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187-629: The Iroquois sought to expand their territory to monopolize the fur trade with European markets. They originally were a confederacy of the Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Cayuga , and Seneca tribes inhabiting the lands in what is now Upstate New York along the shores of Lake Ontario east to Lake Champlain and Lake George on the Hudson River , and the lower-estuary of the Saint Lawrence River. The Iroquois Confederation led by

374-546: A 'per pelt' basis. Colonial trading posts in the southern colonies also introduced many types of alcohol (especially brandy and rum) for trade. European traders flocked to the North American continent and made huge profits from the exchange. A metal axe head, for example, was exchanged for one beaver pelt (also called a 'beaver blanket'). The same pelt could fetch enough to buy dozens of axe heads in England, making

561-657: A French alliance and migrated north towards Montreal to trade with the French. The Iroquois accidentally aided the French through their destruction and captivity of the Huron. The Iroquois attacked the Neutrals in 1650, and they completely drove the tribe from traditional territory by the end of 1651, killing or assimilating thousands. The Neutrals had inhabited a territory ranging from the Niagara Peninsula westward to

748-715: A Tartar victory in 1584 and the temporary end to Russian occupation in the area. In 1584, Ivan's son Feodor sent military governors ( voivodas ) and soldiers to reclaim Yermak conquests and officially to annex the land held by the Khanate of Sibir . Similar skirmishes with Tartars took place across Siberia as Russian expansion continued. Russian conquerors treated the natives of Siberia as easily exploited subjects who were inferior to them. As they penetrated deeper into Siberia, traders built outposts or winter lodges called zimovye  [ ru ] where they lived and collected fur tribute from native tribes. By 1620 Russia dominated

935-412: A common pool that the band divided equally among themselves after Russian officials exacted the tithing tax. On the other hand, a trading company provided hired fur-trappers with the money needed for transportation, food, and supplies, and once the hunt was finished, the employer received two-thirds of the pelts and the remaining ones were sold and the proceeds divided evenly among the hired laborers. During

1122-718: A direct invasion route to British Canada. However, had the British controlled the lake, they could have divided the colonies of New England and further depleted the Continental Army . The Continental Army's first offensive action took place in May 1775, three weeks after the Battles of Lexington and Concord . Ethan Allen , accompanied by 200 Green Mountain Boys , was ordered to capture Fort Ticonderoga and retrieve supplies for

1309-482: A discharge of pollution into Lake Champlain. Agricultural and urban runoff from the watershed or drainage basin is the primary source of excess phosphorus, which exacerbates algae blooms in Lake Champlain. The most problematic blooms have been cyanobacteria , commonly called blue-green algae, in the northeastern part of the lake: primarily Missisquoi Bay . To reduce phosphorus runoff to this part of

1496-596: A dooryard garden, typical of mid-19th century New England village homes, and his experience settling in the Champlain Valley depicts the industries and lifestyles surrounding Lake Champlain following the Revolutionary War. Similar to the experience of Salmon Dutton, former colonial militia Major General Hezekiah Barnes settled in Charlotte, Vermont , in 1787. Following the war, Barnes worked as

1683-759: A fleet of 80 canoes traveled through Iroquois territory carrying a large harvest of furs to be sold in New France. When they arrived, however, the French refused to purchase the furs and told the Iroquois to sell them to the Hurons, who would act as a middleman. The Iroquois were outraged and resumed the war. The French decided to become directly involved in the conflict. The Huron and the Iroquois had an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 members each. The Hurons and Susquehannocks formed an alliance to counter Iroquois aggression in 1647, and their warriors greatly outnumbered those of

1870-763: A maximum depth of approximately 400 ft (120 m). The lake varies seasonally from about 95 to 100 ft (29 to 30 m) above mean sea level . Lake Champlain is in the Lake Champlain Valley between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of New York , drained northward by the 106 mi-long (171 km) Richelieu River into the St. Lawrence River at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec , northeast and downstream of Montreal . The Champlain basin collects waters from

2057-424: A more nuanced picture of the complex ways in which native populations fit new economic relationships into existing cultural patterns. Richard White, while admitting that the formalist/substantivist debate was "old, and now tired," attempted to reinvigorate the substantivist position. Echoing Ray's moderate position that cautioned against easy simplifications, White advanced a simple argument against formalism: "Life

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2244-456: A natural defensive position. The British and American vessels engaged in combat for much of the day, only stopping due to impending nightfall. After a long day of combat, the American fleet was in worse shape than the experienced British Navy. Upon ceasefire, Arnold called a council of war with his fellow officers, proposing to escape the British fleet via rowboats under the cover of night. As

2431-519: A number of English investors were found to back another attempt for Hudson Bay. Two ships were sent out in 1668. One, with Radisson aboard, had to turn back, but the other, the Nonsuch , with Groseilliers, did penetrate the bay. There she was able to trade with the indigenes, collecting a fine cargo of beaver skins before the expedition returned to London in October 1669. The delighted investors sought

2618-762: A powerful tribe and brought together a confederacy of their neighboring allies, including the Pottawatomie and the Illini confederation who inhabited Michigan and Illinois . The majority of the fighting was between the Anishinaabeg Confederacy and the Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois improved on their warfare as they continued to attack even farther from their home. War parties often traveled by canoes at night, and they would sink their canoes and fill them with rocks to hold them on

2805-692: A result. Indian raids were not constant, but they terrified the inhabitants of New France, and some of the heroes of French-Canadian folklore are individuals who stood up to such attacks. Dollard des Ormeaux , for example, died in May 1660 while resisting an Iroquois raiding force at the Battle of Long Sault , the confluence of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa Rivers , but saved Montreal by his actions. In 1692, 14-year-old Marie-Madeleine Jarret successfully frustrated an Iroquois attack on Fort Verchères. In 1648,

2992-658: A road surveyor; he also established an inn and trading post in Charlotte, along the main trade route from Montreal down Lake Champlain. Barnes' stagecoach inn was built in traditional Georgian style, with 10 fireplaces, a ballroom on the interior and a wraparound porch on the outside. In 1800, Continental Army Captain Benjamin Harrington established a distillery business in Shelburne, Vermont , which supplied his nearby inn. These individual accounts shed light on

3179-477: A row, or flocks of blackbirds flying close to the water". In 2022, it was reported that a feature dramatic film, Lucy and the Lake Monster , was in the works about a young orphan girl and her grandfather looking for Champ. A pollution prevention, control and restoration plan for Lake Champlain was first endorsed in October 1996 by the governors of New York and Vermont and the regional administrators of

3366-518: A royal charter, which they obtained the next year. This charter established the Hudson's Bay Company and granted it a monopoly to trade into all the rivers that emptied into Hudson Bay. From 1670 onwards, the Hudson's Bay Company sent two or three trading ships into the bay every year. They brought back furs (mainly beaver) and sold them, sometimes by private treaty but usually by public auction. The beaver

3553-694: A significant step towards securing Russian hegemony in Siberia when he sent a large army to attack the Khanate of Kazan and ended up obtaining the territory from the Volga to the Ural Mountains . At this point the phrase, "ruler of Obdor , Konda , and all Siberian lands" became part of the title of the tsar in Moscow. Even so, problems ensued after 1558 when Ivan IV sent Grigory Stroganov  [ ru ] ( c.  1533–1577 ) to colonize land on

3740-612: A small uproar, the Great Lake status was rescinded on March 24 (although New York and Vermont universities continue to receive funds to monitor and study the lake). In 1609, Samuel de Champlain wrote that he saw a lake monster 5 ft (1.5 m) long, as thick as a man's thigh, with silver-gray scales a dagger could not penetrate. The alleged monster had 2.5 ft (0.76 m) jaws with sharp and dangerous teeth. Native Americans claimed to have seen similar monsters 8 to 10 ft (2.4 to 3.0 m) long. This mysterious creature

3927-607: A smallpox epidemic in 1661, the Susquehannock easily withstood a siege by 800 Seneca, Cayuga and Onondaga in May 1663, and destroyed an Onondaga war party in 1666. War between the Iroquois and Susquehannock continued intermittently until 1674 when the Maryland colonists changed their Indian policy, negotiated peace with the Iroquois, and terminated their alliance with the Susquehannocks. Most historians believe that

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4114-461: A successful siege of Quebec. In May 1776, with the arrival of a British convoy carrying 10,000 British and Hessian troops to Canada, the Continental forces retreated back down the Champlain Valley to reevaluate their strategy. "I know of no better method than to secure the important posts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and by building a number of armed vessels to command the lakes, otherwise

