TheDruel'for North/rmerica ----O,i7f- 1608--1763 A roHcn LIGHTED IN T}{E FORESTS OF AMERICA SET ALL EURoPE IN GONFLAGRATION. VoutetRE.c, 1756 A s the seventeenthcentury neared its sunset,a titanic flstruggte was shaping up for mastery of the Norrth American continent. The contest involved three Old Frcrnce Finds cr Foothold in Cqnqdtr World nations-England,* France, and Sparin-and it Holland, Francewas a latecor4erin unavoidablyswept up NativeAmerican peoprlesas well. Like England and NewWorld real estate,and for basically From 1688to 1763,four bitter wars convulsedEurope. the scramblefor It was conlrrlsedduring the 15Q0sby AII four of those conflicts were world wars. They the samereasons. foreign wars and domestic strife,including the frightful amountedto a death strugglefor domination in Europe between Roman Catholics and Protqstant aswell as in the NewWorld,and they wereforught on the clashes Huguenots.On St. Bartholomew'sDay, 1572,ovQr ten watersand soil of two hemispheres,Counting these first thousand Huguenots-men, women, and childien- four clashes,nine world wars have been n'aged since werebutchered in coldblood. 1688.The American people, whether as Britishsubjects A new eradawned in I598when the Edictof Nantes, or as American citizens,proved unable to sl,ayout of a issued by the crown, granted limited toleration to single one of them. And one of those wars---knownas French Protestants.Religious wars ceased,and itrrthe the SevenYears' War in Europe and sometirnesas the new centuryFrance blossomed into the miShtiestand French and Indian War in America-set the stage for most fearednation in Europe,Ied by a seriesof brilliant America'sindependence. ministers and by the vainglorious King Louis XJV Enthronedas a flve-year-oldboy, he reignedfor np less years (1643-1715),surrounded by a *Afterthe union of Englandand Scotlandin 1707,the nation'sofficial than sevenfy-two namebecame "Great Britain." glitteringcourt and schemingministers and mistresses. 106 French Beginnings in NorthAmerica 107 Fatefully for North America, Lou XIV also took a deep times ravaging French settlements and frequently rung interestin overseascolonies. as allies of the British in the prolonged e for After rocky beginnings, finally rewarded the supremacyon the continent. exertions of France in the New rld. In 1608,the vear The government of New France (Canada) after the founding of Jamestown, permanent begin- fell under the direct control of the king after nings of a vast empire were ished at Quebec,a commercial companies had faltered or failed. royal granite sentinel commanding the . LawrenceRiver. The regime was almost completely autocratic. The leading figure was Samuel de lamplain, an intrepid electedno representativeassemblies, nor did enjoy soldier and explorer whose and leadership fairly the right to trial by jury, as in the English eamed him the title "Fatherof France." The population of Catholic New France ata Champlainentered into fri relations-a fateful listlesspace. As late as 1750,only sixty or so kiendship-with the nearby H Indian tribes. At whites inhabited New France.landowning peas- their request,he joined them in tttle againsttheir foes, ants, unlike the dispossessedEnglish tenant the federatedlroquois tribes of th upper NewYorkarea. who embarked for the British colonies, little Two volleys from the "lightning sticks" of the whites economic motive to move. Protestant who routed the tenified Iroquois, who left behind three dead might have had a religious motive to migrate, were and one wounded.France, to its rrow thus earned the a refuge in this raw colony. The French many lasting enmity of the Iroquois ibes. They thereafter case,favored its Caribbeanisland colonies,rich sugar hamperedFrench penetration of he Ohio Vallev some- and rum, overthe snow-cloakedwildemess of NEWFOUNDLANO \7i.4\jtlc ()aIl4\ a i. :f,'{"9" ^*:*P'' I EngIsh I Frerrch Quebec Scene, by lecrn-Bcrptiste-Louis E Soanish c. 1699(detcril) The metal cooking pot ond the Lrpxplored Indians'clothing and blcrnkets show the Ncti Americcrns' growing reliqnce on Europecn Froce's Anericcrn EmPire crt GreqteEt Extent, 1700 goods. r08 Cnqpren6 The Duel for North Ameri,ca,1608-1763i Fur-Trcding Posts llo serve the needs ol Iiuropecrn Icrshion, fur-traders pursued the beqver for more thqn two centuries over the entire continent ol North Americo. T'hey brought mony Indio::s for the first time ir:Ltoconto:ct r.r'ith white culture' -.ffidF# Singing, paddle-swinging French uoyagettrsalscr recruitedInclians into the fttr business.The Indian fur flotilla arriving in Montreal iin 1693 numbered four lFrcrnce Fcrns Oull New hundredcanoes. But the fur tradehad somedisastrous New France did cc,ntainone valuable resourcc:the drawbacks.Indians recruited into the fur businesswere beaver.European