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The initial interest
in Newfoundland was due the rich Cod fisheries that
existed on the Grand Banks just off the coast of
Newfoundland. Is possible that English fisherman were
catching fish here before Columbus discovered America.
The fishermen had little interest in sharing this
information because they realized that settlement would
threaten their established manner of fishing, and
drying the fish on the empty shoreline.
With the explosion of
Europeans setting out in all directions, after Columbus
claims he had found a route to China, the English
mounted their own adventures and in 1497 John Cabot
sailed along the coast of Newfoundland and landed but
returned to England.
It was not until 1610,
when John Guy attempted to establish a settlement, that
the first settlers would try to hack a village out of
this wilderness. The encounters with the native Indians,
the Beothuk, were few, and the British tried to stop a
trend of violence against the Beothuk. The British even
passed protection laws for them. This did not however
stop the Micmac from settling in Newfoundland and
then attacking the Beothuk.
Newfoundland became a critical link in
the British trading system, which traded finished
products to Newfoundland and the Caribbean in exchange
for furs, fish and timber from Newfoundland and sugar
and molasses from the Caribbean. |
