Tuesday, October 31, 2017

In the Shoes of Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier was an eastern Canadian explorer born in 1491. Early on in his career, Cartier was known as a good explorer, and he carried this title with pride until his exploring career came to an end. Throughout his exploring career, Cartier took part in three major exploration trips to North America.

Cartier's first exploration took part in 1534 when king Francis of France funded an expedition to explore North America. On this expedition Cartier wasn't a guide, rather he was the captain. On this specific expedition, Cartier was in search for a route to Asia, spices, gold and other types of riches.  Cartier sailed through the gulf of the St. Lawrence, explored the west coast of Newfoundland and discovered Prince Edward Island. Cartier also captured two First Nations People, which he used to help navigate, as they had a very good understanding of the geography of the land. Cartier brought these two First Nation People back to France with him when he was done his exploration.

When Cartier returned from his expedition, the king was very impressed with the work Cartier had done. The king was so impressed that he decided to send Cartier back on another trip the following year. The two First Nations People Cartier brought back to France with him accompanied Cartier on his second expedition. Once again they helped greatly when it came to navigation. Cartier and his men navigated along the St. Lawrence River, and established a base while on this second expedition.

During the fall, Cartier travelled down the St. Lawrence River and into land controlled by the Iroquois. The Iroquois told Cartier that there were rivers that travelled further west, where things like spices, gold, silver and copper could be found. This sparked the attention of Cartier, as gold, silver, copper and spices are what he was in North America in search of.  Not only was their many riches, but the Iroquois also told him about a great river that possibly lead to Asia.

In the spring once the ice had melted off the rivers and they were able to travel on them again, Cartier and his men captured many more Iroquois men to help them on their trip. This greatly angered the other Iroquois men, causing Cartier to quickly flee back to France. When back in France, Cartier told the King all that he had heard from the Iroquois about the riches back in North America. He also shared how the Iroquois had spoke of a 20000 mile river that possibly lead to Asia.

It was in the spring of 1541 that Cartier left on his third and final voyage to North America. This trip involved five ships filled with many men, with the intentions to establish a permanent French settlement along the St. Lawrence river. After setting up camp near Quebec, Cartier and his men found a great deal of what they thought was gold and diamonds. Cartier's original plan was to stay at this settlement in order for it to become a permanent settlement, but instead he took the "gold and diamonds" and returned to France. It was only after he had arrived back in France that he found out that his "gold and diamonds" weren't what he thought they were. And instead of having great deals of value, they had no value at all.

After Cartier's third expedition, France was no longer very interested in exploring North America. This lack of interest went on for half a century, thus putting Cartier's career as an explorer to an end until he passed away on September 1, 1557.

Cartier's work as an explorer greatly effected the French. He helped to establish settlements, found and brought back resources beneficial to France and mapped out areas of Canada. The fact that he helped form settlements, was later beneficial to the British when they took over the French peoples land in Canada. The impact Cartier had on the First Nations People wasn't necessarily a very good one. This was for the reason that Cartier established settlements on land that at one time belonged to the First Nations, captured many Iroquois men and took resources away from the First Nations people. Overall the work that Cartier did, greatly benefited the future of Canada.




Jacques Cartier(2017) Uploaded by: Wikipedia. Available online at: 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Jacques_Cartier_by_Hamel.jpg








5 comments:

  1. This post is so full of information it's great. How long was the first expedition anyway, and did he find any of the gold and silver he was searching for? From the sounds of it the king was quite fond of Cartier seeing as he sent him back after some exploring. And is there anywhere you could find the names of these two Iroquois who accompanied him on two expeditions. What would the name be of this settlement he founded along the st Lawrence river? When he travelled further down the st Lawrence river and spoke to these Iroquois was it true about the gold silver and copper further west? And did he ever travel down this 20000 mile river? It was sad that he couldn't return to North America just because of a lack of interest but oh well. I will be sure to refer people to this post if they are lacking in information. This site has more information if needed https://www.biography.com/people/jacques-cartier-9240128

