Answer:
Exploration of Canada by Europeans began with the Norse in the late 10th century on the country’s East Coast. Following Jacques Cartier’s arrival in 1534, over the course of the next three centuries British and French explorers gradually moved further west. Commercial, resource-based interests often drove exploration; for example, a westward route to Asia and later, the fur trade. By the mid-19th century, most of the main geographical features of Canada had been mapped by European colonists. (See also Arctic Exploration.)
Explanation:
Until well into the 16th century, Europe's knowledge of the nearest part of America, its eastern extremity at Newfoundland, was misty and uncertain. Claims have been made for the sighting of some part of Canada's Atlantic coastline by the Irish monk St Brendan in the sixth century. However, archaeological excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows near the northern tip of Newfoundland suggest Norsemen were the first Europeans to see Canada in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. These remains show that the earliest sighting was probably made by Bjarni Herjolfesson in 985 or 986; and that in about 1000, Leif Ericsson landed in the first of a series of expeditions culminating in the establishment of a short-lived Norse settlement.
Despite these Norse settlements, when Europeans again approached northeastern America in the late 15th century, they were likely unaware of the routes and discoveries of their predecessors.
15th–16th Century
Some speculate that seamen from Bristol reached Newfoundland, or thereabouts, as early as the 1480s, predating Columbus's voyage of 1492. However, the only hard evidence points to John Cabot’s English expedition of 1497 as the first known voyage to mainland North America in the new era of overseas discovery. Explorers at this time were seeking a westward route to Asia.
