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European Settlement Essay

In 1534, Jacques Cartier discovered land. He claimed

the area for France by putting a cross on the Gaspe Peninsula.

During the 16th century the main purpose for coming to Canada

was for trading. In the 17th century Samuel de Champlain’s

arrived in the Montreal area which was soon to be known as New

France. Champlain came and established a settlement. The

Europeans contact and settlement had some positive impacts on

the First Nations but overall the First Nations would have been

better off without the European settlement.

The European Settlement did have some positive effects

on the first nations.The Europeans supplied the First Nations

with goods made of iron, such as tools and cooking utensils.

This made tasks like cooking and hunting a lot easier. The

other positive effect on First Nations from the European

settlement is the fur trade. This gave the first nations a

chance to trade there beaver pelts for uncommon metal pots and

pans. This made cooking astronomically easier. When the

settlement happened a new group called the Metis was created.

This made trade alliances even stronger and created a new

culture. The Europeans also banded with the natives to help

them fight against other native groups which made them a

stronger colony. These are the few reasons how the first

nations benefited from the European settlement.

There were many ways that the First Nations were

negatively impacted by the settlement. When the European

settlement happened many Europeans attempted to “civilize” the

first nations and convert them to catholicism. This was

negative because it was forcing a life style and religion on

the First Nations and taking away there spirituality. The

Europeans also supplied the first nations with guns. This was

bad because the guns were used for hunting and the sound of the

shot scared off any other animals around. This meant they could

only kill one animal instead of many. Guns were also bad

because it became easier to kill animals which meant more

people hunting and more animals dying, many animals became

extinct because of this. Along with guns the Europeans brought

alcohol to the First Nations. This was a bad impact because

they would become drunk and do unfair trading, also the alcohol

was not prepared properly and poisoned many first nations.

There was less resources available because of the amount of

people that were part of the settlement. The black robes were

brought to New France to spread christianity but they brought

with them diseases like small pox and measles. Many first

nations died because there was not a cure. Cartier kidnapped

ten Iroquois to take back to France to tell the king of the

riches he found. All ten Iroquois died, this made the rest of

the Iroquois very suspicious of the french. those are the many

reasons why first nations would have been better off without

the European settlement.

In conclusion the European settlement did have some

positive impacts on making First Nations lives easier, however

the Europeans also caused a lot of trouble in the First Nations

culture. Therefore the Europeans contact and settlement had

some positive impacts on the First Nations but overall the

first nations would have been better off without the European

settlement. Europeans took the spirituality and simplicity out

of the first nations life’s.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a explorer for Spain who had a dream to sail to Asia but
instead he ended up in North America by accident. Although Columbus accomplished some
things, He also made many mistakes there fore he should not be remembered as a great
historical figure.

Christopher Columbus did do some things that he should be honoured for. He was a very determined man, giving up on his dreams was not a option (Doc #2). He convinced the King and Queen of Spain to fund his trips to the new world (Doc #2). Columbus was a very talented sailer. He could tell which way he was going by just a look at the sky (Doc #2). He also brought sugar cane back from his trip which quickly became very popular (Doc #3). Many different geographical locations are named in his honour. He is also a national symbol in the U.S.A.
(Doc #1). These are some of the few reasons Columbus should be remembered as a great historical figure.

There are many reasons why Christopher Columbus should not be honoured as a great historical figure. Lots of the stories told about Christopher Columbus’s accomplishments are false (Doc #1). He has been credited for Knowledge that was already widely known, for example the world is circular (Doc #1). Christopher Columbus also spread Christianity to the new world, even if the people were already following another faith (Doc #2). Columbus also toke credit for discovering a new continent even though other people had travelled there before him (Doc #2). Columbus was a very greedy man. He asked for ten percent of all the wealth returned to Spain from the new colony. He stole a award from Juan Rodriguez Bermejo who was the first sailer to sight the land (Doc #3,5). When Columbus became the governor of the new colony of Espanola, he was mean and a unfair leader (Doc #3). He toke many people and made them his slaves (Doc #3). Columbus would make people bring him back a thimbleful of gold every three months (Doc #3,4). Columbus quickly diminished the population(Doc #3). Another reason why Columbus does not deserve to be recognized as a historical figure is that he kid napped Arawak Indians to use as navigators and when the Indians would not trade bows and arrows he would order men to stab them and then would leave them to die. He would lie to king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, he would say he reached the far east and found many mines of gold even though he did not (Doc #5). Another thing that Columbus did is he put Arawak People in pens and picked the strongest. Then the rest were left to slave and eventually die (Doc #5). Columbus forced the Arawak people to dig for gold if they resisted they would be beaten and once all the gold was gone he would use the Indians as slaves and they would soon die
(Doc #5). These are the reasons Columbus should not be recognized.

Christopher Columbus was an explorer that is recognized for his accomplishments. Although Columbus accomplished some things he also made a lot of mistakes there fore he should not be remembered as a great historical figure. Honouring a man that was a bad influence does not seem right to me.

Palace of Versailles

If the people from the third estate saw the Palace of Versailles they would be very mad at the King. While city workers were living in dirty, small houses, the King was living in complete luxury. The peasants had to provide a portion of their harvest to the landlords and the bourgeoisie found making money difficult with tariffs and lack of infrastructure. The third estate must have wondered why the King was so selfish. France needed money so the King shouldn’t have had such a big palace or use all the money given to him for himself. He was living an extravagant lifestyle while the majority of France was living in complete poverty. The third estate was also burdened with paying the most taxes while the king paid nothing at all. The King was using the money from taxes for his own good while the city workers were spending 50% of there income on food. They could not even afford bread while the King was fine dining with his wife. I think the people from the third estate would be very angry and disappointed in their King.