TheFrenchFurTrade.page2

The French Fur
Trade

Made by Danhy doan

The older version of the French Flag.
Table of Contents:

Pg 1……… Lesson Question
Pg 1………Age of Exploration
Pg 1-2……….Maps of territory
Pg4-7……….French Explorers
Pg7-8…………….Trading
Pg 9…………….Missionaries
Pg 10…………..Native Americans

1

LQ: How did the fur trade give the French claims to the New
World?
1492, Columbus sails west to find a sea route to China. We all know
where this leads to. That then kickstarted the Age of Exploration.
It was a time when more and more European Countries traveled west
for land and for profit.
Spain had a head start and got a lot. They mostly conquered this
land by the natives dying from the disease that they brought and
slashing their way.

Portugal tried their turn and snagged Brazil. They also slashed
their way to victory.

2

England entered the arena and got some colonies off the
coast. They at first tried to be friends with the natives, but
then they just used the slashing method like the others.

3

Now it was France’s turn to travel to the New World. Now
at first their goals were to expand french territory.
Cartier explored the St Lawrence river in an attempt to
find the Northwest Passage.

Map of the area that Cartier explored. The St Lawrence Bay and river is
shown.

4

The Northwest Passage was a made up river that went
through the United States. Europeans want it in order to
get from Europe to Asia in a faster and safer amount of
time. This was their goal since during this time, France was
in no shape to start a colony like the others. They were in
the middle of a religious war. It was between the
protestants, Huguenots and Catholics.
By 1608, the religious wars had stopped and France had some
time to send explorers to the new world. One of the most
important explorers is Samuel de Champlain.

5

Picture of Samuel de Champlain

He was the founder of Quebec.

The French established their first colony in the 17th
century. They were primarily designed to produce and
provide goods such as furs for export. The French also

6

established forts, trading posts, and settlements in the
areas surrounding the Great Lakes and up and down the
Mississippi River, including the huge colony of Louisiana.

Now, what did they trade with the Native Americans?
Usually the Native Americans would take beaver fur or if
there were no beavers in the area, the fur of the animals
that live near the area. Usually the French would take
guns, metal cooking utensils, cloth or any other European
good.
They had fur so they could be remade into hats, coats, they
were useful because they were waterproof, could be easily
reshaped and that they were warm.

7

The Fur Trappers and traders usually consisted of men.
They were usually young men that were willing to take a
risk because the life was usually barely sought after since
the area that they were in was usually cold unlike the
weather of France and had different terrain too. You also
had to learn a little bit of the Native american language in
order to get a good trade. Traders were either large groups
or individuals. Trapper would usually lie around the great
lakes since that was where most of the beavers lived.

Picture of Native American and French traders interacting.

8

The roles was to convert them to jesuit. They were not
forced and so there was not a lot of conversions. The
missionaries were important since they moved west and
along the way made maps and so helped tradesmen and
France to know the area better.

A picture of Paul le Jeune, a famous missionary, who also made important
maps along his journey west.

9

The relations were good. Instead of forcing the Native
Americans to adopt their culture, they simply tried to
blend some of the factors of both cultures. They would
sometimes marry between the cultures and the French
would sometimes live within the village of the Native
Americans.

Another picture of a French trader and native americans interacting.

Copyright © 2017 Danhy Doan
Pictures and Cover Design © 2017 Google
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means
without written permission from its publisher.

Copyright © 2017 Danhy Doan
All rights reserved.

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