Jacques Cartier’s First Voyage (April 20, 1534): Quest for Riches and a Northwest Passage

In the context of growing competition with Spain and Portugal over exploration and trade in the New World, French king Francis I commissions the Breton mariner Jacques Cartier to explore lands across the Atlantic. The royal instructions explicitly state Cartier's primary objectives: to "discover certain islands and lands where it is said that a great quantity of gold and other precious things are to be found." Beyond wealth, however, Cartier's expedition embodies France’s ambition to find a northwest maritime passage linking Europe directly to Asia’s lucrative markets.

On April 20, 1534, Cartier sets sail from the Breton port of Saint-Malo, commanding two ships and a crew of approximately sixty men. Navigating westward across the Atlantic, he intends not only to claim new territories for France but also to find a commercially viable route to Asia, thus breaking the Iberian monopoly on transatlantic trade.

Broader Significance and Legacy

Cartier’s voyage represents the strategic intentions of Francis I: expanding France’s economic and geopolitical influence, countering Spain and Portugal’s dominance, and asserting French claims in the rapidly emerging competition for North American territories. While Cartier will not find the precious metals nor the direct route to Asia he seeks, this expedition marks the beginning of sustained French interest and presence in North America, eventually leading to the establishment of New France.

Jacques Cartier had arrived home to St. Malo in October 1543, concluding what will prove to be his last voyage.

The French navigator in 1545 publishes an account of his three voyages to the Saint Lawrence region of present Canada.

Champlain returns once again to France in the fall to secure a future for his venture in the New World.

Having lost the support of the merchants in 1610, he writes a note to Louis XIII to ask him to intervene on his behalf.

Champlain is back in Saint-Malo by August 26, where he writes an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his Voyages, and publishes another map of New France.

Champlain forms the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain" in 1614, binding the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years.

Champlain, in 1632, publishes Voyages de la Nouvelle France, which is dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, and Traitté de la marine et du devoir d’un bon marinier, a treatise on leadership, seamanship, and navigation. (Champlain is to make more than twenty-five round-trip crossings of the Atlantic in his lifetime, without losing a single ship.)

Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu on March 1, 1633, having served in the intervening years as commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu".

In the next four days of fighting, the English fleet eventually corners, and destroy, twelve French vessels in anchorage at La Hogue, an anchorage off Point Barfleur in northwest France, and destroys three others, including Tourville’s flagship.

Tourville himself escapes, but the battle has not only ended serious French invasion plans but now, starved of funds, it also spells the end of France’s Atlantic navy.