Alan Day once said, ‘as a target, nothing matched the Northwest Passage in prestige’, thus the 18th century saw several attempts to continue the search for a northwest passage; the sea linking the North Atlantic Ocean with the North Pacific Ocean. The main reason for these explorations was to strengthen Britain’s trade routes by determining a shorter sea route to the Far East to fulfil Western European consumer demands for products from Asia. Thirty years prior to the decision to resume exploration for the Northwest Passage, discoveries had been delayed due to the Hudson Bay Company’s choice to prioritise trade. This essay will assess the importance of the Hudson’s Bay Company in determining the success of Knight, Middleton, Moor and Smith, …show more content…
However, other factors, most importantly the voyagers’ ability to winter, also played key roles in their successes and failures. There is certainly a correlation between the dangers of wintering and the need for support from the Company; without this support, voyagers had little chance of surviving throughout the winter as they relied on Hudson Bay posts as shelter. This proved to be a great problem, particularly for early voyagers including Knight and Middleton, who faced tough negotiations with the Hudson’s Bay Company. Of course different factors affected different explorers more drastically than others. Cook avoided Hudson Bay by travelling from the East and Hearne dealt with the dangers of wintering very well. The Company was certainly the most antagonising factor for eighteenth century expeditions as it caused more issues than necessary. However, wintering was more damaging as it caused the death of various voyagers and greatly limited their capabilities. Overall, different factors affected individual voyagers to varying extents, but the Hudson’s Bay Company was certainly pivotal to the success of eighteenth …show more content…
Established in 1670 as ‘a highly dispersed organisation with headquarters in London and operations thousands of miles away in modern Canada’, the Hudson’s Bay Company was chartered by a “Company of Adventurers” to ‘trade furs along the shores of Hudson Bay and its large offshoot, James Bay.’ The Company quickly settled into a routine whereby its bay-side garrisons traded with Indians who travelled on canoes to trade their furs via rivers that broke up in the summer months. It was believed that the most cost-efficient way of bringing furs from the Cree, the most populous and home to numerous Aboriginal people in Canada, was not the lengthy canoe journey along the St. Lawrence, but the shorter route via ship from the Hudson Bay coasts. With this concept came the beginnings of the Hudson’s Bay Company. It remains today the longest continually operating company in North America. In the eighteenth century it was in the Company’s best interests to discover a northwest passage in order to improve their own trade and expand. Despite this goal to find the Northwest Passage, ‘little was accomplished’ until a hundred years after its charter, when ‘Samuel Hearne, a British explorer with the company, went overland as far west as the Coppermine River and demonstrated that there was no short passage to the western
There was a section of my tribe that moved to Moosehead Lake, They were popularly known as Moosehead Lake Indians. The Penobscot Indians of this tribe always encountered navigators before the middle of the 17th century. My tribe was often visited by French navigators and fishermen from the Great Bank and that they built there before 1555 a fort or settlement. When more thorough exploration began in the 17th century my Penobscot chief, known as Bashaba (a term probably equivalent to head-chief), seems to have had primacy over all the New England tribes southward to the Merrimac. After the war my tribe joined our emigrant tribesmen in Canada, and they now constitute the only important body of Indians remaining in New England excepting the Passamaquoddy. My tribes count in numbers estimates within the present century give them from 300 to 400 souls. They now number about 410.
Upper Canada was in the tumultuous process of settlement during the nineteenth century. From 1800-1860, wheat and flour exports went from a negligible amount to peak at 13 billion bushels in 1860.1 It is important to understand the rapid nature of settlement to contextualize life in rural Upper Canada. From 1805-1840, the population increased by over eight hundred percent.2 Many of these were Irish emigrants, even in the period preceding the famine; these pre-Famine Irish emigrants were predominantly “middling farmers,” «c'est à dire des fermiers cultivant des terres petites ou moyennes, ceux qui ont été le plus durement touchés par la baisse soudaine des prix des produits agricoles à la fin des guerres napoléoniennes [en Europe]».3 Many of the emigrants settled into townships and villages on the agricultural frontier, such as the Biddul...
Beginning in the mid sixteenth century, French explorers were able to establish a powerful and lasting presence in what is now the Northern United States and Canada. The explorers placed much emphasis on searching and colonizing the area surrounding the St. Lawrence River “which gave access to the Great Lakes and the heart of the continent”(Microsoft p?). They began exploring the area around 1540 and had early interactions with many of the Natives, which made communication easier for both peoples when the French returned nearly fifty years later. The French brought a new European desire for fur with them to America when they returned and began to trade with the Indians for furs in order to supply the European demands. The Natives and the French were required to interact with each other in order to make these trades possible, and, over time, the two groups developed a lasting alliance. However, the French began to face strong competition in the fur trading industry, which caused many problems between different European nations and different native tribes. Therefore, the trading of fur allowed early seven- teenth century French explorers to establish peaceful relations with the Natives, however, com- petitive trading also incited much quarreling between competing colonies and Indian tribes.
