Considering the Impact on Issues or Events

Overview

The detailed activities that follow help students examine the roles of fur traders and Church missionaries in colonizing Aboriginal peoples in New France prior to 1663. After identifying indicators of colonization, students examine the effects of the fur trade and missionary work on colonial development. Students then determine which group–traders or missionaries–contributed more significantly to the colonization of New France. The strategies and support materials can be used as is, or adapted for another issue or event. Possible adaptations include demographic or cultural and linguistic changes to a community; the influence of two or more groups of people on an historical event e.g., Confederation; the advantages and disadvantages of the structure and function of a model of government for a particular group of people.