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Father of New France, Samuel de Champlain Essay example

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Samuel de Champlain, who is referred to as the Father of New France, was born in the Brouage, Saintonge province, Western France. He was born to a protestant family around 1570. His father Anthoine de Champlain was a sea captain. The fact that his father worked in the high sea as a navigator, gave Samuel a strong desire to be a sailor and an explorer. This came when he was barely twenty years, under the guide of François Grave, he made his first voyage trip to the North America. Samuel Champlain never acquired a formal education in either Greek or Latin literature, but he learnt to navigate, drawing art of nautical charts, and writing. He also learnt the fighting techniques as part of a requirement for French sailors and later he was …show more content…

He formed strong alliances some tribes such as Wendat, Algonquin and Montagnais. These tribes live around Saint Lawrence River. The tribes demanded that Champlain must lead them in war against the Iroquois tribe. The Iroquois inhabited the south area of Richelieu River. The Iroquois had an alliance with England and Dutch, and thus had superior troops. They had an interest on the fur trade that put the two colonies in friction over the control of the trade. They frequently attacked the French and the tribes in alliance with them to push them trade the fur to the Dutch and English tradesmen. Champlain set off with French troops and native warriors to explore the area and as a result Champlain drew the map of Lake Champlain. During the exploration some Iroquois natives advanced in against Champlain men and war broke up. The battle was put to an end after Champlain and his soldiers killed three chiefs of the Iroquois. This strained the French – Iroquois relations further but later Champlain negotiated for a treaty that reconciled the two sides. New France, is a term that was used to refer to the area that the French colonized in the North America. Jacques Cartier, Samuel Champlain and other early explorers opened up new routes along St. Lawrence River to allow further exploration works into the North America territories. Champlain explored other places down to the Lake Champlain building up settling areas.

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