For hundreds of years, European and Indigenous travelers crisscrossed the lands that would become Canada. Their goals shifted over time—from finding a shortcut to Asia, to building fur-trade networks, to finally mapping the last blank spaces in the Arctic. This article traces that story across seven eras of exploration.
The “New” Continent: 16th Century
In the 1500s, most European sailors who reached Canada weren’t actually looking for it at all. They were searching for a westward sea route to Asia. With no accurate world maps, they sailed into the North Atlantic hoping to reach China and India, but instead ran into a continent they didn’t yet understand.
John Cabot, an Italian sailing for England, was one of the first of these explorers. In 1497 he left Bristol and reached the eastern coast of North America, probably somewhere around Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island. He claimed the land for the English king and returned home with stories of seas so full of cod that they slowed his ship. Those reports triggered an enormous European fishing rush to the Grand Banks.
A generation later, Jacques Cartier, sailing for France, explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River on three voyages in the 1530s and 1540s. He was looking for a path to Asia and for precious metals, but instead mapped key waterways and made early contact with Indigenous peoples like the Mi’kmaq and the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. Cartier misunderstood the Iroquoian word kanata—which meant “village”—and used it for the whole region; the name “Canada” stuck on European maps.
Other explorers pushed farther north. Martin Frobisher and John Davis searched for a Northwest Passage—an ice-choked sea route over the top of North America that might lead to Asia. Frobisher sailed into what he thought was a passage but was actually a large bay off Baffin Island, and returned with tons of rock he believed contained gold; it turned out to be worthless “fool’s gold.” Davis made several careful voyages to Greenland, Baffin Island, and what is now called Davis Strait. He mapped coasts farther north than any earlier explorer and invented new navigation tools to measure a ship’s position.
Even though none of these explorers reached Asia, they sparked long-lasting fishing, whaling, and fur-trading interests and put Canada’s Atlantic coastline on European maps.
Expanding in All Directions: 17th Century
By the 1600s, Europeans knew there was a continent blocking their way to Asia. The question became: could they get around it, or through it? Explorers and fur traders began to move inland from the Atlantic and around Hudson Bay, working with (and sometimes fighting against) Indigenous nations.
In New France, Samuel de Champlain stood out. A skilled map-maker and sailor, he helped found a permanent French settlement at Quebec in 1608 and later served as governor. From that base he traveled up the St. Lawrence and along the Atlantic coast from Cape Breton to Cape Cod, creating the first reasonably accurate maps of the region. Champlain built alliances with Indigenous nations such as the Algonquin and Huron, joining them in war against the Iroquois. His decision to fight on one side of an existing conflict shaped decades of warfare and diplomacy in the northeast.
Farther north, English companies probed into the icy waters around Hudson Bay. Henry Hudson, an English captain sailing for different sponsors, made four major voyages. On his final trip in 1610–1611 he passed through what is now Hudson Strait into the huge inland sea now named Hudson Bay, hoping it was the gateway to the Pacific. Pack ice trapped his ship for the winter. When Hudson insisted on continuing the search the next spring, his starving crew mutinied, set him, his teenage son, and a handful of loyal sailors adrift in a small boat, and sailed home without them. No one ever discovered what happened to Hudson, but many places in northern Canada still bear his name.
During this century, permanent colonies, missions, and trading posts were established along the St. Lawrence and around Hudson Bay. These outposts became launching pads for the next phase of exploration.
Exploring Westward: 18th Century
By the 1700s, European powers were competing fiercely for control of the fur trade. Beaver felt hats were all the rage in European fashion, and demand for pelts seemed endless. To secure furs, companies needed to reach Indigenous nations farther inland—and that drew explorers west.
For the English Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), Henry Kelsey was an important early figure. Apprenticed to the company as a teenager, he learned Cree and Assiniboine languages and traveled with Indigenous guides far from Hudson Bay. On a journey that began in 1690, he went southwest from the bay, likely becoming the first European to see the open grasslands of the Canadian Prairies. He relied heavily on Indigenous knowledge, traveling by canoe, on foot, and in winter with sleds and snowshoes.
The French fur-trade network, centered along the St. Lawrence, also pushed west. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye and his sons used birchbark canoes and Indigenous-made maps to reach the region around Lake Winnipeg and the upper Missouri. They built trading posts, negotiated with Cree and Assiniboine communities, and collected information about a possible “western sea.” Although La Vérendrye never reached the Pacific, his family’s journeys revealed just how vast the interior of North America was and linked the western plains into French trade routes.
Westward exploration in this era was tightly connected to commerce. Explorers were traders and company officials as well as map-makers, and their routes followed Indigenous trails and river systems that had already been used for generations.
Mapping the Northwest: 18th Century
Later in the 1700s, explorers began to focus less on simply reaching new regions and more on mapping them accurately. They wanted to know where rivers flowed, how mountain ranges lined up, and whether any combination of lakes and portages might form a practical route to the Pacific.
