winter of Radisson travelled from Quebec to the 1668-1669, the Nonsuch returned to interior of North America. England.  They built the first European trading  Because the fur-trading expedition was post on Chequamegon Bay on Lake successful, King Charles II granted a Superior. charter (kind of like a licence to  First Nations people in the area told organize) to Prince Rupert and his them of large fur-trading regions to the partners. The group was called the north and west of them, in the area “Company of Adventurers of England known as ______Trading into Hudson’s Bay” – better known as the ______ The name of the area controlled by the (HBC). HBC was ______. It included  The HBC was given a monopoly over the what is now Northern Quebec and fur trade in all the land whose rivers Ontario, all of Manitoba, most of drained into Hudson Bay. It also had Saskatchewan and southern Alberta, a wide legal and trading powers over the portion of the Northwest Territories area, as well as complete administrative and Nunavut, and parts of Minnesota and judicial control. and North Dakota in the US.

Above: Rupert’s Land

 During the 1600s, British businesses different reports supplied by the were expanding around the world. officers working on Hudson Bay. Companies such as the British East India  HBC employees were often called Company and the HBC were formed to ______. Most were indentured servants make money from resources that were (labourers who would work under unique to different parts of the world. contract for a period of several years)  The HBC appointed a governor and a who came from the ______, committee that oversaw the running of off the coast of Scotland. the company.  The HBC considered Orkney Islanders to  By 1685, there were several trading be well-suited for life in the Hudson Bay forts. A fort was commanded by a chief fur trade, as they were used to a harsh factor and a council of officers. climate, had excellent boat-handling  The HBC headquarters was in London, skills and were hard workers. England, where the governor and  In theory, the HBC’s monopoly was committee set the basic policies for enormous, but in reality the HBC only Rupert’s Land, based on a variety of controlled a small area near Hudson Bay.  The British fur-trade system depended network of trading partnerships. At first on First Nations traders bringing furs to Europeans easily fit into these trading the coastal forts. French fur-traders patterns, and both Europeans and First ventured further inland to trade directly Nations profited during these early with the First Nations people. years. First Nations people received  The HBC’s original mission to seek the new trade goods, such as metal tools Northwest Passage to Asia became and Europeans received knowledge and second once the fur trade began to technology that helped them survive grow in size and profit. and travel in the new environment.  First Nations peoples across North VIDEO: The Company That Built a America had long had their own Country Covering pages 77-82, please complete the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.

Fur Trade Questions, Part 1

1. What was the main plan of Radisson and Groseilliers during the 1650s? 2. Why did Radisson and Groseilliers go to the British with their plans? 3. What was the Nonsuch? Where did it finally land? 4. When was the Hudson’s Bay Company founded? What was its purpose? 5. What land made up Rupert’s Land? 6. Where was the HBC management located? 7. What is an indentured servant? 8. Why were the Orkney Islanders considered to be well-suited for work with the HBC? 9. How much territory did the HBC actually control? 10. How was the French fur trade different from the English (HBC) fur trade? 11. What did Europeans and First Nations receive during the trading process?

European Rivalries and the Western Fur Trade (p. 83-87)

