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.
