French Explorers
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Giovanni da Verrazano
Giovanni da Verrazano was an Italian navigator who was hired by the French monarch to explore the coast of North America and find a Northwest channel to Asia. In 1524, he set sail from Spain and mapped the area of present-day North Carolina to Newfoundland in the north. He did not find a path to Asia, so he returned to Europe. Da Verrazano believed that North America was a thin isthmus, or a narrow strip of land that has water on both sides and connects two large bodies of land, that divided the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Unfortunately for him, da Verrazano he was killed and eaten by Caribbean Indians in 1528.
Click the button below to read a biography on Giovanni da Verrazano.
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Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier was a French explorer who was looking for a Northwest Passage to Asia through North America. In 1534, he sailed past Newfoundland and traveled 1,000 miles up the St. Lawrence River. Cartier named Canada “Kanata,” which means “village or settlement” in the Huron-Iroquois language. After two more voyages in 1535 and 1541, France temporarily gave up on discovering a passage to Asia. At that time, French Protestants and Catholics were in a civil war, so there was no time or money for exploration. Jacques Cartier paved the way for French exploration of North America.
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