The French-British Rivalry: Part One (Huron) and Algonquin First Nations. They were forced to  In the early 1600s, the French seek trading partners farther dominated the North American fur west. trade. o Creation of the Hudson’s Bay  Montreal was the main depot. Furs Company (HBC) in 1670. Caused were shipped from there to Europe. a reduction in the number of  Between 1640 and 1670, two events furs that were being sent to motivated French expansion into the Montreal before being shipped Northwest: to Europe. French responded by o Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) negotiating with the First Wars: French lost their allies in Nations and aggressive military the fur trade, the Wendat policies designed to break the to explore the West in order to find a HBC’s hold on Hudson Bay. route to the Pacific Ocean. The French  1681: French authorities began giving wanted to find a route through the licenses to coureurs de bois, to continent to establish trade with Asia recognize the role they played in the fur and extend the fur trade. trade. The licensed traders were called  La Verendrye left Montreal in 1731 with ______. a group that included three of his sons. Over the following years, he built a Battle for the Bay series of fur trading posts that became  From 1670-1700 the French tried to French bases for operations in the destroy the HBC’s forts along Hudson West. Bay.  1738 La Verendrye establishes forts at  1682: HBC establishes their first Fort Rouge (present-day Winnipeg) and headquarters at Port Nelson. The Fort La Reine (present-day Portage la French sent out a naval force to capture Prairie). and destroy the fort in 1684.  La Verendrye travelled through Lake  The HBC then relocated and rebuilt the Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, Lake fort on the Hayes River, and called it Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan River. York Factory (which is still there). He was part of the founding of Fort Dauphin, Fort Bourbon (Grand Rapids),  After war broke out in Europe in 1688, Fort Paskoya (The Pas). the British and French regularly sent  expeditions to raid and capture each La Verendrye also explored the other’s trading posts. Saskatchewan River and two of his sons even reached the Rockies. They also  In 1697, France captured ______explored North and South Dakota. and prevented the English from having a monopoly in the region for the next Trade Pushes Inland Expansion 16 years.  1713: Treaty of Utrecht was signed,  The French move to inland trading ending the War of Spanish Succession provided a great deal of competition for involving England and France. France the British. gave up all claims to Hudson Bay and  Instead of waiting at a coastal post for the region returned to British fur First Nations to bring furs to them, the traders. The French then planned to French travelled to First Nations expand fur trade operations in territory to trade with them. territories in the Northwest.  The HBC found that voyageurs had been diverting many furs from English to French traders by intercepting First The French-British Rivalry: Part Two Nations traders on their travels north. The HBC realized that to combat this,  1730: government of Nouvelle-France they had to move inland to trade, just financed an expedition by La Verendrye like the French. The First Inland Fort presence as intrusion into their territory.  1743: HBC built its first inland post at  Anthony Henday sent by the HBC to Henley House, 200 km inland from the journey inland to invite First Nations to coast on the Albany River (northern trade at British posts. Henday travelled Ontario, emptying into James Bay). across the prairies to the foothills of the  1750s: Henley House was attacked Rocky Mountains, but the journey did twice by the French, who saw its not result in changes to trade. VIDEO: Fort Prince of Wales