4301-437: A variety of reasons. Reducing them to simple economic or cultural dichotomies, as the formalists and substantivists had done, was a fruitless simplification that obscured more than it revealed. Moreover, Ray used trade accounts and account books in the Hudson's Bay Company's archives for masterful qualitative analyses and pushed the boundaries of the field's methodology. Following Ray's position, Bruce M. White also helped to create

4488-531: Is Kaniatarakwà:ronte , meaning "a bulged lake" or "lake with a bulge in it". An alternate name is Kaniá:tare tsi kahnhokà:ronte (phonetic English spelling Caniaderi Guarunte ), meaning "door of the country" or "lake to the country". The lake is an important eastern gateway to Iroquois Confederacy lands. The lake was named after the French explorer Samuel de Champlain , who encountered it in July 1609. While

4675-476: Is 23 miles (37 km) north of Glens Falls on the Hudson River and 70 miles (110 km) north of Albany, New York . Forts were built at Ticonderoga and Crown Point ( Fort St. Frederic ) to control passage on the lake in colonial times. Important battles were fought at Ticonderoga in 1758 and 1775. During the Revolutionary War, the British and Americans conducted a frenetic shipbuilding race through

4862-471: Is an extensive Ordovician carbonate rock formation that extends from Tennessee to Quebec and Newfoundland . The oldest reefs are around "The Head" of the south end of Isle La Motte ; slightly younger reefs are found at the Fisk Quarry, and the youngest (the famous coral reefs) are in fields to the north. The lake has long acted as a border between indigenous nations, much as it is today between

5049-659: Is fed by the Ausable , Boquet , Great Chazy , La Chute , Little Ausable, Little Chazy , Salmon and Saranac rivers, along with Putnam Creek. In Quebec, it is fed by the Pike River . It is connected to the Hudson River by the Champlain Canal . Parts of the lake freeze each winter, and in some winters the entire lake surface freezes, referred to as "closing". In July and August, the lake temperature reaches an average of 70 °F (21 °C). The Chazy Reef

5236-474: Is in the southern part of the region. The Quebec portion is in the regional county municipalities of Le Haut-Richelieu and Brome-Missisquoi . There are a number of islands in the lake; the largest include Grand Isle , Isle La Motte and North Hero : all part of Grand Isle County, Vermont . Because of Lake Champlain's connections both to the St. Lawrence Seaway via the Richelieu River , and to

5423-476: Is likely the original Lake Champlain monster. The monster has been memorialized in sports teams' names and mascots, e.g., the Vermont Lake Monsters and Champ, the mascot of the state's minor league baseball team. A Vermont Historical Society publication recounts the story and offers possible explanations for accounts of the so-called monster: "floating logs, schools of large sturgeon diving in

5610-680: Is of particular note; the ninth conference, which was held in St. Louis in 2006, has not yet published its papers. Lake Champlain Lake Champlain ( / ʃ æ m ˈ p l eɪ n / sham- PLAYN ; French : Lac Champlain ) is a natural freshwater lake in North America . It mostly lies between the US states of New York and Vermont , but also extends north into the Canadian province of Quebec . The New York portion of

5797-627: Is part of the larger Appalachian physiographic division. Lake Champlain is one of numerous large lakes scattered in an arc through Labrador , in Canada, the northern United States, and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the thirteenth-largest lake by area in the US. Approximately 490 sq mi (1,269 km ) in area, the lake is 107 mi (172 km) long and 14 mi (23 km) across at its widest point, and has

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5984-478: The Abenakis who were allied with the French. The French Crown ordered a change to the governing of Canada. They put together a small military force made up of Frenchmen, Hurons, and Algonquins to counter the Iroquois raids, but the Iroquois attacked them when they ventured into the countryside. Only 29 of the French survived and escaped; five were captured and tortured to death by the Iroquois. Despite their victory,

6171-528: The Algonquins , Mahicans, Montagnais , and Hurons , and the alliance of these tribes with the French quickly brought the Iroquois into conflict directly with them. The expansion of the fur trade with Europe brought a decline in the beaver population in the region, and the animal had largely disappeared from the Hudson Valley by 1640. American Heritage Magazine notes that the growing scarcity of

6358-621: The Champlain Canal connected Lake Champlain to the Hudson River system, allowing north–south commerce by water from New York City to Montreal and Atlantic Canada . In 1909, 65,000 people celebrated the 300th anniversary of the French discovery of the lake. Attending dignitaries included President William Howard Taft , along with representatives from France, Canada and the United Kingdom. In 1929, then-New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt and Vermont Governor John Weeks dedicated

6545-758: The French and Indian War of 1754, which saw the French being largely expelled from North America. The wars and subsequent commercial trapping of beavers was devastating to the local beaver population. Trapping continued to spread across North America, extirpating or severely reducing populations across the continent. The natural ecosystems that came to rely on the beavers for dams , water and other vital needs were also devastated leading to ecological destruction , environmental change, and drought in certain areas. Beaver populations in North America would take centuries to recover in some areas, while others would never recover. French explorer Jacques Cartier in

6732-516: The Fur Institute of Canada , there are about 60,000 active trappers in Canada (based on trapping licenses), of whom about 25,000 are indigenous peoples . The fur farming industry is present in many parts of Canada. The largest producer of mink and foxes is Nova Scotia which in 2012 generated revenues of nearly $ 150 million and accounted for one quarter of all agricultural production in

6919-622: The Grand River valley. In 1654, the Iroquois attacked the Erie tribe, but with less success. The war lasted for two years, and the Iroquois destroyed the Erie confederacy by 1656, whose members refused to flee to the west. The Erie territory was located on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie and was estimated to have 12,000 members in 1650. The Iroquois were greatly outnumbered by the tribes that they subdued, but they achieved their victories through

7106-544: The Hudson River via the Champlain Canal , Lake Champlain is sometimes referred to as "The Sixth Great Lake". The Champlain Valley is the northernmost unit of a landform system known as the Great Appalachian Valley , which stretches between Quebec , Canada, to the north, and Alabama , US, to the south. The Champlain Valley is a physiographic section of the larger Saint Lawrence Valley , which in turn

7293-517: The Hudson River . As the Iroquois' sources of furs declined, however, so did the income of the trading posts. In 1641, the Mohawks traveled to Trois-Rivières in New France to propose peace with the French and their allied tribes, and they asked the French to set up a trading post in Iroquoia. Governor Montmagny rejected this proposal because it would imply abandonment of their Huron allies. In

7480-613: The Kama and to subjugate and enserf the Komi living there. The Stroganov family soon came into conflict in 1573 with the khan of Sibir whose land they encroached on. Ivan told the Stroganovs to hire Cossack mercenaries to protect the new settlement from the Tatars. From c.  1581 the band of Cossacks led by Yermak Timofeyevich fought many battles that eventually culminated in

7667-505: The Mohawk and Mohican . By 1614 the Dutch were sending vessels to secure large economic returns from fur trading. The fur trade of New Netherland, through the port of New Amsterdam , depended largely on the trading depot at Fort Orange (now Albany) on the upper Hudson River . Much of the fur is believed to have originated in Canada, smuggled south by entrepreneurs who wished to avoid the colony's government-imposed monopoly there. England

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7854-582: The Mongolian trading town of Kyakhta , which had been opened to Russian trade by the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta . The papers from the North American Fur Trade conferences, which are held approximately every five years, not only provide a wealth of articles on disparate aspects of the fur trade, but also can be taken together as a historiographical overview since 1965. They are listed chronologically below. The third conference, held in 1978,

8041-637: The Russian-American Company . The term "maritime fur trade" was coined by historians to distinguish the coastal, ship-based fur trade from the continental, land-based fur trade of, for example, the North West Company and the American Fur Company . Historically, the maritime fur trade was not known by that name, rather it was usually called the "North West Coast trade" or "North West Trade". The term "North West"

8228-523: The South Shetland and South Sandwich Islands . Today the importance of the fur trade has diminished; it is based on pelts produced at fur farms and regulated fur-bearer trapping , but has become controversial. Animal rights organizations oppose the fur trade, citing that animals are brutally killed and sometimes skinned alive. Fur has been replaced in some clothing by synthetic imitations, for example, as in ruffs on hoods of parkas . Before

8415-620: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In April 2003, the plan was updated, and Quebec signed on to it. The plan is being implemented by the Lake Champlain Basin Program and its partners at the state, provincial, federal and local levels. Renowned as a model for interstate and international cooperation, its primary goals are to reduce phosphorus inputs to Lake Champlain, reduce toxic contamination, minimize

