FRENCH COLONIES OF NORTH AMERICA

By: Aaron BaconHistory 140Dr. Michael T. ArgüelloTheme 4. Part 1

CANADA & IROQUOIA - 5 (FIVE NATIONS)

The unification of the Five Nations began sometime between 1570 and 1600 when a member of the Seneca tribe began negotiating a treaty with Hiawatha, a member of the Onondaga tribe who was living among the Mohawks. Gradually, the two other nations entered into a similar alliance with these three tribes and a permanent bond was forged. Each tribe agreed that they would not come into conflict with one another as a matter of protection.

Unfortunately for the French, the Iroquois were very formidable enemies, that where well rehearsed in torture and warfare.

CANADA & IROQUOIA - 5 (FUR TRADE)

The fur trade was one of the earliest and most important industries in North America. The fur trading industry played a major role in the development of the United States and Canada for more than 300 years.

Trade started after the French offered the Indians kettles, knives, and other gifts as a means to establish friendly relations. The Indians, in turn, gave pelts to the French. By the late 1500's, a great demand for fur had developed in Europe. This demand encouraged further exploration of North America. The demand for beaver increased rapidly in the early 1600's, when fashionable European men began to wear felt hats made from beaver fur. Such furs as fox, marten, mink, and otter also were traded.

The earliest fur traders in North America were French explorers and fishermen who arrived in what is now Eastern Canada during the early 1500's.

CANADA & IROQUOIA - 5 (THE DUTCH AND JESUITS ROLE)

in 1609, Henry Hudson established a fur trade with the Mohawks. The Dutch traded weapons for fur, mainly guns. With guns at their disposal the Iroquois became an even bigger threat to the French.

Trying to bridge a cultural chasm, the Jesuit priest, known as the “Black Robes”, had to have remarkable patients and zeal. The priest would influence the native population by their unmoving devotion to their god and faith.

CANADA & IROQUOIA - 5 (DESTRUCTION)

Growing hostility within the Huron's tribe between the Christian converts and those hostile to Christianity. The traditional tension with the Iroquois was heightened by the competition for the fur trade. In the 1640s, the Iroquois launched regular attempts to destroy Huron fur expeditions, followed by direct attacks on the weakened Huron settlements. The campaign of 1648-1649 literally destroyed the Huron nations. Survivors were adopted into the enemy tribe as was customary.

FRENCH AMERICA - 16 (EMIGRANTS)

Canada was the property of the fur-trading Company of New France until 1663, not the French crown.In 1650 the first farming families arrived in Canada

Most French emigrants came from northern and western seaports of France.

Canada did not offer much of a pull for potential French emigrants. Canada’s reputation was that of a immoral, cold, and unprofitable land. The French crown simulated emigration by paying for transatlantic passages.

FRENCH AMERICA - 16 (THE UPPER COUNTRY)

In the early 1700’s, the French occupied the cultivated St. Lawrence Valley and the interior of forest and lakes known as the upper country. Most of the settlements where on both banks of the St. Lawrence River between Quebec and Montreal.From 1700 to 1750 the population of the French in the area grew by 37,000

Outside of the St. Lawrence Valley, across the Great Lakes, some French colonists, these where a mix of missionaries, traders, soldiers, and habitants.

The Indians and the French of the upper country developed an effective alliance or a “middle ground”, where one could not dominate the other.

FRENCH AMERICA - 16 (LOUISIANA)

The Frenchman La Salle, discovered Louisiana, by sailing south down the Mississippi river until they reached the Gulf of Mexico, and La Salle convinced the King Louis XIV to return quickly and claim the territory.

La Salle

In Louisiana, the French focused their agenda on trading, rather than religious conversions. The French wooed theIndians with trade goods, especially with firearms.

In 1708, Louisiana was only a handful of French in the area, and soon after the Company of the Indies transported 5,400 European colonists and 6,000 African slaves to Louisiana.

FRENCH AMERICA - 16 (REBELS AND ALLIES)

In the Louisiana colony, selective settlements divided it into two different landscapes: a large hinterlands dominated by Indians, and a small plantation core occupied by settlers.

The French called all the tribes in the area of Louisiana, the “Petetis Nations”. At the beginning the French where kind and considerate to the natives, but after growing secure in greater numbers the French abandoned gratitude.The Natchez tribe longed to restore their way of life before the French arrived, and on the morning of November 28, 1729, they staged a well-planned uprising. The French turned to their allies the Choctaw to suppress the uprising.