Jacques Cartier Enters the St. Lawrence and Claims Canada for France
A French navigator plants a cross at Gaspe and takes two of a local chief's sons back to France with him
Quick facts
- Navigator
- Jacques Cartier
- Sponsor
- King Francis I of France
- Location
- Gaspe Bay
- Notable detail
- Took Chief Donnacona's two sons to France
What happened
Commissioned by King Francis I of France to search for gold, a route to Asia, and new territory, Jacques Cartier left France on 20 April 1534 with two ships and 61 men. He explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence, meeting more than 300 people from Stadacona, near present-day Quebec City, who had come to Gaspe Bay to fish. At Gaspe, Cartier's men erected a large cross claiming the land for France. Two sons of the Stadacona chief Donnacona were taken aboard Cartier's ship and brought back to France with him, accompanying him on the remainder of the voyage. Weather and difficult currents kept him from finding the entrance to the St. Lawrence River itself on this trip.
Why it matters
Cartier's voyage gave France its founding claim to Canada, three decades after Spain and Portugal had already divided much of the rest of the Americas between them. Taking Donnacona's sons without clear consent set an early pattern of French dealings with the peoples along the St. Lawrence that would recur on Cartier's later voyages.
How we know
The Canadian Museum of History's Virtual Museum of New France describes the meeting at Gaspe, the cross-raising ceremony, and Cartier bringing Donnacona's sons back with him, based on Cartier's own account of the voyage.
Sources
- Canadian Museum of History, Virtual Museum of New France. Jacques Cartier, 1534-1542 · General sourcehistorymuseum.ca · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Parks Canada, Cartier-Brebeuf National Historic Site. The first voyage (1534) · General sourceparks.canada.ca · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineThe Age of Exploration27 events · How Portuguese and Spanish voyages connected the world's oceans between 1415 and 1600, and what that connection cost the people already living thereView all →