Chapter 3 Notes p. 88-92 Word Bank

Country-born Home Guard Pemmican Custom of the country Metis firearms

 The Innimowin (Swampy Cree) and the ______Nakota (Assiniboine Cree) were the ______. primary middlemen for the fur trade  This followed the First Nations’ tradition involving the Hudson’s Bay Company of building alliances through marriages. until the 1720s.  French officials hoped that marriage  Using pre-existing trading alliances, the between the French and First Nations Innimowin and Nakota controlled trade would aid acculturation, where the First in the areas near the HBC posts for Nations brides and children of country decades. marriages would adopt French  These HBC middlemen would transport language, religion and culture. furs upriver to trading posts on Hudson  Instead, many of the French traders Bay. began adopting First Nations ways of  Many middlemen and their families life. A new culture and people began to who settled near the HBC forts began to arise from the country marriages – the be known as the ______. ______. The children of this Some First Nations people worked for culture were raised with elements of the traders, hunting paddling supply both First Nations and French culture. canoes and making snowshoes.  The London-based HBC initially did not  After trading posts began to spread permit its workers from marrying First inland in 1774, the role of middlemen Nations women. This policy was broken declined. Later on, Home Guard First many times. By the 1740s, the HBC Nations took part in the fur trade by began to relax this rule. HBC employee supplying fur traders with food and families began to settle around HBC other supplies. forts and became a large part of the  Many French traders married First Home Guard. Nations women in a process known as  The children of HBC Baymen and First mixture of dried bison meat and fat or Nations were known as ______berries called ______. ______. These families developed a  Fur traders that moved west carried culture distinct from that of the French diseases such as smallpox, influenza, Metis. measles and scarlet fever. As the fur  First Nations women in the fur trade trade expanded westward, so did these served in several valuable roles, such as diseases, sometimes wiping out entire companionship and providing communities. knowledge of survival in the wilderness  As had been the case around the Great Lakes, of the Northwest. the uneven distribution of ______ The women also accompanied fur resulted in deadly conflicts between First traders and explorers, providing food, Nations communities. First Nations groups that preparing furs for travel, helping paddle traded for guns often used their new weapons and repair canoes and acted as guides. to maintain control over territory and positions  First Nations women also provided within the fur trade. kinship connections to the European men they married, which opened the door to trading partnerships.  Women married to European men also raised families, made moccasins, cleaned and tanned pelts. They helped make various types of food, including a p. 94-101 from Textbook GUIDED NOTES Word Bank (yes, the word “pemmican” appears twice) 1821 Metis monopoly North West Company pemmican David Thompson pemmican Simon Fraser Seven Years’ War voyageurs Scots Competition and Exploration Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser and  Competition between Britain and Peter Pond. France across the world turned into war  The NWC made efforts to blend Scottish in 1755, with the start of the and French cultures and worked to ______. build relationships with First Nations  The French surrendered control of New customers in the Northwest. France in 1759.  The HBC expected that with the lack of a French presence that they would be assured of a continued ______of the fur trade.  The French traders were replaced, however with non-HBC English, Scottish and American traders taking the French presence, trade routes and place in the fur trade. Competition Heats Up  The French approach to the fur trade, of moving inland, was successful.  The HBC experienced a decline in the number of furs received. The Pattern of Expansion  In 1774, HBC’s Samuel Hearne  NWC refused to recognize the HBC’s established an HBC post inland on the monopoly. The HBC had no way to Saskatchewan River. enforce the monopoly. The North West Company is formed  NWC kept the French pattern of  The costs of moving further inland exploring inwards to trade with First made the fur trade more expensive for Nations and HBC was forced to adopt the non-HBC traders. Many were similar methods. working together to save money.  Often, the NWC would build a post and  1779: several independent operators the HBC would build one nearby. form the ______Exploring the West ______.  The HBC-NWC drive to expand and  The NWC was led by Simon McTavish establish more posts led to more and included in its shareholders 3 of exploration. Canada’s best-known explorers:  1783: NWC’s Peter Pond mapped the Methye Portage in Saskatchewan. The portage brought Pond to Lake Athabasca. In 1788, the NWC established Fort Chipewyan on the western tip of Lake Athabasca.  Pond also learned how to make ______. This eventually became the main food source for traders. The HBC and NWC even set up posts just to trade in ______. Many First Nations and Metis communities played a major role in the fur trade.  Pond felt that the waters flowing into Lake Athabasca would lead to the Pacific Ocean. The British government refused to fund an expedition.  Alexander Mackenzie felt that Pond was correct and in 1789 followed the Slave River to the Beaufort Sea. He tried Mapping the West again and by following the Peace River,  1811: ______finally finds a reached the Pacific Ocean on July 22, practical trade route to the Pacific 1793. Ocean. He had started working for the  Mackenzie’s path was not a practical HBC in the 1790s, but was hired away major fur-trade route. NWC tried to by the NWC in 1797. explore further south.  Thompson became the chief surveyor  1808: ______finds the for the NWC and spent seven years river later named the Fraser River and mapping the West and travelling over takes it to the ocean, but again the 80 000 km doing so. route, was too difficult and dangerous.  Many explorers were aided by their wives, who were often of First Nations or Metis background. They served as labourers, translators and had a great deal of knowledge of the land.  The voyageurs also played a major role in the expeditions, as they spoke French and First Nations languages and were experienced in canoe travel and portages. interior and traded with the First Nations, while the HBC was governed from afar.  Despite all these seeming advantages of the NWC, it was made a part of the HBC (as opposed to the other way around) and ceased to exist as the NWC after 1821. The Metis Nation  NWC partners and clerks were mostly The North West Company’s Competitive _____. The lower ranks were made up Advantage most of ______and ______.  The NWC dominated the fur trade until  Many voyageurs married First Nations it merged (was bought out) by the HBC women of the Northwest. Their children in ____. felt they were distinct as a culture,  At times the NWC had more posts than knowing both First Nations and French the HBC. culture. Distinct Metis communities  The NWC was owned and operated by began to emerge, especially near the fur traders, explorers and voyageurs, Red River. who personally travelled into the