8602-525: The Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842, the Canada–U.S. border was adjusted northward to include the strategically important site of "Fort Blunder" on the US side. In 1844, work was begun to replace the remains of the 1812-era fort with a massive new Third System masonry fortification, known as Fort Montgomery . Portions of this fort are still standing. In the early 19th century, the construction of

8789-810: The Western world ), Europe, and the United States (especially New England ). The trade had a major effect on the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast, especially the Aleut , Tlingit , Haida , Nuu-chah-nulth , and Chinook peoples . There was a rapid increase of wealth among the Northwest Coast natives, along with increased warfare, potlatching , slaving, depopulation due to epidemic disease, and enhanced importance of totems and traditional nobility crests. The indigenous culture

8976-604: The Wyandot . The Ottawa tribe temporarily halted Iroquois expansion further northwest, but the Iroquois controlled a fur-rich region and had no more tribes blocking them from the French settlements in Canada. Diseases had taken their toll on the Iroquois and neighbors in the years preceding the war, however, and their populations had drastically declined. To replace lost warriors, they worked to integrate many of their captured enemies by adoption into their own tribes. They invited Jesuits into their territory to teach those who had converted to Christianity. The Jesuits also reached out to

9163-430: The 10th century, merchants and boyars of the city-state of Novgorod had exploited the fur resources "beyond the portage", a watershed at the White Lake that represents the door to the entire northwestern part of Eurasia. They began by establishing trading posts along the Volga and Vychegda river networks and requiring the Komi people to give them furs as tribute . Novgorod, the chief fur-trade center prospered as

9350-461: The 1540s made the first written records of the Indians in America, although French explorers and fishermen had traded in the region near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River estuary a decade before then for valuable furs. Cartier wrote of encounters with the St. Lawrence Iroquoians , also known as the Stadaconan or Laurentian people who occupied several fortified villages, including Stadacona and Hochelaga . He recorded an on-going war between

9537-476: The 1620s and 1630s. London merchants tried to take over France's fur trade in the St Lawrence River valley. Taking advantage of one of England's wars with France, Sir David Kirke captured Quebec in 1629 and brought the year's produce of furs back to London. Other English merchants also traded for furs around the Saint Lawrence River region in the 1630s, but these were officially discouraged. Such efforts ceased as France strengthened its presence in Canada. Much of

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9724-400: The 1670s, the French began to explore and settle the Ohio and Illinois Country from the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and they established the post of Tassinong to trade with the western tribes. The Iroquois destroyed it to retain control of the fur trade with the Europeans. The Iroquois also drove the Mannahoac tribe out of the northern Virginia Piedmont region in 1670, and they claimed

9911-409: The 1796 Jay Treaty . Eager to take back control of Lake Champlain following the end of the Revolutionary War, Americans flocked to settle the Champlain Valley . Many individuals emigrated from Massachusetts and other New England colonies, such as Salmon Dutton , a settler of Cavendish, Vermont . Dutton emigrated in 1782 and worked as a surveyor, town official and toll-road owner. His home had

10098-530: The 17th through the second half of the 19th century, Russia was the world's largest supplier of fur. The fur trade played a vital role in the development of Siberia , the Russian Far East and the Russian colonization of the Americas . As recognition of the importance of the trade to the Siberian economy, the sable is a regional symbol of Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Urals and Novosibirsk , Tyumen and Irkutsk Oblasts in Siberia. European contact with North America, with its vast forests and wildlife, particularly

10285-446: The 50 sachems of the Iroquois Confederacy from their Onondaga council. These 50 chiefs constituted the top leaders of the Iroquois, and Denonville captured them and shipped them to Marseilles , France to be galley slaves. He then travelled down the shore of Lake Ontario and built Fort Denonville at the site where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. This site was previously used by La Salle for Fort Conti from 1678 to 1679, and

10472-462: The American victory denied the British any leverage to demand exclusive control over the Great Lakes or territorial gains against the New England states. Three US Naval ships have been named after this battle: USS  Lake Champlain  (CV-39) , USS  Lake Champlain  (CG-57) and a cargo ship used during World War I . Following the War of 1812, the U.S. Army began construction on " Fort Blunder ": an unnamed fortification built at

10659-412: The Americans emerged triumphant, the British parliament agreed to cede control over much of its territory in North America to the newly formed United States and worked to resettle American loyalists in Canada and provide some compensation for lands the Loyalists and Native Americans had lost to the United States. Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant led a large group of Iroquois out of New York to what became

10846-451: The Bay and market trade in London." Arthur J. Ray permanently changed the direction of economic studies of the fur trade with two influential works that presented a modified formalist position in between the extremes of Innis and Rotstein. "This trading system," Ray explained, "is impossible to label neatly as ‘gift trade', or ‘administered trade', or ‘market trade', since it embodies elements of all these forms." Indians engaged in trade for

11033-622: The British burned Arnold's flagship, the Royal Savage , to the east, the Americans rowed past the British lines. The following morning, the British learned of the Americans' escape and set out after the fleeing Continental vessels. On October 13, the British fleet caught up to the struggling American ships near Split Rock Mountain . With no hope of fighting off the powerful British navy, Arnold ordered his men to run their five vessels aground in Ferris Bay, Panton, Vermont . The depleted Continental army escaped on land back to Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence ; however, they no longer controlled

11220-402: The British fleet on Lake Champlain. By the end of the summer of 1776, the opposing armies were prepared to battle over the strategic advantage of controlling Lake Champlain. On October 11, 1776, the British and American naval fleets met on the western side of Valcour Island , on Lake Champlain. American General Benedict Arnold established the location, as it provided the Continental fleet with

11407-478: The British took control of the fort. However, Burgoyne's southern campaign did not go uncontested. On October 7, 1777, American General Horatio Gates , who occupied Bemis Heights , met Burgoyne's army at the Second Battle of Freeman's Farm . At Freeman's Farm, Burgoyne's army suffered its final defeat and ended its invasion south into the colonies. Ten days later, on October 17, 1777, British General Burgoyne surrendered his army at Saratoga . This defeat

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11594-432: The British. Thus, the colonial militias devised a plan to take control of the two forts and bring the guns back to the fight in Boston. The necessity of controlling the two forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point placed Lake Champlain as a strategic arena during the Revolutionary War. By taking control of these forts, Americans not only gained heavy artillery, but control of a vast water highway as well: Lake Champlain provided

11781-444: The Champlain Valley from 1778 to 1780, and Lake Champlain permitted direct transportation of supplies from the British posts at the northern end of the lake. With the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, the British naval fleet on Lake Champlain retreated up to St. John's. However, British troops garrisoned at Fort Dutchman's Point ( North Hero, Vermont ) and Fort au Fer ( Champlain, New York ), on Lake Champlain, did not leave until

11968-412: The Champlain Valley includes the eastern parts of Clinton County and Essex County . Most of this area is part of the Adirondack Park . There are recreational facilities in the park and along the relatively undeveloped coastline of the lake. The cities of Plattsburgh, New York , and Burlington, Vermont , are on the lake's western and eastern shores, respectively, and the town of Ticonderoga, New York ,

12155-411: The Champlain Valley. The goal of this invasion was to divide the New England colonies, thus forcing the Continental Army into a separated fight on multiple fronts. Lake Champlain provided Burgoyne with protected passage deep into the American colonies . Burgoyne's army reached Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in late June, 1777. During the night of July 5, the American forces fled Ticonderoga as

12342-470: The Dutch allies of the Iroquois lost control of their colony of New Netherland to the English. In the immediate years after the Dutch defeat, European support waned for the Iroquois. The Onondaga, Seneca and Cayuga reached a peace settlement with the French, however, the Mohawk and Oneida remained unwilling. In January 1666, Governor Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle attempted to invade the Mohawk homeland. The invasion force of 400 to 500 men briefly skirmished with

12529-429: The Dutch authorized selling guns directly to the Mohawks rather than through traders, and promptly sold 400 to the Iroquois. The Confederacy sent 1,000 newly armed warriors through the woods to Huron territory with the onset of winter, and they launched a devastating attack into the heart of Huron territory, destroying several key villages, killing many warriors, and taking thousands of people captive for later adoption into

12716-513: The Dutch. The Iroquois relied on the trade for firearms and other highly valued European goods for their livelihood and survival. They used their growing expertise with the arquebus to good effect in their continuing wars with the Algonquins and Hurons, and other traditional enemies. The French, meanwhile, outlawed the trading of firearms to their Indian allies, though they occasionally gave arquebuses as gifts to individuals who converted to Christianity. The Iroquois attacked their traditional enemies

