The Jesuits and European Expansion
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James Axtell (23), in his analysis of the conflict of cultures in colonial North America, argues that the initial role played by the French Jesuits (known as ôBlack Robesö) in the early sixteenth century was less focused on the religious conversion of Native Americans than on fostering the economic exploitation of a resource-rich New World. By the middle of the sixteenth century, however, and into the seventeenth, Axtell (23-24) states that the focus of Jesuit activity in the New World in general and in New France in particular did focus more generally upon the conversion of Native Americans to Roman Catholicism. This transformation occurred, according to Michael R. Welton (2), in large measure because of the JesuitÆs pedagogical style and the OrderÆs mystical enthusiasm to revive the ardor of the Primitive Church. Given this general background, an important question in historiography that addresses the European settlement of the North American continent focuses upon the motivations of different groups of colonizers and/or explorers. Gary B. Nash (41) has noted that most of the European colonists and conquerors who approached the New World were driven by the desire for profit or what Nash (41) calls ôNew World gold.ö This ôgoldö consisted variously of timber, fish and other foodstuffs, fur, and valuable minerals. From the perspective of the early French colonials, conversion of the Native Americans was a
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facto attacks upon the Hurons (Anderson, 14, passim).
David Newman (1) traced the role of Roman Catholic missionaries in Canada as follows:
ôRoman Catholicism was introduced by the French in Canada as their role in the Colonies was dual, that of setting up a fur trade and was missionary. Catholicism was implanted on the Shores of America with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the name of Catholic Spain. In Canada, Basque and Norman sailors had temporary homes in Newfoundland and they were most likely Catholics, considering most of France was at the time. In 1535, French Explorer and cartographer erected a cross at GaspT in the name of the King of France in the grace of God and celebrated the first Canadian mass. Champlain, another explorer and founder of Quebec, wished to see the Catholic faith taught to the First Nations as he though of them as "pagan savages". Not exactly a honourable endeavour nowadays, yet at the time it seemed like a good idea to the French. The Ricollects and the Jesuits arrived in North America and set up missions to convert the Algonquins (mostly within Quebec) and the Wendat (Hurons; in Ontario). The Ricollects arrived in Canada in 1615 and the Jesuits ten years later. The Jesuits founded se
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Approximate Word count = 3902
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)
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