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Analysis: Was Jacques Cartier An Invader Or An Explorer?

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Was Jacques Cartier an Invader or an Explorer? Born in the late 1400’s Jacques Cartier was a formidable Marriner and considered by many to be one of the great explorers of his time. Whatever his personal motives were his travels exemplified the want for power, money, land, and fame. Hse also kidnapped the Iroquois chiefs, two sons, to take back to France as “trophies” and claimed the territory that the Iroquois believed belonged to everyone as French. Let us consider the definitions of the words invader and explorer. An invaders intent is to take something that doesn’t belong to them and to do so using violence. On the contrary, an explorer is someone who takes an interest in uncharted regions and sets out to enhance their personal expertise. …show more content…

This is illustrated by Cartier’s planting of the French-Catholic cross on Iroquois territory believing that he, being the first European to discover the land meant that he, as a representative of the King of France could simply take possession while ignoring the reality that the Iroquois were already present. The driving motivation in this age of European exploration was to expand their territory, the planting of the Catholic cross was symbolic of that expansion and claim of control. This is a definitive characteristic of an invader, not dissimilar of how invasive plants might take over a landscape. In planting the cross, Jacques Cartier sparked an ongoing hostile relationship between the Iroquois and the French. In countless wars where innovation has taken place, the planting of the flag is symbolic of the archetypal image of a conquering army. Take for example the raising of the Soviet flag over the Reichstag when the Russian army defeated the Germans claiming Berlin as the spoils of their victory, or the planting of the American flag on the moon which while still steeped in nationalism reflected a moment of great achievement in space

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