a FRENCH EXPLORATION article

Cultures of Acadiana
a look at the French, Cajun, Creole, and Native American cultures of south Louisiana
(a project of Carencro High School - 721 West Butcher Switch Road, Lafayette, LA 70507)

Some important

dates acting colonial History and Acadiana

by Jim Bradshaw

Christopher Columbus makes the first of four voyages to the New World, funded by the Spanish crown, seeking a western sea route to Asia. On Oct. 12, sailing the Santa Maria, he lands in the Bahamas, thinking it is an outlying Japanese island.

John Cabot of England explores the Atlantic coast and lands on the east coast of Canada. He claims the area for King Henry VII of England.

Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci sights the South American coast while exploring for Spain.

Martin Luther launches the Protestant Reformation in Europe, bringing an end to the sole, authority of the Catholic Church, resulting in the growth of Protestant sects and religious wars that cause some settlers to move to America.

1524
Giovanni de Verrazano, sailing for France, lands in the area around the Carolinas, then sails north as far as Nova Scotia.

1536
On July 13, Cabeza de Vaca and three companions reach Mexico City, the only survivors of the Narváez expedition.

Harsh persecution of Huguenots in France drives a band of them to attempt a settlement on the Florida coast.

The first permanent European colony in North America is founded by the Spanish at St. Augustine, Fla..

Marques de la Roche attempts to establish a fur trading post on Sable Island, off the coast of today's Nova Scotia.

Sir Walter Raleigh lands on Roanoke Island and names the surrounding area Virginia.

In Europe, defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English results in Great Britain replacing Spain as the dominant world power and leads to a gradual decline of Spanish influence in the New World.

1603
Samuel de Champlain makes his first visit to New France, claiming the territory around the St. Lawrence River.

1604
Champlain and Pierre de Gua, Sieur de Monts, found a colony at the mouth of the St. Croix River in what is now New Brunswick.

1605
Champlain founds Port-Royal on the Acadian Peninsula of what is now Nova Scotia.

The Dutch East India Company sponsors a seven-month voyage of exploration to North America by Henry Hudson. In September, he sails up the Hudson River to what is now Albany, NY.

A Dutch trading post is set up in lower Manhattan.
Acadians settle Penobscot Maine.

From trading posts at Port Royal, Cape Sable, Penobscot Maine, and the St. John River, Acadians ship 25,000 pelts back to France.

Twenty Africans are brought by a Dutch ship to Jamestown for sale as indentured servants, marking the beginning of black slavery in North America.

In March, John Winthrop leads a Puritan migration of 900 colonists to Massachusetts Bay, where he serves as the first governor. In September, Boston is officially established, becoming the seat of Winthrop's government.

Two hundred settlers, many of them Catholic, arrive in Maryland to settle lands granted to Lord Baltimore by British King Charles 1.

France revitalizes a company dedicated to colonization, commerce, and Christianity in the New World. A part of the royal instructions require that "the associates are not to tolerate the exercise of any religion other than Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, and will do their utmost to see that the governors and officers act firmly in this matter." Furthermore, the associates were to "labor incessantly for the conversion of savages in these and neighboring isles," to "obtain ... the conversion of the barbarous peoples to the Christian religion."

French explorer Jean Nicolet, seeking the "great salt sea" between America and Asia, hears from Indians about a "great water" to the south of the Great Lakes. He thinks it is the ocean but it is really the Mississippi River.

In June, Roger Williams founds Providence and Rhode Island. He was banished from Massachusetts for "new and dangerous opinions" calling for religious and political freedoms including separation of church and state.

King Louis XIV makes New France a province of France and appoints a royal governor and intendant (business manager) for the province.

King Charles II of England establishes the colony of Carolina and grants the territory to eight loyal supporters.

The Dutch New Netherlands colony becomes English New York after Gov. Peter Stuyvesant surrenders to the British following a naval blockade.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert is named Comptroller General (chief financial officer) of France. According to historian Frederic Austin Ogg, who studied the early exploration of the Mississippi River, "By Colbert's influence, Jean-Baptiste Talon, a man of ability almost equal to that of Colbert himself, was appointed intendant of new France ... (and) for nearly a decade Talon was to be the guiding genius of French exploration in the American interior"

1672
Louis Joliet makes an exploratory trip toward the source of the Mississippi River but is stopped by winter cold.

Joliet and Jesuit priest Jacques Marquette find the Mississippi River and descend it to about the mouth of the Arkansas River.

1689-1675
In a series of wars, the British capture Quebec and conquer New France.

1681
Pennsylvania is founded when William Penn, a Quaker, is given a royal carter and a huge land grant by English King Charles II.

1682
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explores the lower Mississippi Valley and claims it for France. On April 9, he takes possession of Louisiana for France.

1685
Protestants in France lose their guarantee of religious freedom, prompting many of them to leave for America.