This section of the Timeline of New France history concerns the events between Jacques Cartier's first voyage and the foundation of the Quebec settlement by Samuel de Champlain.

1530s

• 1534 - On July 24, Jacques Cartier plants a cross in the Gaspé peninsula.
• 1535 - Jacques Cartier's expedition sails into the St. Lawrence River and stops in a little bay he names baie Saint-Laurent on August 10.
• 1535 - On September 6, Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the île aux Coudres.
• 1535 - Jacques Cartier sails up to Hochelaga on the St. Lawrence on October 2.
• 1537 - On June 9, Pope Paul III proclaims that since the Sauvages (Indians) are real humans, they are apt to receive the Christian faith.

1540s

• 1541 - Jean-François de la Roque de Roberval is made lieutenant of New France and is given orders to establish a colony in America.
• 1541 - Cartier founds Charlesbourg Royal , first French establishment in America.

1550s

• 1555 - With the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion in France, Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon flees persecution by the Catholic Monarch and establishes a Protestant colony named "Antarctic France" in what is today Brazil.

1560s

• 1560 - The Portuguese destroy the "Antarctic France" colony, following many conflicts between Protestants and Catholics.
• 1562 - In February, a Huguenot exploratory group led by French naval officer Jean Ribault landed at the site on the River of May (now the St. Johns River).
• 1564 - Fort Caroline becomes the first permanent French colony in North America, located near present-day Jacksonville, Florida.

1570s

1580s

• 1581 - From 1581 to 1584, numerous French merchants organize expeditions to explore Canada in hope of finding fur.

1590s

• 1598 - A French settlement is established on Sable Island, southeast of present-day Nova Scotia.

1600s

• 1600 - Pierre de Chauvin, Sieur de Tonnetuit founds a trading post at Tadoussac.
• 1603 - Samuel de Champlain takes possession of Terre-Neuve (Newfoundland) and Acadie (Acadia).
• 1604 - Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain establish an ill-fated settlement at Île-Saint-Croix
• 1605 - Dugua and Champlain move the settlement to the Habitation at Port-Royal, near Annapolis Royal in present-day Nova Scotia. See Acadia.
• 1606 - Marc Lescarbot put on the first European theatrical production in North America. It was called Le Théâtre de Neptune.
• 1607 - On May 14, Captain Christopher Newport founds the first English colony in America: Jamestown, Virginia.

See also: New France - French colonial empire - Colonialism