New France, Fur Trade and Exploration The French Fur Trade The Hudson's Bay Company Voyageurs La Vérendrye and Western Exploration The Métis Events Abroad

While many European explorers were searching for a route to the Orient and its fabled riches of spices and luxury goods, the furs of North America became a source of riches as well.

The exploration and fur trade from New France and the British colony of Lower Canada contributed to the spread of French culture across the continent. In this section, this phenomenon is examined in a large sense and ultimately narrowed down to the Métis, the descendants of the men who plied the fur trade into the Northwest and what is now Alberta.