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  2. Hey Sidney great job on this blog it was full of great information. Over all I though it was a really good blog but if I could’ve added some more info on this topic it would be. I’m not to sure if this would’ve gave you some extra marks but a map of the areas where his expectations where would’ve been a great addition to this blog. Some other points you could’ve added to your blog would be, how long was the expeditions that Cartier went on anyway. Also did the website where you got all this info say weather or not Cartier actually tried to go down or find the 20000 mile river. I’m not to familiar with this prompt but if you needed to you missed the quotes that you may have needed and there a few extra marks if you had them. Is there anyway that you could’ve found how many settlement or how many of them are town cities etc to this day. Did the Main two Iroquois have names and also was there a more precise number for how many there were. One of the last points I’m going to make is that you didn’t but the website you used to get all your information from All in all this post was really good nand if anyone wanted to get more info about Cartier I would tell them about your post.

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  3. This blog is juts filled with great information, i feel like i really did learn this guys entire life story. It's nice to see such a long blog, really making sure all the info is covered, nothing was really missed. i was wondering in his first expedition why the king was so impressed, because he never found Asia, or a route to it. i would have told him he did a trash job, your lucky you found something. Also, so did he juts kidnap the first nations guys, why did they cooperate with him if they were kidnapped. in his second when he was miss lead by he Iroquois, i think he got exactly what he deserved, to be mislead, given false hope, and wasted time. Especially when he kept capturing the Iroquois men, you can't just go and do that, there should be repercussions for his actions. i think it is good they sent him running scared back to France. personally i think the 20000 mile river is a hoax, just trying to get him out of their hair, away from their land. Probably to send him out to the sea to die. That is really the icing on the cake that all the "gold and diamonds" he found were worthless, making everything a huge waste of time. Its funny how all of the work he did to develop settlements in the end did nothing for his country, because the British took it over. Maybe if he had a better relationship with the first nations he could have been more successful. All in all great blog, lots of info that really made me understand Jacques Cartier.

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  4. Hello Sydney !! Great blog. Must have gotten a pretty good mark on this one !!! I also like how u spaced it all out equally, looks nice. After reading your blog, I feel like I was really able to understand who Jacques Cartier is and what he has done to make the country we call “ Home “ I great place. I feel as if he isn’t appreciated enough or even known for that matter, which is really unfortunate. With regards to my last sentence, I really like how u included how the king was very proud of him for what Jacques did ! Very good detail on everywhere he sailed through on his first exploration ! Same thing goes for the other two you mentioned. When you said he was in search for gold or any other types of riches, I wonder if he ever had any luck? Also wonder if Cartier had ever given it any thought to go and search for this 20000 mile river that possibly leads to Asia after the Iroquois told him about it ? Now Sydney, I only have positive things to say about your blog. It was very well written. However, a map of the areas he explored would have put that “ cherry top “ on this blog. Also may have benefited you marks wise !! Here is a link with ideal maps of the places Cartier had been through:

    Virtual Museum of New France, Uploaded by: the Canadian Museum of History. Accessed on: November 15th 2017, Available @: http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/the-explorers/jacques-cartier-1534-1542/

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  5. Hey Syd,great blog! Wow it was very well written. Must have gotten 100%. I feel like I really know a lot about Cartier now. If I hadn’t been there to learn about him I would definitely know now. I like how you explained yourself thoroughly. I also like how equally spaced out each paragraph is, makes everything easier to read. You explained his entire trip very well. One thing I noticed which is a autocorrect mistake is the year her was born. I think you meant 1491 not 1941. Other then that great blog. I have nothing negative to say or things you should have added. Something that may have helped though is a map of where he all explored that would have been interesting. The link I left is a map of where he explored. Great blog!

    Route of Cartier’s first voyage uploaded by Wikipedia
    Accessed last on October 26,2017
    Available @ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cartier

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