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In the 1500s, several European governments sponsored, or paid for, overseas voyages to the Americas. The timeline shows some of these expeditions and the government that sponsored each one.
By the mid-1500s, Spain had conquered the Inca and Aztec civilizations in the Americas and set up an empire. An empire is a group of territories ruled by one leader or government. The new Spanish Empire began to attract the attention of some people in France and England.
Who were the Inca?
The Inca Empire stretched along the west coast of South America. In 1500, it was the largest civilization in the Western Hemisphere, stretching over 3,000 miles!
The Inca central government provided security for Inca people. It also organized big farming projects and held religious feasts and festivals.
In return, Inca citizens paid taxes and were required to do military service and agricultural labor.
French and English leaders noticed how wealthy the Spanish Empire was becoming from Inca gold and silver. But there was another reason these leaders became more interested in sailing west.
In the early 1500s, France and England were mainly interested in trading with Asia. Then in 1522, a Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan completed a successful circumnavigation of the globe. This means the voyage sailed all the way around the world.
After Magellan's expedition, Spain became even wealthier by selling goods from the Americas to countries in Asia. Other western European countries wanted to become wealthy from trade with the Americas and Asia, too. But in the early 1500s, not all European countries were able to trade with the Americas.
Read the following pieces of information about Europe in the early 1500s:
Most people in western Europe were Catholic, a type of Christian, with a leader called the pope.
Spain was able to stop other European countries from trading with the Americas.
In 1494, the Catholic Church approved a treaty that allowed Spain to control most of the land in the Americas. Spain used this treaty to stop other Europeans from trading in the Americas.
At the time the treaty was approved, almost everyone in western Europe followed the Catholic Church. However, in 1517, many people stopped following the Catholic Church. They became a new type of Christian known as Protestant. Protestants did not believe in the authority, or power, of the Catholic Church. The map shows the religious makeup of Europe around 1550.
Why did so many people become Protestants?
In 1517, a Catholic monk named Martin Luther made a public statement against the Catholic Church. He believed that the Church had become corrupt, or dishonest and greedy. Martin Luther said that the Catholic Church had lost sight of true Christianity.
Many people quickly learned about Martin Luther's criticisms of the Catholic Church. Some of these people broke with the Catholic Church and began to practice new types of Christianity. Although these new groups had different names, they all later became known as Protestant.
This period is called the Protestant Reformation.
In the early 1500s, many Europeans realized that the Americas could be a source of great wealth. Read the passage below about European expeditions.
The earliest Spanish expeditions to the Americas were sponsored by Spanish leaders. But the earliest expeditions from France were different. French leaders were focused on religious conflicts inside their country and war for control of neighboring Italy. But merchants in France realized that gold and silver from the Americas was making Spanish merchants rich. So, French merchants began sponsoring their own expeditions to the Americas.
Why didn't the French government care about the Americas?
One reason was that the rulers of France were distracted with war! Throughout the first half of the 1500s, French kings fought several wars for control of present-day Italy. These wars kept French leaders focused on Europe, not the Americas.
The map below shows where the first French merchant expeditions to the Americas landed.
What resources did French merchants begin trading?
French merchants were unable to begin trading gold and silver, which had made Spanish merchants wealthy. But they found other resources to trade instead.
The most plentiful resource that French merchants found in North America was codfish. Merchants were able to make a lot of money by selling codfish in Europe.
Fish merchants started trading with Native Americans for animal furs to make some extra money. In the early 1500s, they mostly traded for fox, mink, marten, and otter furs. Wealthy Europeans decorated their coats with these furs.
In the mid- to late-1500s, Europeans realized that Canadian beaver fur made good-quality hats. People all over Europe started buying beaver hats. As a result, trading for beaver furs soon became the most important activity for French merchants in North America.
French merchants did not find gold or silver in North America. Instead, they began fishing and trading for animal furs with Native American societies, such as the Beothuk, Mi'kmaq, and Montagnais.
However, French merchants ran into several challenges.
Why did birch bark canoes work better than French boats?
Many native societies in Canada used canoes made from the bark of birch trees. These birch bark canoes were lightweight and easy to steer but still able to carry heavy loads. By contrast, French boats were too heavy and clunky to navigate tricky Canadian rapids.
In 1603, a French navigator named Samuel de Champlain explained why French people should use birch bark canoes:
With the canoes of the [natives], one can travel freely and quickly all over the land, just as well in small rivers as in big ones. . . . By following the ways of the [natives] and [by using] their canoes, one can see everything that is possible to see.
In the early part of the 1500s, the French government did not have much interest in the Americas, even though French merchants were already trading there. But in the mid-1500s, several events made the French government more interested in sponsoring expeditions to the Americas.
Were there any other reasons the French government became interested in the Americas?
Yes. In addition to the desire to make money from trade, the French government looked to the Americas for a solution to a new problem in France: religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants.
In the mid-1500s, religious conflicts in France had become violent. The majority of the French population, including the government, was still Catholic. French Protestants experienced constant attacks from Catholics. The French government believed that sending Protestants to live in the Americas could end the violent conflicts in France.
More than twenty years after French merchants started trading in North America, the French government sponsored its first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The French king hired a man named Giovanni da Verrazzano to lead the expedition. Read a passage from a letter Verrazzano wrote to the French king during his voyage.
My [goal] on this voyage was to reach Cathay and the extreme eastern coast of Asia, but I did not expect to find such an obstacle of new land as I have found; and if for some reason I did expect to find it, I estimated there would be some [channel] to get through to the Eastern Ocean.
Cathay: China
obstacle: block, barrier
the Eastern Ocean: the Pacific Ocean
Where did Verrazzano go?
After arriving in the Americas, Giovanni da Verrazzano quickly realized that he had underestimated the size of the Americas. As he sailed along the coast, he got a better idea of how big North America truly was.
Verrazzano's expedition first landed in present-day North Carolina. After sailing a little ways south from there, he decided to turn around and start heading north. He continued up to present-day New York and all the way to Canada before turning back towards France.
After Verrazzano's expedition showed that North America was much larger than the French expected, King Francis I sponsored the sailor Jacques Cartier to continue exploring the continent. King Francis also wanted Cartier to find a place to establish a French settlement.
Look at the map of Jacques Cartier's expeditions in North America.
Who were the Huron and Iroquois?
The Huron and Iroquois confederacies, which are today also known as Wendat and Haudenosaunee (hoe-dee-no-SHOW-nee), were two of the most powerful groups in the region. Both confederacies were made up of several tribes who worked together to organize a common government.
Some historians say that parts of the United States constitution were based on the Iroquois confederacy! The chart below compares the structure of the Iroquois confederacy to U.S. government. What similarities and differences do you see?
Even though French merchants and Native Americans were already trading, Jacques Cartier's expeditions established contact between the French government and Native American societies. Two of these societies were the Huron and Iroquois confederacies. These confederacies were governments made up of several different societies working together.
French merchants begin trading with people in the Huron confederacy for animal furs.
Members of the Iroquois Confederacy notice how successful the Huron fur traders are becoming by trading with the French. So, in order to take control of the fur trade, they attack the Huron people.
After the Iroquois attack the Huron, the Huron seek help from the French. The French government promises to help Huron people defend against Iroquois attacks.
In return for protection against Iroquois attacks, many Huron people support French explorers. Huron people let French explorers build settlements in Huron territory.
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