New France · 1608-1701

New France and the fur trade

In 1608 Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec on the St. Lawrence River. New France lived from the fur trade, which depended on alliances with First Nations such as the Wendat, Algonquin and Innu. Students follow the canoe routes, the wars over furs and the Great Peace of 1701.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1650 to AD 1715
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In 1608 Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec on the St. Lawrence River. New France lived from the fur trade, which depended on alliances with First Nations such as the Wendat, Algonquin and Innu. Students follow the canoe routes, the wars over furs and the Great Peace of 1701.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Quebec, Montreal and the Great Lakes and explain why rivers mattered to New France.
  • Explain how the fur trade depended on alliances with First Nations.
  • Describe the Great Peace of Montreal of 1701 and why it mattered.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1650

A colony on a river

Open the map in 1650 and find New France along the St. Lawrence River. Compare its size with the lands around it. Who controlled most of the land in 1650?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1492

Homelands

Set the map to 1492 and zoom out over the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. Find Nitassinan (Innu), Omàmìwininìwag (Algonquin) and Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee). Whose lands did the fur traders pass through?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1715

The company of the bay

Jump to 1715 and find Rupert's Land around Hudson Bay, claimed by the English Hudson's Bay Company, founded in 1670. Why would two rival empires both want the northern forests?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Beaver fur was made into felt hats in Europe. How can fashion far away change life in North America?
  2. French traders depended on First Nations guides, canoes and food. Who had the upper hand in the early fur trade?
  3. In 1609 Champlain fought alongside the Wendat, Algonquin and Innu against the Haudenosaunee. How did that choice shape the next century?
  4. Epidemics and war devastated the Wendat in the 1630s and 1640s. How were disease and the fur trade connected?
  5. In 1701 France and about 40 First Nations made peace at Montreal. Why would so many nations want a shared peace?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became shogun of Japan in 1603, a few years before Quebec was founded. Afterwards, compare: Ieyasu's government decided where foreigners could trade. How did First Nations control who traded in their lands?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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