12903-459: The European colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Its trade developed in the Early Middle Ages (500–1000 AD/CE), first through exchanges at posts around the Baltic and Black seas. The main trading market destination was the German city of Leipzig . Kievan Rus' was the first supplier of the Russian fur trade. Originally, Russia exported raw furs, consisting in most cases of

13090-561: The European settlers. Their resentment of the forced sales contributed to future wars. After the United States became independent, it regulated trading with Native Americans by the Indian Intercourse Act , first passed on July 22, 1790. The Bureau of Indian Affairs issued licenses to trade in the Indian Territory . In 1834 this was defined as most of the United States west of the Mississippi River , where mountain men and traders from Mexico freely operated. Early exploration parties were often fur-trading expeditions, many of which marked

13277-576: The French felt-hatters. Hat makers began to use it in England soon after, particularly after Huguenot refugees brought their skills and tastes with them from France. Captain Chauvin made the first organized attempt to control the fur trade in New France . In 1599 he acquired a monopoly from Henry IV and tried to establish a colony near the mouth of the Saguenay River at Tadoussac . French explorers, like Samuel de Champlain , voyageurs , and Coureur des bois , such as Étienne Brûlé , Radisson , La Salle , and Le Sueur , while seeking routes through

13464-875: The French formed raiding parties with Indian allies to attack English settlements, (as the English had allied themselves with the Iroquois against the French) perpetrating the Schenectady massacre in the colony of New York , the Raid on Salmon Falls in New Hampshire , and the Battle of Fort Loyal in Portland, Maine . The French and their allies killed settlers in the raids and kidnapped some and took them back to Canada. Settlers in New England raised money to redeem

13651-416: The French with valuable furs, and the Iroquois interfered with that trade. The first battle with the Iroquois in 1609 was fought at Champlain's initiative. Champlain wrote, "I had come with no other intention than to make war". He and his Huron and Algonkin allies fought a pitched battle against the Mohawks on the shores of Lake Champlain . Champlain single-handedly killed two chiefs with his arquebus despite

13838-429: The French, but these were largely ineffective. The most successful incursion resulted in the 1691 Battle of La Prairie . The French offensive was not halted by the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick that brought peace between France and England, ending English participation in that conflict. The Iroquois eventually began to see the emerging Thirteen Colonies as a greater threat than the French in 1698. The colony of Pennsylvania

14025-607: The Haudenosaunee inflicted a major defeat on the Susquehannock c.  1674 since the Jesuit Relations for 1675 reports that the Seneca "utterly defeated ... their ancient and redoubtable foes." In 1675, the Susquehannock moved south into Maryland. Later that year the militias of Virginia and Maryland besieged the Susquehannock fort, and assassinated the Susquehannock chiefs during a parley. The survivors of

14212-554: The Hurons for refuge. The Wenro had served as a buffer between the Iroquois and the Neutral tribe and their Erie allies. The Neutral and Erie tribes were considerably larger and more powerful than the Iroquois, so the Iroquois turned their attention to the north and the Dutch encouraged them in this strategy. At that time, the Dutch were the Iroquois' primary European trading partners, with their goods passing through Dutch trading posts down

14399-689: The Indians in Canada, following the British takeover of the territory after it defeated France in the Seven Years' War (known as the French and Indian War in North America). Following the British take over of Canada from France, the control of the fur trade in North America became consolidated under the British government for a time, until the United States was created and became a major source for furs being shipped to Europe as well in

14586-588: The Iroquois also suffered a significant number of casualties, and their leaders began to consider negotiating for peace with the French. The tide of war began to turn in the mid-1660s with the arrival of the Carignan-Salières Regiment , a unit of roughly 1000 regular troops from France and the first group of uniformed professional soldiers in Canada. A change in administration led the government of New France to authorize direct sale of arms and other military support to their Indian allies. In 1664,

14773-553: The Iroquois and other native tribes in the Great Lakes region greatly impacted the future of French colonies, as well as the native tribes in the region. New France was far less profitable and much more violent than Champlain and other French leaders had hoped. The French involvement in native trade caused the French to entangle with complex native alliances, which pitted tribes against the French, and each other. French involvement also introduced disease, weapons, and war, which led to

14960-497: The Iroquois and their enemies. With the renewal of hostilities, the militia of New France was strengthened after 1683 by a small force of regular French navy troops in the Compagnies Franches de la Marine , who constituted the longest serving unit of French regular troops in New France. In June 1687, Governor Denonville and Pierre de Troyes set out with a well organized force to Fort Frontenac , where they met with

15147-411: The Iroquois could receive in exchange for animal pelts. they began large-scale hunting for furs to satisfy demand among their peoples for new products. At this time, conflict began to grow between the Iroquois Confederacy and the tribes supported by the French. The Iroquois inhabited the region of New York south of Lake Ontario and west of the Hudson River . Their lands were surrounded on all sides but

15334-449: The Iroquois lost their Dutch allies in the colony of New Netherland after the English took it over in 1664, along with Fort Amsterdam and the town of New Amsterdam on the island of Manhattan . The French then attempted to gain the Iroquois as an ally against the English, but the Iroquois refused to break their alliance, and frequently fought against the French in the 18th century. The Anglo-Iroquois alliance would reach its zenith during

15521-473: The Iroquois, many of whom converted to Roman Catholicism or intermingled its teachings with their own traditional beliefs. Despite these battles looking like massive successes for the Iroquois, such victories brought issues to the nation. The Iroquois had taken more captives than they could assimilate, which led to divisions and factions within the nation. Many captives held onto their prior beliefs instead of assimilating as well. Large divisions went on to embrace

15708-586: The Iroquois. In the early 1650s, the Iroquois began attacking the French themselves, although some of the Iroquois tribes had peaceful relations with them, notably the Oneida and Onondaga tribes. They were under control of the Mohawks, however, who were the strongest tribe in the Confederation and had animosity towards the French presence. After a failed peace treaty negotiated by Chief Canaqueese , Iroquois moved north into New France along Lake Champlain and

15895-654: The Iroquois. Several tribes ultimately moved west beyond the Mississippi River , leaving much of the Ohio Valley, southern Michigan, and southern Ontario depopulated. Several Anishinaabe forces numbering in the thousands remained to the north of Lakes Huron and Superior, and they were later decisive in rolling back the Iroquois advance. From west of the Mississippi, displaced groups continued to arm war parties and attempt to retake their land. Beginning in

16082-528: The Iroquois. The Hurons tried to break the Iroquois Confederacy by negotiating a separate peace with the Onondaga and Cayuga tribes, but the other tribes intercepted their messengers and ended the negotiations. During the summer of 1647, there were several small skirmishes between the tribes, but a more significant battle occurred in 1648 when the two Algonquin tribes passed a fur convoy through an Iroquois blockade. They succeeded and inflicted high casualties on

16269-477: The Iroquois. Using their new firearms, the Confederacy laid an ambush near South Bend, Indiana , and they attacked and destroyed most of the Iroquois party, and a large part of the region was left depopulated. The Iroquois were unable to establish a permanent presence, as their tribe was unable to colonize the large area, and the Iroquois' brief control over the region was lost. Many of the former inhabitants of

16456-643: The Komi and Yugra, by recruiting men of one tribe to fight in an army against the other tribe. Campaigns against native tribes in Siberia remained insignificant until they began on a much larger scale in 1483 and 1499–1500. Besides the Novgorodians and the indigenes, the Muscovites also had to contend with the various Muslim Tatar khanates to their east. In 1552, Ivan IV , the tsar of all Russia , took

16643-478: The Lake Champlain waterway. The approaching winter of 1776–1777 restricted British movement along the recently controlled Lake Champlain. As the British abandoned Crown Point and returned to Canada for the winter, the Americans reduced their garrisons in the Champlain Valley from 13,000 to 2,500 soldiers. In early 1777, British General John Burgoyne led 8,000 troops from Canada, down Lake Champlain and into

16830-532: The Middle East in exchange for silk, textiles, spices, and dried fruit. The high prices that sable, black fox, and marten furs could generate in international markets spurred a "fur fever" in which many Russians moved to Siberia as independent trappers. From 1585 to 1680, tens of thousands of sable and other valuable pelts were obtained in Siberia each year. The primary way for the Russian state to obtain furs

