North by Sea to the Arctic | European Exploration and Expansion

Henry Hudson had found not only the Hudson River but also Hudson Bay in the far north of Canada. In 1670 English adventurers and investors formed the Hudson’s Bay Company, originally set up for fur trading along the great bay to the northwest of French Quebec.

In the late sixteenth century the Dutch had penetrated far into the European Arctic, had discovered the island of Spitsbergen to the north of Norway, and had ranged eastward across the sea named after their leader, William Barents (d. 1597).

Early in the eighteenth century the Russians also explored most of the long Arctic coasts of Siberia, and a Dane in their service, Vitus Bering (1681-1741), discovered the Aleutian Islands and the sea and strait that now bear his name separating northeastern Siberia from Alaska, proving conclusively that Asia was not connected with North America.