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Exploration and Settlement. The region of Newfoundland and Labrador was the first stretch of North America's Atlantic coastline to be explored by Europeans, but it was one of the last to be settled in force and formally colonized. The Norse arrived from Greenland about 1000 A.D. and established settlements here during the following century.
- European Exploration: From Earliest Times to 1497 - Heritage
First, archaeological evidence and the Icelandic sagas have...
- The Portuguese Explorers - Heritage
The Portuguese pioneered the European exploration of the...
- European Exploration: From Earliest Times to 1497 - Heritage
Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Newfoundland and Labrador were inhabited for millennia by different groups of Indigenous peoples. The first brief European contact with Newfoundland and Labrador came around 1000 AD when the Vikings briefly settled in L'Anse aux Meadows. In 1497, European explorers and fishermen ...
First, archaeological evidence and the Icelandic sagas have established that the Norse arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador around 1000 CE. Second, there is no dispute that Zuan Caboto (John Cabot) sailed from Bristol to North America in 1497. Whether other Europeans explored the region before the Norse, or between 1000 and 1497, is unclear.
Newfoundland, the youngest of the Canadian provinces, joined Confederation in 1949. Some portion of its coast was undoubtedly one of the first parts of the continent seen by Europeans. Its total area is 405, 720 km2, of which Labrador makes up almost three-quarters (294,330 km2). Bjarni Herjolfsson sighted mainland North America, probably ...
- Initial Attempts to Create A Mission in Labrador
- Mikak's Role
- Establishment of The First Permanent Mission
- Moravian Missions Along The Labrador Coast
- Moravians as Traders
- Closing of The Missions
- The Moravians' Legacy
- Moravian Residential Schools
In 1752, Moravian missionary Johann Christian Erhardt organized a trading and missionary expedition to Labrador. The Moravian missionaries were representatives of the Protestant Moravian Church (see Moravian Canadians). When the group arrived, they anchored in a bay near today’s Makkovik, and prepared to establish the first Moravian station in Labr...
During Haven’s 1765 visit, he travelled with Hugh Palliser to Labrador where they were introduced to an Inuk woman named Mikak (Inuk is the singular form of the word Inuit). In 1767, during an altercation in southern Labrador, Mikak was taken hostage by the British. While in captivity, she began learning English and teaching Inuktitut. Palliser rea...
The following year, in 1771, Jens Haven, his new bride, two other married couples and eight single men founded the first permanent Moravian settlement in Labrador’s north coast. They chose the Inuit gathering area known as Nuneingoak as the site of their new home and named the station “Nain.” Nain was the first Christian mission for the Inuitin Can...
Over a 133-year period, Moravian missionaries established a series of eight missions along the Labrador coast. Each station generally had a communal dwelling house and church in German architectural style, a trading store, a graveyard, and workshops, as well as sizable vegetable and flower gardens. Nain (1771-) — The first Moravian mission was posi...
From the beginning, the trade aspect of the missions was difficult and not always profitable. Missions relied heavily on goods purchased from the Inuit and the once-a-year visit of their supply ship Harmony. Labrador products exported to Europe included oil, sealskins, furs, dried fish and handicrafts. Moravians were careful to sell goods to the In...
In 1894, a first station closed, Zoar. In 1907, the number of missionaries was cut back (no more than 40 missionaries were posted in Labrador at any point in time). Finally, in 1926, the decision was made to hand over trade operations to the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 2005, after a 234-year presence, the Moravian Church recalled its last missionary i...
Moravians had a huge impact on the life of Labrador Inuit, both good and bad. Among others, they introduced: 1. A written language and literacy in Inuktitut. Labrador Inuit(Labradormiut) are the first Inuit in Canada to have written in their own language 2. A new religion (Christianity) which banned the Inuit’s traditional beliefs 3. The settlement...
From 1906 to 1980, the Moravian Church and the International Grenfell Association operated residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. These organizations operated 5 institutions. Survivors of these institutions faced similar experiences to other residential school survivors (see Residential Schools in Canada). The federal government apology ...
The Portuguese pioneered the European exploration of the Atlantic Ocean. By the time that John Cabot returned to England in 1497 with news of the "new founde isle", the main focus of Portuguese maritime activity was their trade along the west African coast and on to India. But at the same time, there was a long-standing Portuguese interest in ...
Jacques Cartier is one of the first Europeans to enter the Gulf of the St. Lawrence River. In 1535, while on his second of three voyages, Cartier hears the Iroquoian word for village, kanata, and documents the name in his journal. The name Canada subsequently appears on the 1547 Harleian world map, indicating land north of the St. Lawrence.
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