17017-631: The Mississippi onto the Great Plains in the early 18th century, where they adopted the horse culture and nomadic lifestyle for which they later became known. Other refugees flooded the Great Lakes area, resulting in a conflict with existing tribes in the region. In the Ohio Country, the Shawnee and Miami tribes were dominant. The Iroquois quickly overran Shawnee holdings in central Ohio, forcing them to flee into Miami territory. The Miamis were

17204-538: The Mohawk but failed to reach their villages as the French soldiers were ill-equipped to operate in the cold and deep snow. The second invasion force was led by Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy whom Louis XIV had appointed as Lieutenant Général of the Americas. The invasion force of about 1,300 men set out September 1666 and reached the Mohawk villages in mid-October. The villages had been hastily abandoned. Tracy ordered

17391-552: The Mohawks defeated the Mohicans , pushing them east of the Hudson River and establishing a monopoly of trade with the Dutch at Fort Orange , New Netherland . The Susquehannocks were also well armed by Dutch traders, and they effectively reduced the strength of the Delawares and managed to win a protracted war with Maryland colonists . By the 1630s, the Iroquois had become fully armed with European weaponry through their trade with

17578-618: The Mohawks mobilized against the largely Algonquian -speaking tribes and Iroquoian -speaking Huron and related tribes of the Great Lakes region. The Iroquois were supplied with arms by their Dutch and English trading partners; the Algonquians and Hurons were backed by the French, their chief trading partner. The Iroquois effectively destroyed several large tribal confederacies, including the Mohicans, Huron ( Wyandot ), Neutral, Erie, Susquehannock (Conestoga), and northern Algonquins, with

17765-686: The Northwest. It maintained a claim to the region using the Iroquois right of conquest until the company was dissolved in 1798 by the United States Supreme Court . Many of the Iroquois people allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War , particularly warriors from the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga and Seneca nations. These nations had longstanding trade relations with the British and hoped they might stop American encroachment on their lands. After

17952-586: The October 1776, the Continental Army had 16 operating naval vessels on Lake Champlain: a great increase to the four small ships they had at the beginning of the summer. General Benedict Arnold commanded the American naval fleet on Lake Champlain, which was composed of volunteers and soldiers drafted from the Northern Army. With great contrast to the Continental navy, experienced Royal Navy officers, British seamen and Hessian artillerymen manned

18139-650: The Ohio Country and the lower Allegheny River . The Miami tribe returned to take control of Indiana and northwest Ohio. The Pottawatomie went to Michigan , and the Illinois tribe to Illinois . The peace lasted into the 1720s. In 1768, several of the Thirteen Colonies purchased the "Iroquois claim" to the Ohio and Illinois Country and created the Indiana Land Company to hold the claim to all of

18326-611: The Province. In 2000 there were 351 Mink farms in the U.S. As of 2015 there were 176,573 trappers in the U.S. with most being in the midwest. California was the first (and only) state to ban trapping for commercial and recreation purposes in 2015. The North American Fur Auction (NAFA) occurs four times a year and attracts buyers from around the world. According to the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, at present approximately 270,000 families in

18513-789: The Richelieu River, attacking and blockading Montreal. By 1650, they controlled the area from the Virginia Colony in the south up to the St. Lawrence. In the west, the Iroquois had driven the Algonquin-speaking Shawnee out of the Ohio Country and seized control of the Illinois Country as far west as the Mississippi River. In January 1666, the French invaded the Iroquois and took Chief Canaqueese prisoner. In September, they proceeded down

18700-506: The Richelieu but were unable to find an Iroquois army, so they burned their crops and homes. Many Iroquois died from starvation in the following winter. During the following years, the Iroquois strengthened their confederacy to work more closely and create an effective central leadership, and the five tribes ceased fighting among themselves by the 1660s. They also easily coordinated military and economic plans, and they increased their power as

18887-630: The Stadaconans and another tribe known as the Toudaman . Wars and politics in Europe distracted French efforts at colonization in the St. Lawrence Valley until the beginning of the 17th century, when they founded Quebec in 1608. When the French returned to the area, they found both sites abandoned by the Stadacona and Hochelaga and completely destroyed, and they found no inhabitants in this part of

19074-628: The Susquehannock negotiating Articles of Peace and Friendship with Maryland. An Oneida raid on the Piscataway in 1660 led Maryland to expand its treaty with the Susquehannock into an alliance. The Maryland assembly authorized armed assistance, and described the Susquehannock as "a Bullwarke and Security of the Northern Parts of this Province." 50 men were sent to help defend the Susquehannock village. Muskets, lead and powder were acquired from both Maryland and New Netherland. Despite suffering

19261-636: The United States , increasing the demand for cotton and helping make possible the rapid expansion of the cotton plantation system across the Deep South . The most profitable furs were those of sea otters , especially the northern sea otter, Enhydra lutris kenyoni , which inhabited the coastal waters between the Columbia River to the south and Cook Inlet to the north. The fur of the Californian southern sea otter, E. l. nereis ,

19448-537: The United States and Canada derive some of their income from fur trapping. The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska . The furs were mostly traded in China for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and

19635-532: The United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia . The trade boomed around the turn of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted,

19822-422: The active approach involved the use of hunting-dogs and of bows-and-arrows. Occasionally, hunters also followed sable tracks to their burrows, around which they placed nets, and waited for the sable to emerge. The hunting season began around the time of the first snow in October or November and continued until early spring. Hunting expeditions lasted two to three years on average but occasionally longer. Because of

20009-446: The authors searched for connections on a global stage that revealed its "high political and economic importance." E.E. Rich brought the economic purview down a level, focusing on the role of trading companies and their men as the ones who "opened up" much of Canada's territories, instead of on the role of the nation-state in opening up the continent. Rich's other work gets to the heart of the formalist/substantivist debate that dominated

20196-513: The basic values of the European approach" and that "English economic rules did not apply to the Indian trade." Indians were savvy traders, but they had a fundamentally different conception of property, which confounded their European trade partners. Abraham Rotstein subsequently fit these arguments explicitly into Polanyi's theoretical framework, claiming that "administered trade was in operation at

20383-524: The beaver in the lands controlled by the Iroquois in the middle 17th century accelerated the wars. The center of the fur trade shifted north to the colder regions of southern Ontario, an area controlled by the Neutral and Huron tribes who were close trading partners with the French. With the decline of the beaver population, the Iroquois began to conquer their smaller neighbors. They attacked the Wenro in 1638 and took all of their territory, and survivors fled to

20570-416: The beaver, led to the continent becoming a major supplier in the 17th century of fur pelts for the fur felt hat and fur trimming and garment trades of Europe. Fur was relied on to make warm clothing, a critical consideration prior to the organization of coal distribution for heating. Portugal and Spain played major roles in fur trading after the 15th century with their business in fur hats. From as early as

20757-508: The best fur country was far to the north and west, and could best be reached by ships sailing into Hudson Bay . Their treatment in Canada suggested that they would not find support from France for their scheme. The pair went to New England, where they found local financial support for at least two attempts to reach Hudson Bay, both unsuccessful. Their ideas had reached the ears of English authorities, however, and in 1665 Radisson and Groseilliers were persuaded to go to London . After some setbacks,

20944-399: The captives, but some were adopted into the tribes. The French government generally did not intervene when the Indians kept the captives. Throughout the 1690s, the French and their allies also continued to raid deep into Iroquois territory, destroying Mohawk villages in 1692 and raiding Seneca, Oneida, and Onondaga villages. The English and Iroquois banded together for operations aimed against

21131-591: The children of slaves. The Métis in the Canadian Red River region were so numerous that they developed a creole language and culture. Since the late 20th century, the Métis have been recognized in Canada as a First Nations ethnic group. The interracial relationships resulted in a two-tier mixed-race class, in which descendants of fur traders and chiefs achieved prominence in some Canadian social, political, and economic circles. Lower-class descendants formed

21318-600: The continent, established relationships with Amerindians and continued to expand the trade of fur pelts for items considered 'common' by the Europeans. Mammal winter pelts were prized for warmth, particularly animal pelts for beaver wool felt hats, which were an expensive status symbol in Europe. The demand for beaver wool felt hats was such that the beaver in Europe and European Russia had largely disappeared through exploitation. In 1613 Dallas Carite and Adriaen Block headed expeditions to establish fur trade relationships with

21505-493: The course of the 15th century and proceeded with the " gathering of the Russian lands ", the Muscovite state began to rival the Novgorodians in the north for the Russian fur trade; ultimately, Novgorod would lose its autonomy and be absorbed by the authorities in Moscow along with its vast hinterland. At the same time, Moscow began subjugating many native tribes. One strategy involved exploiting antagonisms between tribes, notably

