Exploration and Early Settlement: 1000 AD-1832

The recorded history of Newfoundland and Labrador begins around the year 1000 AD, about 1000 years ago. That was when the first Europeans came to this part of the world. They were Vikings, from Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

The Vikings were mainly explorers, not settlers. Many years after the Vikings visited Newfoundland, their stories were written down in sagas (their word for story). The Vikings built houses in at least one place in Newfoundland-at L'Anse aux Meadows on the Great Northern Peninsula. They did not stay there for very long, but we believe they brought their families with them.

Other European people came to Newfoundland and Labrador from about 1400 on. Every summer, they came from Portugal, France, Spain and England. But they did not stay. These people were almost all men. They came to fish and kill whales. Every year before winter came, they returned to their homes in Europe.

The settlement of Newfoundland and Labrador happened very slowly. Settlements were places where men and women stayed all year long and raised families. In the 1600s, the government of Britain wanted to keep people from making settlements in Newfoundland. Fishing captains could put people out of their homes and even burn the houses down.

The French and English fought wars in the 1600s and 1700s. Settlers were often put out of their homes by soldiers on both sides. Sometimes the homes would be burned. It was not easy for people to settle.

France and Britain stopped fighting, but many people still came to Newfoundland only to fish in the summer. Most settlers did not come to Newfoundland and Labrador until after 1800.

The people who lived here did not vote in elections until 1832. Before that, the government in Britain decided what would happen in Newfoundland. The leaders of the British army and navy who were sent to Newfoundland ran the courts and jails and looked after some local problems.