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How Did Samuel De Champlain Influence French Culture

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The influence of French culture within Canada has a rich history that can only be attributed to one man, Samuel de Champlain who not only shaped the history of France but of Canada as well. Champlain was a French explorer (cartographer, geographer, etc.) who journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean from 1603 until his death in 1635 (Ritchie, 2016; “Samuel de Champlain”, 2004; Wikipedia, 2016). He is often labeled as the Father of New France (or Quebec) as he sailed to Canada and was the first man to establish a French colony there. The impact of his 1609 expedition to New France has helped to shape the historical, scientific and cultural aspects of our society.

The timing of historical moments has always had a profound effect on the rest of what …show more content…

The 1609 expedition of Samuel de Champlain was conceived from his want to explore and colonize Quebec, but was supported because of political and economic gains that were to be had by the French bourgeoisie from an established fur trade. There were many arguments that broke out between the wealthy investors of Champlain’s expedition whom sought to monopolize the fur trade individually. This led to Champlain going back to Canada to create better ties with the Aboriginal peoples of Quebec in order to ensure that they would supply beaver pelts that he could give to his investors who would sell them in France (Wilson, 2013; “Champlain, Samuel de,” 2016). This shows that while Samuel de Champlain’s expeditions were meant to focus around the colonization of eastern Canada, many investors of his exploration just sought to gain even more power and money by monopolizing the fur trade and becoming wealthy off of it. While the interests of the French elite were at the heart of Champlain’s expedition, this very fact was the reason that he decided to make good relations with the native peoples of Quebec (save for the Iroquois who he not on good terms with [Monette, 2016; Wikipedia, 2016]), as they would supply him with furs for that reason (“Champlain, Samuel de,” 2016) . While much of Champlain’s 1608 expedition to Canada revolved around the political and economic gains of his backers, it ended up causing Champlain to treat the native peoples of Canada

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