21692-450: The decline in fur animals and realized the market was changing, as beaver hats went out of style. Expanding European settlement displaced native communities from the best hunting grounds. European demand for furs subsided as fashion trends shifted. The Native Americans' lifestyles were altered by the trade. To continue obtaining European goods on which they had become dependent and to pay off their debts, they often resorted to selling land to

21879-518: The early history of contact between Europeans and the native peoples of what is now the United States and Canada . Dr. S. E. Dawson's admirable "The Saint Lawrence Its Basin & Border-Lands" covers in detail the twenty-or-so main "gateways" connecting the St. Lawrence River with its neighbouring basins. Though these were all once canoe routes, not all were trade routes. In 1578 there were 350 European fishing vessels at Newfoundland . Sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for

22066-476: The early 1640s, the war began in earnest with Iroquois attacks on frontier Huron villages along the St. Lawrence River in order to disrupt the trade with the French. In 1645, the French called the tribes together to negotiate a treaty to end the conflict, and Iroquois leaders Deganaweida and Koiseaton traveled to New France to take part in the negotiations. The French agreed to most of the Iroquois demands, granting them trading rights in New France. The next summer,

22253-797: The easternmost trading post of the Hanseatic League . Novgorodians expanded farther east and north, coming into contact with the Pechora people of the Pechora River valley and the Yugra people residing near the Urals . Both of these native tribes offered more resistance than the Komi, killing many Russian tribute-collectors throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries. As the Grand Principality of Moscow increased in power over

22440-603: The extreme brutality and exterminatory nature of the mode of warfare practised by the Iroquois causing some historians to label these wars as acts of genocide committed by the Iroquois Confederacy. They became dominant in the region and enlarged their territory, realigning the American tribal geography. The Iroquois gained control of the New England frontier and Ohio River valley lands as hunting ground from about 1670 onward. Both Algonquian and Iroquoian societies were greatly disrupted by these wars. The conflict subsided when

22627-714: The field or, as some came to believe, muddied it. Historians such as Harold Innis had long taken the formalist position, especially in Canadian history, believing that neoclassical economic principles affect non-Western societies just as they do Western ones. Starting in the 1950s, however, substantivists such as Karl Polanyi challenged these ideas, arguing instead that primitive societies could engage in alternatives to traditional Western market trade; namely, gift trade and administered trade. Rich picked up these arguments in an influential article in which he contended that Indians had "a persistent reluctance to accept European notions or

22814-562: The fight in Boston. Benedict Arnold shared the command with Allen, and, in early May 1775, they captured Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point and the southern Loyalist settlement of Skenesborough . As a result of Allen's offensive attack on the Champlain Valley in 1775, the American forces controlled the Lake Champlain waterway. The Continental Army realized the strategic advantage of controlling Lake Champlain, as it leads directly to

23001-582: The first bridge to span the lake, built from Crown Point to Chimney Point . This bridge lasted until December 2009. Severe deterioration was found, and the bridge was demolished and replaced with the Lake Champlain Bridge , which opened in November 2011. On February 19, 1932, boats were able to sail on Lake Champlain. It was the first time that the lake was known to be free of ice during the winter at that time. Lake Champlain briefly became

23188-586: The first recorded instances of Europeans' reaching particular regions of North America. For example, Abraham Wood sent fur-trading parties on exploring expeditions into the southern Appalachian Mountains, discovering the New River in the process. Simon Fraser was a fur trader who explored much of the Fraser River in British Columbia. Economic historians and anthropologists have studied

23375-465: The first to operate in the southern sector, but were unable to compete against the Americans who dominated from the 1790s to the 1830s. The British Hudson's Bay Company entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840. In its late period the maritime fur trade was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company and

23562-678: The following year. In this period, the Continental Army gained strength and was victorious at Saratoga . At the start of the Revolutionary War , British forces occupied the Champlain Valley . However, it did not take long for rebel leaders to realize the importance of controlling Lake Champlain. Early in the war, the colonial militias attempted to expel the British from Boston ; however, this undertaking could not be achieved without heavy artillery. The British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point , on Lake Champlain, were known to have ample supplies of artillery and were weakly-manned by

23749-429: The forces now in Canada will be brought down upon us as quick as possible, having nothing to oppose them...They will doubtless try to construct some armed vessels and then endeavor to penetrate the country toward New York." (Brigadier General John Sullivan to George Washington , June 24, 1776). Both British and American forces spent the summer of 1776 building their naval fleets, at opposite ends of Lake Champlain. By

23936-434: The fur trade extremely profitable for the Europeans. The Natives used the iron axe heads to replace stone axe heads which they had made by hand in a labor-intensive process, so they derived substantial benefits from the trade as well. The colonists began to see the ill effects of alcohol on Natives, and the chiefs objected to its sale and trade. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 prohibited sale by European settlers of alcohol to

24123-532: The fur trade in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries was dominated by the Canadian fur shipping network that developed in New France under the fur monopoly held first by the Company of One Hundred Associates , then followed in 1664 by the French West India Company , steadily expanding fur trapping and shipping across a network of frontier forts further west that eventually went all

24310-432: The fur trade of that colony (now called New York) fell into English hands with the 1667 Treaty of Breda . In 1668 the English fur trade entered a new phase. Two French citizens, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers , had traded with great success west of Lake Superior in 1659–60, but upon their return to Canada, most of their furs were seized by the authorities. Their trading voyage had convinced them that

24497-593: The fur trade through two taxes, the yasak (or iasak) tax on natives and the 10% "Sovereign Tithing Tax" imposed on both the catch and sale of fur pelts. Fur was in great demand in Western Europe, especially sable and marten, since European forest resources had been over-hunted and furs had become extremely scarce. Fur trading allowed Russia to purchase from Europe goods that it lacked, like lead, tin, precious metals, textiles, firearms, and sulphur. Russia also traded furs with Ottoman Turkey and other countries in

24684-408: The fur trade's important role in early North American economies, but they have been unable to agree on a theoretical framework to describe native economic patterns. John C. Phillips and J.W. Smurr tied the fur trade to an imperial struggle for power, positing that the fur trade served both as an incentive for expanding and as a method for maintaining dominance. Dismissing the experience of individuals,

24871-442: The fur trade; they made marriages or cohabited with high-ranking Indian women of similar status in their own cultures. Fur trappers and other workers usually had relationships with lower-ranking women. Many of their mixed-race descendants developed their own culture, now called Métis in Canada, based then on fur trapping and other activities on the frontier. In some cases both Native American and European-American cultures excluded

25058-445: The further destruction of tribes in the region. Fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur . Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period , furs of boreal , polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued. Historically the trade stimulated the exploration and colonization of Siberia , northern North America , and

25245-568: The growing demand for furs, driving the creation and expansion of the fur trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, although new trends as well as occasional revivals of prior fashions would cause the fur trade to ebb and flow right up to the present. Often, the political benefits of the fur trade became more important than the economic aspects. Trade was a way to forge alliances and maintain good relations between different cultures. The fur traders were men with capital and social standing. Often younger men were single when they went to North America to enter

25432-482: The heart of Quebec. Immediately after taking Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the Americans began planning an attack on British Canada. The American siege of Quebec was a two-pronged assault and occurred throughout the winter of 1775–1776. Brigadier General Richard Montgomery led the first assault up the Champlain Valley into Canada, while Benedict Arnold led a second army to Quebec via the Maine wilderness. Despite

25619-420: The land by right of conquest as a hunting ground. The English acknowledged this claim in 1674 and again in 1684, but they acquired the land from the Iroquois by a 1722 treaty. During a raid into the Illinois Country in 1689, the Iroquois captured numerous prisoners and destroyed a sizable Miami settlement. The Miami asked for aid from others in the Anishinaabeg Confederacy, and a large force gathered to track down

25806-527: The land from the Urals eastward to the Yenisey valley and to the Altai Mountains in the south, comprising about 1.25 million square miles of land. Furs would become Russia's largest source of wealth during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Keeping up with the advances of Western Europe required significant capital and Russia did not have sources of gold and silver, but it did have furs, which became known as "soft gold" and provided Russia with hard currency. The Russian government received income from

25993-407: The long hunting season and the fact that passage back to Russia was difficult and costly, beginning around the 1650s–1660s, many promyshlenniki chose to stay and settle in Siberia. From 1620 to 1680, a total of 15,983 trappers operated in Siberia. The North American fur trade began as early as the 1500s between Europeans and First Nations (see: Early French Fur Trading ) and was a central part of

