Overview

Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) explored northern North America with hopes of finding gold and precious metals, and possibly a cross-continental passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He never realized those goals, but he did find something of great value: a water passage into Canada's interior. His discovery in the 1530s of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River gave the Europeans, and specifically the French, access to the interior of the continent for the first time. This also provided the first views of the areas that would eventually become the sites of such major Canadian cities as Montreal and Quebec.

Background

Before Cartier's voyages to Canada, North America was known to the Europeans mostly from its eastern coastline. Fishermen sailed its ocean waters, but had neither need nor desire to venture far onto land...