The first known European visitors to Canada were the Norsemen, or Vikings. They sailed southwestward out of Greenland and Iceland and landed in what is now Newfoundland, which they called Vinland. Archeological evidence indicates that settlement was made on the eastern coast as early as the 11th century near a site called L'Anse aux Meadows. The Norsemen did not remain long, and regular excursions by Europeans to the northern shores of Canada did not begin until the end of the 15th century.

The voyages of Christopher Columbus first brought widespread attention to what came to be called the New World, and in 1497 John Cabot, an Italian seaman in the employ of England, reached what was probably Newfoundland. He took possession of the region for England; this act formed the basis of the English claim to North America.

The first expedition to Canada by European explorers was led by a Frenchman, Jacques Cartier. In 1534 Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence and claimed the mainland for France. He led a second voyage the following year, sailing up the St. Lawrence River as far as the site of Montreal. He spent the winter of 1535–36 at Quebec (then an Indian village called Stadacona), but made no permanent settlement. A third voyage, in 1541, was made to prepare the way for a colonizing expedition by the Sieur de Roberval. In 1542 Roberval established a settlement on the St. Lawrence upriver from Stadacona, but the colony lasted only a few months. There were no other French ventures in Canada until the 1600's.

In 1576 Martin Frobisher, an English explorer searching for a northwest passage (a water route across the northern edge of North America) to the Far East, reached what is now Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island, north of Labrador. He made two additional voyages to the region, in 1577 and 1578.

Meanwhile, temporary bases used for fishing had been established near the Grand Banks off present-day Newfoundland by sailors from various countries. In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, an English explorer also seeking a northwest passage, occupied one of fishing settlements, now St. John's, Newfoundland. He took possession of the island for England, making it that country's first colonial possession in North America. The English made no effort to settle colonists there until early in the 17th century. These attempts at colonization were not successful. The region nonetheless provided England with significant profits from fishing.