The settling of Atlantic Canada

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Early European SettlementIn Atlantic Canada

• The settling of Atlantic Canada

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(No Transcript)
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Acadia Essential Questions

• Players in a Game
• Who were the major players in the early
  settlement of Atlantic Canada?
• Why did they choose to settle in Atlantic Canada?
• Where were these first settlements?
• What was life like for these early settlers?
• What happened to Acadia and the Acadians?
• What influences did/do the Acadians have on the
  culture of Atlantic Canada now?

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Important Terms

• Acadia
• St. Croix Island
• Port Royal
• The Expulsion
• lOrdre de Bon Temps

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Key Players

• Samuel de Champlain
• Pierre Dugua
• Chief Membertou
• Charles Lawrence
• Evangeline

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Historical Background

• In the 1600s the world had three major naval and
  economic powers The English, the French, and
  the Dutch.
• At the time, colonization was very important to
  these powers.
• The chance to discover new lands and new trade
  partners drove these powers to explore the world
  in search of unclaimed lands, and faster shipping
  routes to the East (China and India)

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They came looking for Furs, Land, Riches, and
Spices
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Two Major Powers

• The two most important players in the race for
  global dominance were France and England
• Both had already began exploring the shores of
  North America decades before.

• The flag of England of the time, showing St.
  Georges Cross, is not commonly used today.
• The Flag of France, has been unchanged for many
  years.

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Colonization

• Types of colonialism
• Historians often distinguish between two forms of
  colonialism, mainly based on the number of people
  from the colonizing country who settle in the
  colony, and the purpose of settling the area.
  The two types are
• Settler colonization
• Exploitation colonization

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Definitions of Colonization
.

• Settler colonization - involves a large number of
  colonists, typically seeking fertile land to
  farm.
• Exploitation colonization - involves fewer
  colonists, typically interested in extracting
  resources to export to the major centers. This
  category includes trading posts, but it applies
  more to the much larger colonies where the
  colonists would provide much of the
  administration and own much of the land and other
  capital, but rely on indigenous people for labour.

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First at bat - France

• The French were the first European people to
  attempt to create a permanent settlement in the
  area now known as Canada.
• Well, the Vikings too!

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March 7, 1604 Set Sail

• From France, it would take roughly 6-8 weeks to
  cross the Atlantic Ocean in the 1600s.
• Not only was the trip long, there was no where to
  go. Up to this point there had been no Europeans
  who had permanently settled Atlantic Canada, so
  there were many unknowns.
• The ship carried only men and supplies needed for
  the trip.
• Read the handout given to you to find out what
  life was like when crossing the Atlantic onboard
  a ship in the 1600s.

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Questions

• Give at least 5 reasons that you can find in this
  reading that would make the voyage unpleasant.
• What is hard tack?
• What do you think that scurvy is caused by?
  (hint think about their diets)
• Why are many of the rules punishable by lashings
  and loss of rations? What purpose do these
  punishments serve?

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The North Atlantic Ocean

• Plot the voyage of the 1604 trip taken by Samuel
  de Champlain and Pierre Dugua.
• (1)Begin in France,(2) cross the North Atlantic
  Ocean, and follow the Maritime coastline until
  you come to a (3)stop at St. Croix Island