Iashion-settersvalued beaver-pe'lt decirnatedby the white rnan'sdiseases and debauchecl hatsfor theirwarmth and opulent appearalnce.To adorn by his alcohol.Slaughtering beaver by the boatloadalsrr the heads of Europreans,French fur-trappersranged violated many Indians' religious beliefs and sadl'i wittt over the woods and waterways of North America ln clemonstratedthe shatteringeffect that contact pursuit of beaver.These colorful coLffeLffsde bois("run- Europeansrvreaked on traditionallndian rvays of life' into ners of the woods") were also runnell'sof risks-- Pursuingthe sharp-ttlothedbeaver ever deeper their tlvo-fisted drinkers, free spenders,freu livers and the heartof the continent,the ltrrenchtrappers and and Iovers.They littered the land with scores of place Indian partners liiked, rode, snowshoed,sailed, in a names,including Baton Rouge(red stick), Terre Haute paddled acrossamazing distances. They trekkecl (high land), Des lvloines (some monks), and t3rand hug" u.. across thre Great Lakes, into present-day of the Teton(big breast). Saskatchewanand Manitoba;along the valleys Trappers,Explorers, and Indiansin NewFrance 109 Platte, the Arkansas,and the lr{issouri; west to the to find the Mississippidelta, landed in Spanish Rockies;and south to the border pf SpanishTexas (see and in 1687was murdered by his mutinousmen. map at left).In the processthey all but extinguishedthe Undismayed, French ofhcials persisted in their beaverpopulation in many areas,inflicting incalculable effortsto block Spain on the Gulf of Mexico.They nted ecologicaldamage. several fortifled posts in what is now Missi and French Catholic missionarieslnotably the Jesuits, Louisiana,the most important of which wasNew laboredzealously to savethe India{rsfor Christ and from (17IB).Commanding the mouth of the MississippiRiver, the fur-trappers.Some of the Jesriitmissionaries, their this strategicsemitropical outpost also tapped fur n- efforts scorned, suffered unspea$abletortures at the trade of the huge interior valley.The fertile Illinois posts hands of the Indians.But though they made few perma- try-where the French establishedforts and tradin gar- nent converts,the Iesuitsplayed a vital role as explorers at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes-became and geographers. den of France'sNorth American empire' sing Other explorerssought neithpr souls nor fur, but amounts of grain were floated down the M for empire.To thwart Englishsettlers pushing into the Ohio transshipmentto theWestIndies and to Europe' Vall-ey,Antoine Cadillac founded Detroit, "the City of Straits,"in 170I. To check Spanishpenetration into the regionof the Gulf of Mexico,ambitlous Robert de La Salle floateddown the Mississippiin 1682to the point whereit The Clcsh ol Empires mingleswith the Gulf. He named tfre greatinterior basin for "Louisiana,"in honor of his sovereign,Louis XfV Dream- The earliest contests among the European of North America,known to the British co ing of empire,he returned to the Gulf three yearslater control 'sWar (1689-f697) and with a colonizingexpedition of fopr ships' But he failed asKingWilliam'sWar Queen Cqtlin, Chie1 ol the TcrensqIndicrns Receiving Lcr Sclle, March 20, L682,by George. {or Frqnce' Lcr tg{Z-tgeg (detcril) Driven by the drecm oI q vast North Americcn empire oI the Illinois qnd Scrlle spent years exploring the Qrecrt Lckes region ancl_thevcrlleys imcrgina- f"i="i."ippi ili.r"r". Tti" ol his encounter with qn lndion chieltcin was "clne tively re-ciected by the nineteenlh-century ortist Geor5le Cotlin' I l0 Cuemrn6 TheDuel for America,1608-1763 (I7 02-17I3), mostly pitted British Ionists againstthe French coureursde bois,with both recruitingwhat- everIndian allies they could.Neith Francenor Britain at this stageconsidered Americawo the commitment of large detachmentsof regular t ps, so the combat- ants wageda kind of primitive warfare.Indian allies of the French ravaged with t and tomahawk the British colonial frontiers,visiti g especiallybloody violenceon the villagesof Schene y, NewYork, and Deerfield,Massachusetts (see the mapon p, 112). Spain, eventually allied with Fran probedfrom its Florida baseat outlying South na settlements.For their part the British colonistsfai miserablyin sallies againstQuebec and Montrealbut red a signalvictory when they temPorarilYseized t stronghold of Port Royalin Acadia(present-day Nova ). Peaceterms, signed at Utrecht i 1713.revealed how badly Franceand its SpanishallY beenbeaten. Britain was rewardedwith French-PoPula Acadia (which the British renamedNova Scotia,or Scotlancl)and the wintry wastesof Newfoundland Hudson Bay.These immensetracts Pinched the St. ce settlementsof France,foreshadowing their ulti doom.A generation of peaceensued, duringwhich Br n provideditsAmeri- can colonieswith