Jacques Cartier's Impact On Canada

Jacques Cartier was a French explorer in the 1500’s. Cartier was commissioned by King Francis I of France in 1532 to explore the “New World”, and set out with two ships in 1535 in search of a “land where quantities of gold and other precious things are to be found” (“Jacques Cartier”, Gale). Cartier was a skilled navigator, and reached Newfoundland, Canada in 20 days. Being unfamiliar with the new waters, he kidnapped two native children, and used them to help him navigate. Though the Vikings and European fishermen had ventured to Canada before him, he was given credit for “discovering” Canada for the King of France (“Jacques Cartier”, Gale). This discovery changed the world in a monumental way by connecting two different nations and cultures that had previously not known of each other, leading to France’s colonization of Canada and exploitation of its resources.
From his discovery in 1535, France now knew of Canada, and was hungry for power and land. In the early 17th century, a few decades after Cartier’s death, France colonized Canada and named it “New France”. This colonization period lasted about two-hundred-years, until Canada came into its own in 1791 with the “Canada Act” which divided Quebec into the provinces of lower and upper Canada. These provinces merged again in 1867 into the sovereign Canada that is present today. Though this statement of independence was not complete, because Canadians still speak the French language(“Cartier”, World History). If Cartier hadn’t discovered Canada, then Canada might be very different today with a native language and richer