In the far north, Samuel Hearne, working for the HBC, made several overland journeys from the mouth of the Churchill River toward the Arctic Ocean. After two failed attempts, he finally succeeded on a third expedition (1770–1772) guided by Chipewyan leader Matonabbee. Traveling on snowshoes, by sledge, and in light canoes, they crossed treeline tundra, followed the Coppermine River, and reached the Arctic coast. Hearne’s journals described northern landscapes, wildlife, and especially the cultures of the Dene peoples in detail.
Farther south and west, the North West Company (NWC), a rival to the HBC, sent explorers to find overland routes to the Pacific. Alexander Mackenzie left Fort Chipewyan in 1789 and followed a long river north to the Arctic Ocean—today called the Mackenzie River. Unsatisfied, he tried again in 1792–1793, traveling up the Peace River and through a maze of rivers, lakes, and portages until he finally reached the Pacific coast. There he famously painted his name and the date on a seaside rock, proving that a transcontinental crossing was possible, even if his route was too difficult for regular trade.
Simon Fraser followed in 1805–1808, building interior posts and then forcing a route down an incredibly rough river toward the Pacific—the river that now bears his name. His party shot dangerous rapids, cut steps into cliffs, and sometimes abandoned their canoes to scramble along canyon walls on foot. They reached tidal waters, but like Mackenzie, Fraser concluded that his river was far too wild to serve as a fur-trade highway.
Throughout this period, David Thompson quietly became one of the greatest map-makers in North American history. Trained as a surveyor, he worked first for the HBC and then for the NWC, traveling tens of thousands of kilometers by canoe, on foot, and on horseback. He measured latitude and longitude wherever he went, earning from Indigenous observers the nickname “The Man Who Looks at Stars.” By 1814 he had drawn a massive map that accurately showed the drainage systems from Lake Superior to the Pacific.
The Pacific Coast: 18th Century
While fur traders and surveyors were exploring inland, naval expeditions approached the Pacific coast from the ocean side. European powers wanted to know who controlled which parts of the shoreline and whether any major river mouths might lead deep into the continent.
In the 1770s, Captain James Cook, sailing for Britain, explored parts of the Pacific Northwest coast, including Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island. His crew recorded detailed observations of harbors, coastlines, and Indigenous communities, providing some of the first widely known European descriptions of the region.
Spanish expeditions, including that of Juan Pérez, also visited the coast, staking claims and interacting with coastal First Nations. Tension between British and Spanish interests at Nootka Sound nearly led to war in the 1790s before a diplomatic settlement was reached.
Finally, George Vancouver, a British naval officer and former member of Cook’s crew, carried out one of the most precise coastal surveys of his time (1792–1794). He and his men spent years charting inlets, islands, and channels from present-day Oregon to Alaska. Their careful work proved that no large, low-latitude sea passage cut across the continent to the Atlantic and fixed many of the place names still used today.
The Arctic and More: 19th Century
In the 1800s, attention swung back to the Arctic. Steam power, improved ships, and a mix of scientific curiosity and national pride pushed European navies to try once again to find a Northwest Passage through the islands north of mainland Canada.
The most famous of these efforts was Sir John Franklin’s last voyage in 1845. Franklin commanded two specially equipped ships, Erebus and Terror, which vanished after entering the maze of Arctic channels. Later searches found scattered clues—abandoned camps, human remains, and written notes—suggesting that the crews became trapped in ice, tried to march south, and died along the way. The tragedy made the Arctic seem both mysterious and deadly.
Other explorers, such as Robert McClure, John Rae, and Francis Leopold McClintock, pieced together more of the northern geography. Some of them traveled by sledge and small boats with Inuit guides, learning survival skills like building snow houses and hunting seals. McClure’s ship became ice-bound, but his party completed a crossing that proved a Northwest Passage existed—even if it was completely impractical for normal shipping.
By the end of the 19th century, much of the Arctic coastline and many islands had been mapped, but the region remained hazardous and extremely difficult to navigate.
Triumph in the High North: 20th Century
In the 1900s, new technology finally made it possible to travel through the Arctic successfully, though it was still risky. The most famous achievement was the first full navigation of the Northwest Passage by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Between 1903 and 1906, he sailed a small ship, the Gjøa, along a winding route through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, wintering with Inuit communities and learning local techniques for sledding, clothing, and survival.
Later in his career, Amundsen also became the first person to reach the South Pole, but his Northwest Passage voyage proved that a small, well-prepared ship using Indigenous knowledge could accomplish what large naval expeditions had failed to do.
Throughout the 20th century, Canadian and international scientists, pilots, and sailors continued to explore the “High North.” Icebreakers, airplanes, and eventually satellites allowed more accurate mapping of coastlines, ice conditions, and weather patterns. Airfields and small communities became bases for research on climate, wildlife, and northern peoples. At the same time, Inuit and other Indigenous northerners continued to travel and live across the region, drawing on knowledge passed down over many generations.
Across these seven eras, exploration in Canada changed from accidental landfalls and fishing voyages to carefully planned scientific expeditions. Yet some themes stayed constant: explorers depended heavily on Indigenous guides and knowledge, they struggled with harsh environments and long distances, and their journeys reshaped both maps and relationships among peoples.