Document Analysis: French Activities in New France - GL/HIST 1672

This essay analyzes French activities in New France, focusing on the French monarchy's establishment and interactions with the Iroquois. It examines Thwaites's writing (1896) to understand the French presence in Quebec since Jacques Cartier's voyage in 1524. Despite initial failures, the French established trade relations with natives, particularly in fur. Samuel de Champlain founded the first successful colony in 1603, leading to increased French settlers and conflicts with Native Americans. The essay explores the colonial mindset evident in historical accounts, highlighting biases against the Iroquois. It discusses the Beaver War, economic interests, and the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701, emphasizing how colonial powers exploited Native American conflicts for economic gain. The essay concludes that Thwaites's account is biased, necessitating secondary sources for a comprehensive understanding of the era.

Running Head: HISTORY
HISTORY
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1HISTORY
The New France was considered to be one of the French colonies that was developed in
the North American continent stretched out from Newfoundland to Acadia or Nova Scotia. It can
be argued that the New France was an establishment of the French monarchy with regular
confrontation with the Iroquois. As a matter of fact, the Iroquois were the powerful Native
Americans who were succeeded to form an Iroquois league during the colonial period. Based on
this understanding, this essay is going to discuss the writing of Thwaites (1896) and analyse this
primary source to figure out the exact scenario of the French activities in New France.
The French colony was established in North America more specifically in Quebec by the
French voyager Jacques Cartier in 1524 (DesRoches, 2018). However, at first the process of
making the North America a colony became failed but the French were succeeded to establish a
trade relation with the natives by exporting French fur. In this context, it can be argued that the
first successful French colony was set up in the year of 1603 by Samuel de Champlain (Salisbury
2017). As a result of that the increase of French settlers increased in a rapid pace and every year
200 to 300 settlers were coming in the new land of North America (Warrick, 2015). Therefore, it
caused great problems and challenges for the Native Americans or the Iroquois and often they
entangled with the French army and caused severe violence. In fact, the French government
wanted to supress the natives in a robust manner.
In this regard, the writing of Snyder (2017) pointed out the violence and atrocities that the
Iroquois had spread all over the region and their violent nature caused a huge death toll among
the Huron, another tribes of North America who were intended to convert into Christianity by the
French colonisers.As a matter of fact, this article is comprised with a colonial tone that identified
the colonial mind-set of the French government. As a matter of fact, it can be argued that there
are a number of terms that deliberately identified the Iroquois as inhuman and barbarian.

2HISTORY
Though the word savage was not mentioned in the writing but it cannot defy the notion that the
writing more inclined towards Christianity rather than putting emphasis on the neutral point of
view (Thwaites, 1896). Besides this, the monotonous tone of Christianity embarked by the author
several times that hinted the proneness of the author towards Christian religion.
In this context, Brose et al., (2015) showed that there were several wars between the
Huron and the Iroquois before the advent of the colonisers such as the French, Dutch and
English. It can be advocated that ethnic or clash of clans were very often and sporadic in that
territory. However, after the colonial activities had been initiated it became more of a fight for
economic interests rather than other factors. The Huron had a ally with the French since the
medieval times and it ushered the practice of fur trade into that North American Continent. This
led to a clash of interests that turned into Beaver War where the Iroquois had taken interests into
the fur trade and tried to monopolise the business. Indeed the Iroquois got support from their
allies in the name of the Dutch and English because they wanted to abolish the French monopoly
into that region and penetrate the market. According to Americans, and America (2016) the
Iroquois were the mightiest force in that region and support from the Dutch and English allies
precariously endangered the other tribes like the Huron, Neutral, Erie and Shawnee.
On this basis of this, it can be argued that the article written by Thwaites (1896) was not
rightly portray the entire picture of the event. It has to keep in mind that the purpose and the
origin of the writing were belonged to France. Therefore, it is evident that the story depicted only
the atrocities and violence caused by the Iroquois. The result of the Beaver War was both fatal
and peaceful. The Great Peace of Montreal was signed in 1701 and with this a balance of power
was established in the region not only in terms of the native states but also among the colonisers
(Creese & Walder, 2018). Nevertheless, the path towards redemption from violence was not an

3HISTORY
easy one where all the interest groups signed the pact without any bloodshed. As a matter of fact,
the Beaver War caused severe damages to the strong edifice of the native power nexus because
not only the Iroquois but the entire indigenous tribes of North America suffered a huge loss in
terms of human resource or livestock. In addition to this, it caused economic damage to fur trade
which was considered to be a lucrative one and the French or the British failed to encapsulate it
entirely.
In this context, Simons (2016) ascribed that the Beaver War was a fatal blow to the
tranquillity and balance of power in North American continent. Colonial aspirations and
aggrandisement was the most responsible factor for this. the French, British or the Dutch
deliberately instigated the native Americans to wage a war among themselves for the purpose to
monopolise the fur trade that was more profitable to the European colonisers rather than the
indigenous people. In his study Brose et al., (2015) opined that the Iroquois realised the blunder
to support the claims of the British traders because they found out that there was no such
difference of interests between the French and the English.
From the above discussion it can be derived that the economic aspirations of the colonial
powers facilitated a death blow to the natural balance of power in the North American region.
The colonial underpinnings compelled the Native Americans to surrender and it paved the way
for the French or the British to exploit further. From that point of view, it can be concluded that
the account of Thwaites (1896) was full of biasness and the mould of religion created it more
opaque. Therefore, it requires secondary sources to understand the entire scenario.

4HISTORY
Reference
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