5. Exploration and exploitation

Abstract

‘Exploration and exploitation’ reviews the history of Arctic exploration and exploitation, which owes a great deal to early European encounters with the 'New World'. This topic includes the earliest Viking settlement of Greenland to a succession of European explorers and expeditions that were designed to search for the Northwest Passage. The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), which specialized in fur trading, was integral to the early exploitation of the Canadian north since it was chartered in May 1670. The history and presence of industrial-scale mining in the Arctic over the last 300 years also played an important part. The term 'Arctic paradox', used by Arctic observers, describes a series of contradictory pressures facing the region—managing resources, promoting sustainable development, and ensuring that indigenous and northern communities are beneficiaries from any form of resource-led development.