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Home > Europeans Arrive

Europeans Arrive

Sails on the Horizon!

For a long time Christopher Columbus was considered to be the first European to have set foot in America. It is true that he arrived in the Caribbean in 1492. However, today it has been proven that Vikings attempted to found a settlement at L'Anse-aux-Meadows, in Newfoundland, around 1000 A.D. This was almost 500 years before Columbus!

The truth is that, at the time of Christopher Columbus, Europeans were searching for a route to Asia. Even when their search led them to the Americas they continued to seek a passage across the continent to China and India.

By the early 1500s there were a number of ships in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and they were not trying to get further inland. These Europeans came to fish and returned home when their holds were full. Although they stayed in Canada for only a few months, some of them encountered members of the First Nations.