More than half of American goods produced for export went to Great Britain, and acts were in effect that gave England more control over colonial exports (Navigation Acts and White Pines Acts are two examples). However, the West Indies played a vital role in preserving American credit in Europe, illustrating that Americans had developed economic differences that distinguished them from the British. They were able to trade with other places throughout the world, not just England. Without the source of income from the West Indies, colonists wouldn’t have been able to pay for manufactured items they purchased in the mother country. An expanding coastal and overland trade also brought colonists of different backgrounds into more frequent contact. Ships that sailed between New England and South Carolina, and between Virginia and Pennsylvania, provided dispersed Americans with a means to exchange ideas and experiences on a more regular basis, which represents both a social and economic difference from the British. Thus, the Americans of the eighteenth century tried to create a society that mirrored the English society they had known. In doing so, they were exposed to a world of ideas, leading them to develop some of their own. These ideas allowed for the development of social and economic differences, which distinguished them from the British and allowed them to develop an “American” cultural
When assessing the validity that Canada’s has a claim to Northwest Passage sovereignty three questions need t...
Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took the risk of life, limb, and liberty to bring back the precious and valuable information of the Pacific Northwest of the United States territory. Their accomplishments of surviving the trek and delivering the data to the U.S. government, have altered the course of history, but have some Historian’s and author’s stating, “It produced nothing useful.”, and having “added little to the stock of science and wealth. Lewis and Clark’s expedition is one of the most famous and most unknown adventures of America’s frontier.
Henry Hudson (English seamen) started sailing with his ship named “the half moon” in 1609 for the VOC. Officially he was searching for a new trading route to Asia. He was searching for the Northwest Passage through North America on the west of the Half Moon. A lot of explorers did the same thing before him. But he didn’t found the Northwest Passage. But he did find something else, the New Netherlands. It had beautiful woods, animals and ...
Howse was a capable bookkeeper, inland trader and an avid explorer for the Hudson’s Bay Company, who is accredited with being the first company trader to cross the Continental Divide. ...
When one recalls numerous companies in North America, an endless list of organizations can be compiled, ranging from recent start-ups to historic organizations. Last year, I had an opportunity to gain knowledge in the corporate business field from the most historic company in North America. Hudson’s Bay Company(HBC), a department store retailer focusing on fashion apparel, accessories and home products, which was incorporated in 1670 and has ninety locations in Canada. This paper will explore HBC’s recent changes in a strategic direction as well as corporate level strategies and its implications with using relevant strategy typologies and Michael Porter’s competitive strategy frameworks.
A Description of New England: or The Observations, and Discoveries, of Captain John Smith (Admiral of that Country), in the North of America, in the year of our Lord, 1614; London, 1616. Reprinted in: Dow, George Francis (1921). Two Centuries of Travel in Essex County Massachusetts: A Collection of Narratives and Observations Made by Travelers 1605-1799. The Perkins Press, Topsfield.
Henry Hudson was an explorer who tried to find a northwest passage to Asia through the
The English specialists grabbed the ship and the Englishmen among the group. Agitate that he had been investigating for another nation, the English specialists restricted Hudson from working with the Dutch once more. He was, be that as it may, resolute from attempting to locate the Northwest Passage. This time, Hudson discovered English speculators to finance his next trip, which would end up being lethal.
Quinn, David B. North America From Earliest Discovery to First Settlements. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977.
Aboriginal women had occupied an essential position in the fur trade of the North American region from its birth during the 17th and 18th centuries. Even though this is true, the role of women, especially those of the Native American society, has been ignored a great deal in the entire history of fur trade. Contrary to the belief that the whole fur trade activity was only male-dominated, it very much depended upon Native women and their participation and labor in order to ensure survival as well as economic success. This paper will attempt to illuminate how Native women played the role as important producers when it comes to fur trade of the American Plains and, of course, the Canadian region. This paper will also deal with the two important company's namely the North West and Hudson's Bay Company and tell how each functioned during the time of fur trade. The term “fur traders” is the term often used to described anyone who was interested in the traffic of furs. The traditional picture has been that of a male in buckskin shirt and a raccoon cap, dispensing alcohol and trinkets to gullible savages, in turn for the quality furs worth 10 times their value.
During the 1600’s the English decided to have people colonize in the Americas for the potential resources and wealth that they may find. During this time Spain, France, Portugal, and the Dutch have already began trade and exploration in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. England hearing of their riches, didn’t want to miss out of the opportunity. However, during these expeditions, there has been various news beforehand of the strong oceanic storms that would sometimes destroy ships or mislead them from their destinations Such news was not uncommon but due to the storms, many of the people knew the dangers of the journey and would often doubt the success of these explorations. For example, “ In may 1609, nine ships carrying 500 colonists under Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Summers had set sail to America to reinforce the colony at Jamestown. In an unusual storm, Gates and Summers were driven on the Bermudas, before managing to sail to the mainland” (Honan 371). News such as this was widespread throughout England and amongst these would be news of the encounters with natives. For example, “...