The French Fur Trade

The French Fur Trade

By:Paige Waronsky

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Table Of Contents

Page #1……………………………….……………………..Table Of Contents
Page #2……………………………………….………………………..Explorers
Page #4…………………………….…..Beginning of the French Colonization
Page #5…………………...……………………France Establishes its Empire
Page #6……………………….………....…..Relations with Native Americans
Page #7………………………………………………………………....….Trade
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Page #8…………………………………………………....………Why Beaver?

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Explorers

Giovanni de Verrazzano:
★ is an italian explorer of North America
★ born in 1485 in Greve in Chianti, Italy
★ he died in 1528 in Guadeloupe
★ he was sent by King Francis I of France to explore the East Coast of
North America for a route to the Pacific
★ he made a landfall near what would be Cape Fear, North Carolina, in
early March and headed north to explore
Giovanni de Verrazzano

Jacques Cartier:
★ born in December 31 st in 1491 in the Duchy of Brittany
★ died September 1 st in 1557 in the Kingdom of France
★ first voyage he went onto was in Brazil and King Francis I sent him to
Brazil.

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Jacques Cartier
Samuel de Champlain:

★ born in August 13, 1574 in Hiers-Brouage,France
★ died December 25 in 1635 in Quebec City, Canada
★ He is the best known man for establishing and governing the

settlements of New France and the city of Quebec.

Samuel de Champlain

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Beginning of the French Colonization

As you might know Columbus is the first guy in 1492 to come to
America, but there are others that come along after him.The French
Colonization started out with a guy named Giovanni de Verrazano. He was
commissioned by the French government in 1524.This French colonization
of North America will dramatically differ from the English colonization.
Giovanni comes over of what is today South Carolina and he doesn’t find a
water route to Asia so it was an uneventful mission, but like Columbus
others follow.

Giovanni de Verrazano

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One of the big dudes is French colonization history is a guy by the
name of Jacques Cartier in 1534 he sails to the “New World.” Jacques is
the first European of French to describe and map this area along the St.
Lawrence River. Jacques explored the St. Lawrence River between 1534
and 1542 and expected to discover similar wealth or at least a waterway to
Asia, which possessed valuable spices and silks. As he’s going through
this region there is nothing really big in terms of his permanently
establishing a French presence in North America.He goes into what is
today near Montreal in today Quebec.In the 1500s France is a mess
domestically they are having religious wars where you have religoius
battles going on between Protestant French Higenots and Catholics. So
they’re really not in a position to begin the is colonization process. But
Jacques is the first one to establish a French understanding of what is
today Canada.

France Establishes its Empire

The “big guy” in French history happens in 1608 which is when the
first permanent settlement in the French Empire. And the “Father of New
France” of the permanent settlement is a guy named Samuel de
Champlain.Keep in mind that in 1608 the Catholics and Huguenots are no
longer fighting in France.So now they are in a position to create a sustained
permanent settlement in Quebec.

Fun Fact:There was actually a group of French Huguenots down in Florida
in 1565, who were seeking some religious refuge.But then Spain came in
and “kicked them out” and renamed the area St.Augustine.

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Samuel de Champlain quickly gets down to business and one of the
things that the French settlement does is that they establish a relationship
with the Huron Indians

Samuel de Champlain and the Huron Indians

Relations with Native Americans

When the first European explorers came to North America, they hoped to
find vast amounts of gold and silver. This was not an unrealistic
expectation, for when Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire in
Mexico in 1518 and 1519, he found incredible quantities of precious metals,
as did Francisco Pizarro when he conquered the Inca Empire in 1534. He
was soon disappointed in both endeavors, for there were no precious
metals along the St. Lawrence, nor did it lead to Asia. Nevertheless, the
French soon found something that proved to be just as valuable: furs.
Europeans used furs in variety of ways. Many garments, especially those of
the wealthy, were trimmed with the fur of animals such as fox, ermine, and
sable. Europeans learned that beaver fur could be made into felt and
fashioned into high hats, which soon became fashionable throughout the

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continent. Beavers were almost extinct in Europe but were plentiful in North
America and possessed high-quality pelts.

Trade

In the early 17th century, French traders began to use Huron and Wyandot
middlemen to trade with the Native peoples in the Great Lakes region.
Native people belonged to several “ethnic” groups. The members of an
ethnic group (for example Ojibwa and Menominee spoke the same
language and shared a common history and identity, but did not all live in
the same community or recognize the same leaders.The French came for
furs, especially beaver pelts used to make felt hats. The French
succeeded because they adopted the technology and accepted the social
customs of Native people. These Frenchmen traveled by birchbark canoes
along old trade routes, using Indian guides and interpreters, learning Indian
names for rivers and villages, and surviving on Indian corn. They
established trade relationships with villages by participating in
well-established rituals. They were adopted as kinsmen by a village leader
in the calumet ceremony.

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What did they trade?

The Indians :
★ fur

The French:
★ Gun Powder
★ Guns
★ Knives
★ Glass Beads
★ Axs
★ Metal

Why Beaver?

The beaver pelts are used for many different clothing materials that most
popular is the beaver pelt hat.Hats that they made were super durable and
were waterproof.The beaver pelts are prized for their warmth,luxurious
texture,and the furs have played a large role in clothing people since the
beginning of human history.

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Beaver Pelt Hat

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