{"id":434,"date":"2011-04-07T20:33:05","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T20:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/nouvelle-france\/"},"modified":"2012-08-27T10:11:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T14:11:05","slug":"science","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/daily-life\/science\/","title":{"rendered":"Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the time the French were settling in North America, science in the modern sense of the term was in its infancy: people still referred to \u2018natural philosophy\u2019 to describe the objective study of nature and the physical universe. Even so, a full-blown scientific and technical revolution was taking place in the 16th and 17th centuries. European scholars were developing methods of investigation that were rigorous, verifiable and reproducible. They published abundantly, consolidated their disciplines and formed institutions: in Paris, they created the Jardin du Roi and the Royal Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n

Telescope, 1736-1748<\/strong>
Canada Science and Technology Museum. Acc. No 820351<\/div>\">\"Telescope,<\/a>

Telescope, 1736-1748<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Naturally, the New World was a popular subject of study for these early scholars who sought to explain and classify the physical universe. Astronomical observations were of paramount importance, since navigators relied on them to try and determine their longitude. To arrive at their destination, they had to observe the stars and invent instruments. To explore and claim a territory, they had to make advances in cartography.<\/p>\n

Jesuit missionaries, the first organized group in the colony with an advanced education, also documented their findings, not only in the heavens, but also in the mineral, plant and animal resources they observed. They were followed by the Royal physicians and engineers, who did the same. A few governors had scholarly aspirations as well, keeping up to date on European scientific developments and maintaining an extensive correspondence with their counterparts on the other side of the ocean. The French crown even financed the visit of a Swedish botanist to Canada. Colonization thus contributed to the advancement of knowledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the time the French were settling in North America, science in the modern sense of the term was in its infancy: people still referred to \u2018natural philosophy\u2019 to describe the objective study of nature and the physical universe. Even so, a full-blown scientific and technical revolution was taking place in the 16th and 17th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":312,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3406,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/434\/revisions\/3406"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}