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So why here? Why did they sail thousands of
kilometers to settle on this lump of rock, sand,
and grass? What features of St. Croix Island
attracted the first French settlers?
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In March of 1604 a French ship set sail for the
Americas. Aboard were many young men looking for
adventure, riches, or simply work as sailors.
Among the men was a wealthy French investor and
business man named Pierre Dugua, and an ambitious
explorer by the name of Samuel de Champlain.
Pierre du Gua, also known as Sieur du Monts, who
was a member of the expedition which settled on
Saint-Croix Island in 1604.
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The voyage was originally sent to find places for
settlement and set up trading posts along the St.
Lawrence River, but Dugua changed his mind.
Instead he decided to go south.
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He sailed down and around the coast of Nova
Scotia, where he found groups of people trading
furs and other goods. He captured some smaller
vessels along the shores and seized all the goods
aboard. He did this because he had been granted
a monopoly over the fur trade for the area by the
King of France, which entitled him to control
over all the fur and related trading goods coming
from the area.
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Dugua sailed around the tip of Nova Scotia, and
followed the coast north into the Bay of Fundy.
The explorers investigated the small harbors and
inlets they discovered, and mapped each. One
spot along the Bay caught the explorers attention
in particular, and Champlain asked Dugua to name
it Port Royal. Dugua agreed. But, Dugua wasnt
satisfied with the site for his settlement, so
the explorers kept searching, moving north and
then west along the coast finally finding the
mouth of a river which seemed suitable to them
for establishing a settlement.
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What is a league? Folk tales refer to a league as
a specific distance, but a league is actually an
ancient measurement. In medieval England it was
simply the distance a person or a horse could
walk in one hour. How far is a league in
distance? which is about three miles, or five
kilometres, the same distance as defined by the
Romans. The league is no longer an official unit
of measurement in any nation.
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What is a pace? A pace is about 30 inches long or
76 cm, which is the length of an average step.
To make sure your paces are accurate, you need to
count how many paces it takes to walk 100
m. What is a fathom? A fathom is roughly 6
feet, or the distance between the outstretched
hands of a typical sailor.
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Why would the use of leagues, paces, and fathoms
be troublesome by todays standards? Read the
handout from Champlains journals to get an
understanding of what it was that he saw as he
entered the mouth of the St. Croix River in 1604.
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It was mid-summer when the explorers came to what
would be their winter habitation. The island
might be eight or nine hundred paces in
circumference, raising on all sides in ledges of
from three to four fathoms, excepting at one
small spot, where there is a point of sand and
clay from which could be utilized for making
bricks and other needful articles Samuel de
Champlain
Originally the island was almost totally covered
in trees. These were cut and used for
construction and fuel wood.
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The first task was to set up defenses to protect
their future settlement.
we began to erect a barricade on a small islet a
little removed from the island, and this
served as a platform for mounting our cannonin a
very short time it was put into a state of
defense, though the mosquitoes (which are
little flies) gave us great annoyances.
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Next, they set to work building houses, followed
by a storehouse, bakeries, a cookhouse, a common
building, blacksmith shop, and finally gardens.
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Along with many other things that would end up
working against the explorers, the soil was far
from ideal for planting crops. There was not
enough space for fields, and the ground was a mix
of sand and clay, so growing grains was
difficult. Some gardens were made, both on the
mainland and the island itself, where grain
came up very well, except on the island, where
the soil was nothing but sand in which everything
was scorched when the sun shone, although great
pains were taken to water the plants. Voyages p.
279 As a result, many of their more successful
crops were the ones planted upriver on the
mainland, and were only accessible by boat.
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After a miserable winter on St. Croix island the
explorers decided to pack up their things and
relocate. The decided to go to the site they had
discovered on their voyage to St. Croix Island
the year before. They would name the site Port
Royal.
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Upon arriving the explorers constructed their new
homes in nearly the same way they had on St.
Croix island. Reflecting Answer the following
question in your notes with a star beside
it. What conditions at St. Croix Island made
living there difficult?
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The second winter in Canada proved to be much
less severe than the first, making life much more
tolerable than before. Also, the soil was much
easier to work than on St. Croix Island and the
crops grew well. They faired much better at
Port Royal than they did at St. Croix. This is
Champlains drawing of Port Royal
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Port Royal can still be visited today...
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At Port Royal the explorers made sure they had a
well for easily accessing fresh water year
round. Close ties with the First Nations of the
area were established quickly, which meant they
gained access to meat, furs, and valuable advise
about surviving the harsh Canadian
winters. After the first full winter at Port
Royal, the settlers began to expand their
gardens, clear some roads, improve their
buildings, and entertain themselves.
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The most important First Nations leader the
