Samuel de Champlain

The French explorer and cartographer who founded Quebec, known as the "Father of New France."

Life

Navigator from a seaport

Champlain was born c. 1567 (by another account around 1574) in Brouage, a seaport in western France. He went to sea early and may have sailed to the Spanish West Indies. In 1603 he first came to the St. Lawrence River with a fur trade fleet, and in 1604–1607 he took part in founding settlements in Acadia, wintering on Saint Croix Island and at Port-Royal, and drew detailed maps of the northeastern coast of North America.

Founded Quebec

In 1608 he founded Quebec at a narrowing of the St. Lawrence River as a fur trade post. He allied with the Huron, Algonquin, Montagnais and other peoples, and in 1609 he went south with his allies and, on the shore of what is now Lake Champlain, killed several Mohawk chiefs with his arquebus, beginning the long hostility between France and the Iroquois Confederacy. He later traveled up the Ottawa River deep into the interior, wintered among the Huron in 1615–1616, and joined an attack on the Iroquois, returning wounded.

Father of New France

For many years he was the de facto head of Quebec, working to attract immigrants and win the king's support. In 1629 the English Kirke brothers besieged Quebec, and he was forced to surrender and taken to England; in 1632 Quebec was returned to France, the following year he went back to the colony, and on Christmas Day 1635 he died in Quebec. The travelogues and maps he left are important sources for the study of early Canada and Indigenous societies.

Legacy

Champlain is known as the "Father of New France." Quebec, which he founded, was the core of French colonization in North America and the origin of today's French-speaking Canada, and the maps and travelogues he left record the geography and Indigenous societies of early North America. He allied with the Huron, Algonquin and other peoples and intervened in their conflicts with the Iroquois Confederacy, shaping the North American balance of power for more than a century afterward; the colonial process he set in motion also profoundly changed the fate of Indigenous peoples.

Major works & achievements

• 1608: founded Quebec
• Drew detailed maps of northeastern North America
• Allied with the Huron, Algonquin and other peoples
• Published several accounts of travels in North America

Did you know? Lake Champlain on the US–Canada border is named after him; he was the first European on record to reach the lake.

Key dates

• 1603First voyage to the Saint Lawrence River
• 1604Helped establish a settlement in Acadia
• 1608Founded Quebec
• 1609Battle of Lake Champlain
• 1615Wintered deep in the Huron homeland
• 1629Quebec occupied by the English; taken to England
• 1633Returned to Quebec
• 1635Died in Quebec