lecture 10: new france, fur trade, destruction of wendake

fur trading context: (4)

• basque fisherman begun trading for furs as part of their operations (quickly realizing the value of beaver furs)

• beaver had been overtrapped in europe now extinct

• only russians knew the process for felting beaver fur - so enter international trade (furs trapped in canada, sent to france then russia then back to france)

• at this time europeans did not know how to remove the outer guard hairs so they traded for the used/worn furs that first nations wore (castor gras)

tadoussac context: (3)

• 1579 - 300-350 ships around newfoundland: 150 french, 100 spanish, 50 portuguese, 30-50 english, 20-30 basque whalers (crewed by 8-10 thousand people)

• by 1850s basque whalers shifted from boiling whale oil to fur trading - tadoussac remained a centre of french fur trade until britidh conquest (mostly free fur traders)

• strategically located at the mouth of the saguenay river allows access to boreal forest/canadian shield interior of quebec through lac st jean (prime beaver furs locale)

expanding up tadoussac: (2)

• 1608 champlain establishes quebec city - the licensed/regulated fur trade under the french crown

• 1642 montreal is established - initially more of a religious colony but became centre of fur trade in this area

1609 champlain makes his biggest strategic mistake:

allies with the wendat and algonquins in battle on Lake Champlain against the Haudenosaunee - Champlain and Co. win but earn New France the everlasting hostility of the Haudenosaunee

french crown never did…

recognize that the First Nations had any rights in the land - on the other hand, there were not many french settlers initially; they farmed immediately around the posts so there was not much pressure on the land

french crown made what policy for french men?

to marry the indigenous nations - seen by both First Nations and the french as a means of establishing alliances

when the french crown made intermarriage policy, what stopped happening?

french stopped kidnapping First Nations people but they did begin to send their boys (young men) to live among the first nations as coureur de bois and encouraged young First Nations men to attend schools in Montreal/Quebec / providing translators and interlocutors on both sides - unfortunately for the french the young men found it much more amenable to live among the First Nations and tended to stay amongst them

by the 1620s, the fur trade had… (2)

moved west from tadoussac to quebec

• champlain had sought alliances with the Wendat, Innu, Algonquin & Abenaki / he wanted to visit the Wendat in 1610 but the Algonquin who controlled Ottawa river traffic were able to delay him until 1615 (when he then got to establish alliances with the Wendat)

1620s fur trade moves to quebec - what were the Haudenosaunee up to?

they were trading to the south with the Dutch at Fort Orange (later Ft. Albany) - they wanted to access the better furs from the north and they wanted to prevent the Wendat from trading with the french - basically established a blockade along the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence system

because the Haudenosaunee set a blockade, the french and Wendat had to travel where?

up the ottawa river which was controlled by the Algonquin who charged a tariff for travelling along their river

french tended not to send their traders…

inland - except for coureurs de bois like Etienne Bruce and Pierre Radisson whom lived with the Wendat

Wendat, therefore, obtained most of their funds through…?

trading with the Ojibwa and Nipissing to the north