Haudenosaunee and The English

New - Netherlands and the Haudenosaunee

• dutch traders arrive 1614
• trade alliance with Mohawks (part of Haudenosaunee)
  • cheaper, better goods, more guns
  • Haudenosaunee power grows
• contested borderland between french/huron and dutch/haudenosaunee alliances
  • escalating war between long time native enemies
  • trade, disease, guns, and access to global markets transform Native conflicts

Haudenosaunee Mourning Wars, 1648-50

• haudenosaunee mourning wars waged to take captives to replace lost kin
• 1600s, heavy haudenosaunee losses to diseases
• launch massive series of mourning wars against Huron and others, 1648-50
• haudenosaunee territory expands; rival groups displaced or absorbed

The English: Fashionably Late

• social and political turmoil in 16th century
  • protestant reformation
  • population boom
  • “enclosure of land”
  • private estates replace shared-use feudal system
  • displaced peasants flood cities
  • low wages, high land prices, widespread poverty
• new merchant class eager to start colonizing
  • the “west country men” leading promoters
• mercantile capitalism emerges
  • private colonial ventures backed by the crown
  • joint stock companies: share risks among many investors with Crown backing
• false-starts through late 1500s
• peace with spain 1604 widens opportunities