The Western Part of New France or Canada

What it is

This engraved map, titled "Partie Occidentale de la Nouvelle France ou du Canada," was made by French cartographer Jacques Nicolas Bellin and published in 1755. It shows the Great Lakes region in detail, including Lake Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario, along with rivers, place names, and a decorative cartouche.

Why it matters

Bellin's map was part of an 18th-century effort by French cartographers to map New France using knowledge gained partly from Native Americans, in a region Radisson had traveled through as a fur trader generations before. It shows military, trade and territorial information important to French alliances with Iroquois and Algonquian peoples, just before the Seven Years' War that would end French control of Canada.

Look closer

• Why would French mapmakers rely on Indigenous knowledge to create this map?
• What kinds of information does the map include, and for whom would that information be useful?
• How might this map have been used differently by traders, missionaries, and soldiers?