26180-406: The longhouses and fields of crops destroyed, and the expedition returned to New France. A peace settlement was reached with the Mohawk and Oneida in July 1667. Once peace was achieved with the French, the Iroquois returned to their westward conquest in their continued attempt to take control of all the land between the Algonquins and the French. Eastern tribes such as the Lakotas were pushed across

26367-431: The loss of Albany 's fur trade with the Iroquois and, without their protection, the northern flank of the Thirteen Colonies would be open to French attack. Nevertheless, the French and Indians signed the treaty. The French and 39 Indian chiefs signed the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701. The Iroquois agreed to stop marauding and to allow refugees from the Great Lakes to return east. The Shawnee eventually regained control of

26554-420: The majority of the separate Métis culture based on hunting, trapping and farming. Because of the wealth at stake, different European-American governments competed with various native societies for control of the fur trade. Native Americans sometimes based decisions of which side to support in times of war in relation to which people had provided them with the best trade goods in an honest manner. Because trade

26741-407: The maritime fur trade diversified and was transformed, tapping new markets and commodities while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast and China. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century. Russians controlled most of the coast of what is now Alaska during the entire era. The coast south of Alaska saw fierce competition between, and among, British and American trading vessels. The British were

26928-414: The mixed-race descendants. If the Native Americans were a tribe with a patrilineal kinship system, they considered children born to a white father to be white, in a type of hypodescent classification, although the Native mother and tribe might care for them. The Europeans tended to classify children of Native women as Native, regardless of the father, similar to the hypodescent of their classification of

27115-407: The more southerly Susquehannock tribe. The Dutch founded Fort Nassau in 1614 and its 1624 replacement Fort Orange (both at Albany) which removed the Iroquois' need to rely on the French and their allied tribes or to travel through southern tribal territories to reach European traders. The Dutch supplied the Mohawks and other Iroquois with guns. In addition, the new post offered valuable tools that

27302-441: The nation's sixth Great Lake on March 6, 1998, when President Clinton signed Senate Bill 927. This bill, which was led by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and reauthorized the National Sea Grant Program , contained a line declaring Lake Champlain to be a Great Lake. This status enabled its neighboring states to apply for additional federal research and education funds allocated to these national resources. However, following

27489-431: The natives' well-worn pelts. The first pelts in demand were beaver and sea otter, as well as occasionally deer, bear, ermine and skunk. Fur robes were blankets of sewn-together, native-tanned, beaver pelts. The pelts were called castor gras in French and "coat beaver" in English, and were soon recognized by the newly developed felt-hat making industry as particularly useful for felting. Some historians, seeking to explain

27676-401: The nineteenth century, along with the largely unsettled territory of Russian America , which became a significant source of furs also during that period. The fur trade began to significantly decline starting in the 1830s, following changing attitudes and fashions in Europe and America which no longer centered around certain articles of clothing as much such as beaver skin hats, which had fueled

27863-447: The northernmost end of Lake Champlain to protect against attacks from British Canada. Its nickname came from a surveying error: the initial phase of construction on the fort turned out to be taking place on a point 3 ⁄ 4  mi (1.2 km) north of the Canada–U.S. border. Once this error was spotted, construction was abandoned. Locals scavenged materials used in the abandoned fort for use in their homes and public buildings. By

28050-491: The northwestern slopes of the Green Mountains and the eastern portion of the Adirondack Mountains, reaching as far south as the 32 mi-long (51 km) Lake George in New York. Lake Champlain drains nearly half of Vermont, and approximately 250,000 people get their drinking water from the lake. The lake is fed in Vermont by the LaPlatte, Lamoille , Missisquoi , Poultney and Winooski rivers, along with Lewis Creek, Little Otter Creek and Otter Creek . In New York, it

28237-448: The pelts of martens , beavers , wolves , foxes , squirrels and hares . Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians began to settle in Siberia , a region rich in many mammal fur species, such as Arctic fox , lynx , sable , sea otter and stoat ( ermine ). In a search for the prized sea otter pelts, first used in China, and later for the northern fur seal , the Russian Empire expanded into North America, notably Alaska . From

28424-414: The ports of Burlington, Vermont , Port Henry, New York , and Plattsburgh, New York , today are primarily used by small craft, ferries and lake cruise ships, they were of substantial commercial and military importance in the 18th and 19th centuries. New France allocated concessions all along Lake Champlain to French settlers and built forts to defend the waterways. In colonial times, Lake Champlain

28611-686: The prized sables that the natives did not value, but greater demand for furs led to violence and force becoming the primary means of obtaining the furs. The largest problem with the yasak system was that Russian governors were prone to corruption because they received no salary. They resorted to illegal means of getting furs for themselves, including bribing customs officials to allow them to personally collect yasak , extorting natives by exacting yasak multiple times over, or requiring tribute from independent trappers. Russian fur trappers, called promyshlenniki , hunted in one of two types of bands of 10–15 men, called vatagi  [ ru ] . The first

28798-440: The reserve of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario. The new lands granted to Six Nations reserves were all near Canadian military outposts and placed along the border to prevent any American incursions. The coalition of Native American tribes, known as the Western Confederacy , was forced to cede extensive territory, including much of present-day Ohio, in the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. New France's involvement with

28985-448: The risks to humans from water-related health hazards and control the introduction, spread, and impact of non-native nuisance species to preserve the integrity of the Lake Champlain ecosystem. Senior staff who helped organize the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 recall that International Paper was one of the first companies to call upon the brand-new agency, because it was being pressured by both New York and Vermont with regard to

29172-428: The river bottom. They would then move through the woods to a target and burst from the wood to cause the greatest panic. After the attack, they returned to their boats and left before any significant resistance could be put together. The lack of firearms caused the Algonquin tribes the greatest disadvantage. Despite their larger numbers, they were not centralized enough to mount a united defense and were unable to withstand

29359-399: The siege were eventually absorbed by the Iroquois. English settlers began to move into the former Dutch territory of upper New York State, and the colonists began to form close ties with the Iroquois as an alliance in the face of French colonial expansion. They began to supply the Iroquois with firearms as the Dutch had. At the same time, New France's governor Louis de Buade tried to revive

29546-415: The significance of Lake Champlain during the post-Revolutionary War period. During the War of 1812 , British and American forces faced each other in the Battle of Lake Champlain, also known as the Battle of Plattsburgh , fought on September 11, 1814. This ended the final British invasion of the northern states during the War of 1812. It was fought just prior to the signing of the Treaty of Ghent , and

29733-433: The south by Algonquian-speaking tribes, all traditional enemies, including the Shawnee to the west in the Ohio Country , the Neutral Nation and Huron confederacies on the western shore of Lake Ontario and southern shore of Lake Huron to the west, and the Susquehannock to their south. These tribes were historically competitive with and sometimes enemies of the Iroquois, who had Five Nations in their confederacy. In 1628,

29920-421: The spring and summer of 1776, at opposite ends of the lake, and fought a significant naval engagement on October 11 at the Battle of Valcour Island . While it was a tactical defeat for the Americans, and the small fleet led by Benedict Arnold was almost destroyed, the Americans gained a strategic victory; the British invasion was delayed long enough so the approach of winter prevented the fall of these forts until

30107-481: The states of New York and Vermont . The lake is located at the frontier between Abenaki and Mohawk ( Iroquois Confederacy ) traditional territories. The official toponym for the lake, according to the orthography established by the Grand Council of Wanab-aki Nation, is Pitawbagok (alternative orthographies include Petonbowk and Bitawbagok), meaning "middle lake", "lake in between" or "double lake". The Mohawk name in modern orthography, as standardized in 1993,

30294-447: The strategic advantage of controlling a direct route to Quebec by way of the Champlain Valley, the American siege of British Canada during the winter of 1775 failed. The Continental Army mistakenly assumed that it would receive support from the Canadians upon their arrival at Quebec. This was not the case, and the rebel army struggled to take Quebec with diminishing supplies, support, and harsh northern winter weather. The Continental Army

30481-628: The summer, promyshlenniki would set up a summer camp to stockpile grain and fish, and many engaged in agricultural work for extra money. During late summer or early fall the vatagi left their hunting grounds, surveyed the area, and set up a winter camp. Each member of the group set at least 10 traps and the vatagi divided into smaller groups of two to three men who cooperated to maintain certain traps. Promyshlenniki checked traps daily, resetting them or replacing bait whenever necessary. The promyshlenniki employed both passive and active hunting-strategies. The passive approach involved setting traps, while

