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Week 20 of 32 • Page 4
UNIT: EUROPEAN EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION

WEEK 20
Colonization WEEK 20
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French Colonization

REGIONS AND PEOPLE OF THE
WESTERN HEMISPHERE

Exploration and Dividing a Hemisphere

During the Renaissance, trade became very important to the quest to ﬁnd a western route to East Asia, Christopher Columbus

economy of Europe. The coastal city-states of Genoa and Venice encountered the Americas. These explorations in Asia and the
had the funds to produce well-made ships. Many of the people Americas would have both positive and negative consequences
living in these places became sailors and started traveling the for the people during that time period and beyond.
Mediterranean Sea. As trade increased, a desire to trade with Because of exploration, Europeans enjoyed new foods, such
East Asia also increased. However, for many centuries, the only as sugar, lemons, tobacco, chocolate, potatoes, and turkey.
way to get goods from East Asia was through the traders of Some of these foods came from Asia; others came from the
Southwest Asia. Americas. Many Europeans gained wealth, knowledge, and
Traders from the Ottoman Empire in Southwest Asia knew resources from the new lands that their explorers journeyed to.
the trade routes of the Silk Road. They also studied the currents However, the Age of Exploration also led to conﬂict and other

and winds of the Arabian Sea that could take their ships to negative outcomes. Europeans began claiming territory in the
India and China. When these traders sold East Asian goods Americas and Asia as colonies. The act of colonization, or taking
to European traders, they charged high prices to compensate over an area of land for their own, became common practice.
for the money they spent on trading expeditions. Then, in the

Samuel de Champlain mid-1400s, the Ottoman Empire shut down trade with China, Conﬂicts developed over land and resources.
European, Asian, and African diseases were introduced to
cutting off European access to goods from East Asia. European the Americas by European explorers. The Indigenous peoples
French colonization of the Western Hemisphere started Once Quebec was founded, Champlain turned his governments then began to put more money into developing did not have immunity against these illnesses. Entire groups of
tools, gathering supplies, and sending explorers to ﬁnd new

in 1523 when the ﬁrst expedition was led by Giovanni da attention to the interior of the continent, hoping to discover trade routes to East Asia. people disappeared, along with their cultures, knowledge, and

Verrazano. The goal of the French expeditions was to ﬁnd more territory to colonize. This led him to the Great Lakes Historians call this time period the Age of Exploration. histories. Archaeologists and historians are working to learn

a route that gave them access to the vast resources of region and led many other explorers on unofﬁcial expeditions E ur opeans e v en tually f ound w a y s to r each E ast Asia. While on a mor e about these gr oups and r ecor d their histories and stories.
more about these groups and record their histories and stories.
Europeans eventually found ways to reach East Asia. While on a
Asia. France also wanted to colonize areas of the Western to those areas.
Hemisphere, as many of their European counterparts had South of the Great Lakes, French explorer Louis Jolliet
already done. France wanted to open new centers of trade was put in charge of surveying and describing the “great
and use the natural resources in conquered areas for the river” that many Indigenous tribes called the Michisspi,

beneﬁt of France. or Mississippi River. He went as far as the Arkansas River
On the ﬁrst expedition, da Verrazano was able to survey, and realized that the river kept going south. He took this

or outline and describe, the coast of North America. He opportunity to turn around and go back. Jolliet went on to
explored the North and South Carolina shoreline and went explore other riverways and areas of Canada.
up to Cape Breton Island. It wasn’t until Jacques Cartier It wasn’t until 1673 that another French explorer, Cavelier
was sent out by French King François I that da Verrazano de La Salle, reached the mouth of the Mississippi River. He
suggested France colonize the new territory and call it “New established a colony there, calling it “Louisiana” after King Louis
France.” This idea allowed France to send multiple explorers XIV of France. The French went on to set up colonial centers in
to set up new colonies throughout the Americas. Mobile and New Orleans. These settlements were used not only
Many of the expeditions took place in the northern part for trade but as a way to control the Mississippi River.
of the Western Hemisphere, in present-day Canada and New The trading centers of Mobile and New Orleans were not
England. French explorers worked to set up different trading the only areas that France focused on. Québec and Montréal
colonies along rivers and at the mouth of bays. However, also served as areas for trade and exploration. The fur
each of these sites were eventually abandoned, and the trade became the primary resource for New France, as the
colonists moved back to France. colonists were able to send fur pelts back to France to supply
When Samuel de Champlain set sail in 1608, he was sent hat and clothing companies.
with the goal of setting up a colony within the territory that France then went on to establish settlements in the

had been previously explored, along with ﬁnding a route to Caribbean. Hispaniola was called Saint-Domingue, and it had
Asia. As he did this, he had the opportunity to observe and one of the richest sugar plantations. This allowed France to
describe many of the areas of present-day Nova Scotia and colonize and take over many other islands throughout the
the Saint Lawrence Gulf and River. He wrote in his journal: Caribbean, including the Lesser Antilles, Grenada, and St. Croix.
Their settled habitation, the till- age and the beautiful trees,
gave me the impression that the air there is milder and better
than that where we passed the winter, and
than that of other places on the coast. The forests in
the interior are very light, but, nevertheless, consist of oaks,
beeches, ashes and young elms. In wet places there are a
great many willows.
As Champlain moved inland, he knew that he needed
to set up a location that would be easy for trade and
exploration and a good starting point to build up for New
France. He found the spot and noted it in his journal, saying:
… on that river, at which place I had all the goods unloaded,

with the men, laborers and artisans, to go up the river to ﬁnd a
place convenient and suitable for a settlement. When I ESSENTIAL QUESTION
had found the narrowest place in the river, which the
natives call Quebec. La Salle claiming the mouth of the Mississippi for France
by Jean-Adolphe Bocquin, c. 1870s
How does colonization change a region’s people, culture, and geography?

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