Timeline of New France history (1534 to 1607)

This section of the Timeline of New France history concerns the events between Jacques Cartier's first voyage and the foundation of the Quebec settlement by Samuel de Champlain.

1530s

• 1534 - On July 24, Jacques Cartier plants a cross in the Gaspé peninsula.
• 1535 - Jacques Cartier's expedition sails into the St. Lawrence River and stops in a little bay he names baie Saint-Laurent on August 10.
• 1535 - On September 6, Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the île aux Coudres.
• 1535 - Jacques Cartier sails up to Hochelaga on the St. Lawrence on October 2.
• 1537 - On June 9, Pope Paul III proclaims that since the Sauvages (Indians) are real humans, they are apt to receive the Christian faith.

1540s

• 1541 - Jean-François de la Roque de Roberval is made lieutenant of New France and is given orders to establish a colony in America.
• 1541 - Cartier founds Charlesbourg Royal , first French establishment in America.

1550s

• 1555 - With the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion in France, Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon flees persecution by the Catholic Monarch and establishes a Protestant colony named "Antarctic France" in what is today Brazil.

1560s

• 1560 - The Portuguese destroy the "Antarctic France" colony, following many conflicts between Protestants and Catholics.
• 1562 - In February, a Huguenot exploratory group led by French naval officer Jean Ribault landed at the site on the River of May (now the St. Johns River).
• 1564 - Fort Caroline becomes the first permanent French colony in North America, located near present-day Jacksonville, Florida.

1570s

1580s

• 1581 - From 1581 to 1584, numerous French merchants organize expeditions to explore Canada in hope of finding fur.

1590s

• 1598 - A French settlement is established on Sable Island, southeast of present-day Nova Scotia.

1600s

• 1600 - Pierre de Chauvin, Sieur de Tonnetuit founds a trading post at Tadoussac.
• 1603 - Samuel de Champlain takes possession of Terre-Neuve (Newfoundland) and Acadie (Acadia).
• 1604 - Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain establish an ill-fated settlement at Île-Saint-Croix
• 1605 - Dugua and Champlain move the settlement to the Habitation at Port-Royal, near Annapolis Royal in present-day Nova Scotia. See Acadia.
• 1606 - Marc Lescarbot put on the first European theatrical production in North America. It was called Le Théâtre de Neptune.
• 1607 - On May 14, Captain Christopher Newport founds the first English colony in America: Jamestown, Virginia.

See also: New France - French colonial empire - Colonialism