newcomers would meet at Port Royal was Chief
Membertou. He was the head of a local Micmac
tribe which used the area as hunting and fishing
territories, as well as setting up seasonal
settlements. Membertou welcomed the French to
his territory. In turn, he was trusted and
treated as an equal by the French, and with his
help the French settlers would find life in
Canada much easier than before.
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Even though the winters were easier to survive
than before, the settlers still faced many
difficulties. Scurvy would claim more men during
the second winter. Also, there was a lack of
social activities and entertainment. Champlain
realized this and seized the opportunity to
create a very interesting means of making life at
Port Royal more interesting.
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Champlain created what he called lOrdre de Bon
Temps. Periodically, a different settler would
be required to host a dinner for the rest. This
involved making a feast and providing
entertainment for the evening. The choice foods
often included duck, goose, dear, fish, moose,
caribou, partridge, beaver, and much more. Each
settler attempted to prepare a unique and
interesting meal to impress his company. In
addition to the meals, entertainment such as
music and skits were preformed after dinner to
continue the festivities into the evening.
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This accomplished two things First, it required
each man to go out and gather food on a regular
basis. Second, it provided entertainment for the
settlers who often worked long hard days in the
fields or woods. Chief Membertou was often
invited to these feasts to sit amongst the
settlers as a friend. The relationship between
the First Nations and the French of Atlantic
Canada would remain an important part of the
cultural make-up of region.
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Over the next 20-30 years settlement slowed in
Acadia and the population remained relatively
small. Settlements were established along the
Minas Basin at Grand Pre, Windsor, Annapolis
Royal, Truro, on Cape Breton Island at Louisbourg
and Canso, and around the South Shore of Nova
Scotia at LaHave and near Yarmouth. On a
separate piece of paper, write a heading Acadian
Settlements write the place names seen here
under this heading. Along the New Brunswick
coast line trading forts were established at
Saint John, Sackville, Miramichi, and along the
North Shore at Bathurst. Forts were also
established at Jemseg and Fredericton. Eventually
the population of Acadia began to grow, and the
people began to convert larger areas of land into
fertile agricultural lands.
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Life for the Acadians never seemed dull despite
the relatively simple lifestyles of the small
farming communities. Between 1639 1713 Acadia
would endure a civil war, as well as find itself
a part of a much larger battle between the
British and French in a struggle for new
lands. Between 1639-1653 three men (Denys, La
Tour, and dAulnay) fought for control of Acadia.
They burned each others forts and killed each
others soldiers until finally La Tour emerged as
the winner. Then, in 1690 the British began
periodically attacking Acadian settlements. They
would make several voyages up the American
coastline to attack the French forts, burn the
villages, and destroy crops. Thus beginning a
long series of battles for control of Acadia.
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An account from the book Two Beginnings
describes one of the battles that would be fought
(page 21)
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After the fort at Port Royal fell to the British
in 1704 the Acadians started to spread out to
even more areas in the Maritimes. There were
several reasons for this, including access to new
agricultural land and population growth. Most
importantly was that the British took control of
most of Acadia from the French in 1713 as a
result of the French loosing a war. As a result
of this, France singed over much of their
territory in Acadia in what is called the Treaty
of Utrecht. Again, the Acadians began to move
across the Maritime Provinces to settle as the
British took control of their lands and began to
build their own settlements and forts. One of
the new French settlements was Beaubassin,
between what is now Sackville (NB) and Amherst
(NS). Here they established a large community
and built a fort for protection. Other
settlements included Tracadie, Shediac, and Port
La Joie (Charlottetown).
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When the British took over control of Acadia,
they moved the capital from Annapolis Royal (Port
Royal) to Halifax. The Acadian people had to
make a decision about how they would choose to
live their lives in the new British lands. They
had to choose to either leave their homeland with
everything they had, or stay and swear allegiance
to become British subjects. The British wanted
the Acadians to swear allegiance to the Crown of
England. Many Acadians refused and wanted to
exclude themselves from any part in the
French-English conflict. They did not want to
take up arms against their native France and
preferred to live peacefully on their farms.
They were neutral. The British feared this
neutrality.
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Many Acadians chose to leave their homes and move
to Cape Breton, New Brunswick, and PEI. On Cape
Breton Island they built a large fort,
Louisbourg. Others moved to new settlements and
were largely left alone to live peaceful lives
for the next 40 years of so. The Acadians were
later offered a second chance to pledge
allegiance to the British. Many refused unless
they were promised not to have to fight with the
British army. These conditions were not
acceptable according to the British.
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Ultimately the Acadians wanted to remain neutral.
They no longer felt connected to the French who
had virtually abandoned them. The Acadians could
not imagine joining forces with the British, a
group who had forced them from their homeland
repeatedly for the past several decades. By
the 1750s the British had had enough of the
Acadians refusing to swear their allegiance, and
the order to remove the Acadians was issued.
What followed was a major turning point in
Acadian, and later Canadian history, and is known
as the Expulsion.