The Inuit: Exploration II

Frobisher´s voyages were followed by others which failed too. Many of those who tried and failed in the seventeenth century gave their names to the Islands and Straits of the Canadian Arctic. By the end of the eighteenth century, Europeans had many contacts with the Inuit. The Inuit got European goods - such as metal goods - in exchange for their furs. Despite this contact, many Inuit continued the same lifestyle they had lived for centuries. Many European ideas and inventions were little use in the Arctic.

Relations between the two sides were generally good:

The discovery of the American North by Europeans was generally peaceful. It was seldom spoilt by the suspicion, hatred, and murder in other parts of the New World.

(L.H. Neatby: Handbook of North American Indians Volume V, 1984)

Why did the Europeans not try to conquer the Inuit?

The Inuit immediately used every European idea that could be useful to their way of life. The Europeans, on the other hand, thought that they were superior. So they learnt nothing at all from them.

(W. Herbert: Eskimos, 1976)

Other reasons are:

- The climate was too difficult and unpleasant.

- The area contained little that was valuable to Europeans.

- The people were too spread out to be a threat to European traders.

As for the Northwest passage, it was not discovered by Europeans until the 1850s. It was first crossed between 1903 and 1906.

James Green: Native peoples of the Americas; Oxford University Press, 1993, page 54 f.