30668-410: The term castor gras , have assumed that coat beaver was rich in human oils from having been worn so long (much of the top-hair was worn away through usage, exposing the valuable under-wool), and that this is what made it attractive to the hatters. This seems unlikely, since grease interferes with the felting of wool, rather than enhancing it. By the 1580s, beaver "wool" was the major starting material of

30855-415: The territory began to return. With the tribes destroyed to the north and west, the Iroquois turned their attention southward to the Susquehannock . The Susquehannock attained the peak of their influence in the 1650s, and they were able to use that to their advantage in the following decades. In the winter of 1652, the Susquehannock were attacked by the Mohawk, and although the attack was repulsed, it led to

31042-428: The tribe. Among those killed were Jesuit missionaries Jean Brebeuf , Charles Garnier , and Gabriel Lallemant , each of whom is considered a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church. The surviving Hurons fled and were dispersed from their territory, some taking refuge with the Jesuits at Quebec , some assimilated and adopted by the Iroquois , others joined the Petun or Tobacco nation, another Iroquoian people to become

31229-446: The upper river valley—although the Iroquois and the Huron used it as hunting ground. The causes remain unclear, although some anthropologists and historians have suggested that the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy destroyed or drove out the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. Before 1603, Champlain had formed an alliance against the Iroquois, as he decided that the French would not trade firearms to them. The northern Indigenous provided

31416-405: The use of firearms purchased from the Dutch. The Iroquois continued to control the countryside of New France, raiding to the edges of the walled settlements of Quebec and Montreal. In May 1660, an Iroquois force of 160 warriors attacked Montreal and captured 17 French colonists. The following year, 250 warriors attacked and took ten captives. In 1661 and 1662, the Iroquois made several raids against

31603-429: The war chiefs' "arrowproof body armor made of plaited sticks", after which the Mohawk withdrew in disarray. In 1610, Champlain and his French companions helped the Algonquins and the Hurons defeat a large Iroquois raiding party. In 1615, he joined a Huron raiding party and took part in a siege on an Iroquois town, probably among the Onondaga south of Lake Ontario in New York. The attack ultimately failed, and Champlain

31790-433: The way to modern day Winnipeg in Western Canada by the mid-1700s, coming into direct contact and opposition with the English fur trappers stationed out of York Factory at Hudson Bay . Meanwhile, the New England fur trade expanded as well, not only inland, but northward along the coast into the Bay of Fundy region. London 's access to high-quality furs was greatly increased with the takeover of New Amsterdam, whereupon

31977-411: The western fur trade. His efforts competed with those of the Iroquois to control the traffic and they started attacking the French again. The war lasted ten years. In 1681, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle , negotiated a treaty with the Miami and Illinois tribes. France lifted the ban on the sale of firearms to the Indians, and colonists quickly armed the Algonquin tribes, evening the odds between

32164-496: Was an independent band of blood relatives or unrelated people who contributed an equal share of the hunting-expedition expenses; the second was a band of hired hunters who participated in expeditions fully funded by the trading companies which employed them. Members of an independent vataga cooperated and shared all necessary work associated with fur trapping, including making and setting traps, building forts and camps, stockpiling firewood and grain, and fishing. All fur pelts went into

32351-621: Was bought mainly for the English hat-making trade, while the fine furs went to the Netherlands and Germany . Meanwhile, in the Southern colonies , a deerskin trade was established around 1670, based at the export hub of Charleston, South Carolina . Word spread among Native hunters that the Europeans would exchange pelts for the European-manufactured goods that were highly desired in native communities. Carolinan traders stocked axe heads, knives, awls, fish hooks, cloth of various type and color, woolen blankets, linen shirts, kettles, jewelry, glass beads, muskets , ammunition and powder to exchange on

32538-459: Was by exacting a fur tribute from the Siberian natives, called a yasak . Yasak was usually a fixed number of sable pelts which every male tribe member who was at least fifteen years old had to supply to Russian officials. Officials enforced yasak through coercion and by taking hostages, usually the tribe chiefs or members of the chief's family. At first, Russians were content to trade with the natives, exchanging goods like pots, axes, and beads for

32725-473: Was forced to camp outside Quebec's walls for the winter, with reinforcements from New York, Pennsylvania , Massachusetts , New Hampshire and Connecticut allowing the soldiers to maintain their siege of the city. However, smallpox descended on both the sieging forces and their reinforcements and savaged the American force. The reinforcements traveled hundreds of miles up the frozen Lake Champlain and St. Lawrence River, but were too late and too few to influence

32912-455: Was founded in 1681, and the continued growth there began to encroach on the southern border of the Iroquois. The French policy began to change towards the Iroquois after nearly fifty years of warfare, and they decided that befriending them would be the easiest way to ensure their monopoly on the northern fur trade. The Thirteen Colonies heard of the treaty and immediately set about to prevent it from being agreed upon. These conflicts would result in

33099-430: Was injured. In 1610–1614, the Dutch established a series of seasonal trading posts on the Hudson and Delaware rivers, including one on Castle Island at the eastern edge of Mohawk territory near Albany. This gave the Iroquois direct access to European markets via the Mohawks. The Dutch trading efforts and eventual colonies in New Jersey and Delaware soon also established trade with the coastal Delaware tribe (Lenape) and

33286-417: Was instrumental to the momentum of the Revolutionary War, as the defeat of the British army along the Champlain-Hudson waterway convinced France to ally with the American army. Following the failed British campaign led by General Burgoyne, the British still maintained control over the Champlain waterway for the duration of the Revolutionary War. The British used the Champlain waterway to supply raids across

33473-478: Was later used for Fort Niagara which still exists. The Iroquois retaliated by destroying farmsteads and slaughtering entire families. They burned Lachine to the ground on August 4, 1689. Frontenac replaced Denonville as governor for the next nine years (1689–1698), and he recognized the danger created by the imprisonment of the sachems. He located the 13 surviving leaders and returned with them to New France in October 1698. During King William's War (1688–1697),

33660-434: Was less highly prized and thus less profitable. After the northern sea otter was hunted to local extinction , maritime fur traders shifted to California until the southern sea otter was likewise nearly extinct. The British and American maritime fur traders took their furs to the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Canton), where they worked within the established Canton System . Furs from Russian America were mostly sold to China via

33847-409: Was minimal. For New England, the maritime fur trade and the significant profits it made helped revitalize the region, contributing to the transformation of New England from an agrarian to an industrial society. The wealth generated by the maritime fur trade was invested in industrial development, especially textile manufacturing . The New England textile industry in turn had a large effect on slavery in

34034-440: Was not a business, and such simplifications only distort the past." White argued instead that the fur trade occupied part of a "middle ground" in which Europeans and Indians sought to accommodate their cultural differences. In the case of the fur trade, this meant that the French were forced to learn from the political and cultural meanings with which Indians imbued the fur trade. Cooperation, not domination, prevailed. According to

34221-402: Was not however overwhelmed, it rather flourished, while simultaneously undergoing rapid change. The use of Chinook Jargon arose during the maritime fur trading era and remains a distinctive aspect of Pacific Northwest culture. Native Hawaiian society was similarly affected by the sudden influx of Western wealth and technology, as well as epidemic diseases. The trade's effect on China and Europe

34408-441: Was rarely spelled as the single word "Northwest", as is common today. The maritime fur trade brought the Pacific Northwest coast into a vast, new international trade network, centered on the north Pacific Ocean, global in scope, and based on capitalism but not, for the most part, on colonialism . A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China, the Hawaiian Islands (only recently discovered by

34595-410: Was slower to enter the American fur trade than France and the Dutch Republic , but as soon as English colonies were established, development companies learned that furs provided the best way for the colonists to remit value back to the mother country. Furs were being dispatched from Virginia soon after 1610, and the Plymouth Colony was sending substantial amounts of beaver to its London agents through

34782-415: Was so politically important, the Europeans tried to regulate it in hopes (often futile) of preventing abuse. Unscrupulous traders sometimes cheated natives by plying them with alcohol during the transaction, which subsequently aroused resentment and often resulted in violence. In 1834 John Jacob Astor , who had created the huge monopoly of the American Fur Company , withdrew from the fur trade. He could see

34969-481: Was used as a water (or, in winter, ice) passage between the Saint Lawrence and Hudson valleys. Travelers found it easier to journey by boats and sledges on the lake rather than go overland on unpaved and frequently mud-bound roads. The lake's northern tip at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu , Quebec (known as St. John in colonial times under British rule) is just 25 miles (40 km) from Montreal , Quebec. The southern tip at Whitehall (Skenesborough in revolutionary times)

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