Fur trading is one of the main economic activities in Northern America from the late sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century

At this time, demand for fur is surging in Europe as it is used to make cloth and fancy hats.

Data collected from England in the eighteenth century highlights that the years from 1746 to 1763 see an increase of twelve shillings per pelt.

It has been calculated that over twenty million beaver hats were exported from England alone from 1700 to 1770.

Both trading partners in North America, natives and Europeans, provide the other a comparative advantage in the fur trade industry.

The opportunity cost of hunting beavers in Europe is extremely high: by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Eurasian beaver is near extinction in England and France.

On the other hand, traders and trappers think the wildlife in the New World is essentially limitless.

Natives make use of the trade goods received, particularly knives, axes, and guns.

The fur trade will provides a stable source of income for many Native Americans until the mid-nineteenth century, when changing fashion trends in Europe and a decline in the beaver population in North America bring about a collapse in demand for fur.

As Native Americans are pressed into alliances by the Europeans for Queen Anne's War, the Seven Years' War, the Nine Years' War, and other standing competitions among the European powers: France, Great Britain and Spain, with whom they are dealing in North America, they feel drawn into the Europeans' endemic warfare.

Northeastern North America (1684–1827 CE): Empires, Nations, and Atlantic Gateways

Geography & Environmental Context

Northeastern North America includes all territory east of 110°W, except the lands belonging to Gulf and Western North America. This encompasses the Great Lakes basin, the St. Lawrence River corridor, Hudson Bay and Labrador, Newfoundland, Greenland, the Arctic, the Maritime provinces, and the Atlantic seaboard from New England through Virginia, the Carolinas, and most of Georgia. It also contains the Mississippi Valley north of Illinois’ Little Egypt and the Upper Missouri above the Iowa–Nebraska crossing, as well as northeast Alabama, central and eastern Tennessee, and nearly all of Kentucky.

Anchors included the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence system, Hudson Bay, the Mississippi headwaters, the Appalachian piedmont and coastal plain, and the Greenland ice sheet. This was a land of forests and prairies, river valleys and tundra, increasingly tied to transatlantic markets.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

This age unfolded under the continuing Little Ice Age. Winters were harsh: ice closed the St. Lawrence, snow lingered across New England and the Maritimes, and Greenland’s fjords froze for longer periods, forcing Inuit hunters to adapt routes and tools. In the Great Lakes and Midwest, shorter growing seasons sometimes strained maize harvests. Atlantic storms battered coastlines, while the cod-rich Grand Banks remained among the world’s most productive fisheries.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Indigenous nations:

  • Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), Huron-Wendat, and Algonquian peoples relied on maize horticulture, deer, moose, caribou, and fisheries.

  • Inuit in Greenland and Labrador centered subsistence on seals, whales, and caribou, adapting to changing sea ice.

  • Southeastern groups (Cherokee, Creek) combined horticulture with hunting.

• Colonial settlements:

  • New France spread from Quebec to the Great Lakes and Mississippi through forts and missions.

  • New England, New York, and the Chesapeake grew rapidly, displacing Native peoples.

  • Hudson’s Bay Company (chartered 1670) expanded posts like York Factory and Fort Albany, anchoring the fur trade.

  • Spanish Florida persisted tenuously until ceded to Britain (1763), then to the U.S. (1821).

  • Greenland saw Inuit continuity until Danish missions after 1721.

• Economic systems: Fur and cod in the north, wheat and mixed farms in the interior, tobacco, rice, and indigo in the southern reaches.

Technology & Material Culture

• Indigenous technologies: canoes, snowshoes, fishing gear, longhouses, wampum belts, dog sleds, umiaks, and harpoons.

• European imports: firearms, iron tools, textiles, plows, ships, and mills.

• Trade goods: kettles, knives, and muskets became embedded in Native economies.

• Colonial towns: churches, courthouses, colleges, and printing presses reflected European traditions, while frontier cabins and missions reflected adaptation.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Fur trade networks: Carried beaver pelts from the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay into Europe, exchanged for manufactured goods.

• Maritime corridors: The Grand Banks drew fleets from England, France, Spain, and Portugal; New England merchants trafficked with the Caribbean and Africa.

• Indigenous corridors: Canoe routes and portages linked Hudson Bay, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi basin.

• Greenland: Inuit maintained ice routes across Baffin Bay; Danish missions established lasting presence after 1721.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Indigenous nations:

  • The Haudenosaunee Confederacy remained a powerful political and diplomatic bloc.

  • Oral traditions, seasonal rituals, and clan governance reinforced autonomy.

• Colonial cultures:

  • Catholic missions dominated New France; Protestant congregations spread in New England and the South.

  • Anglicanism tied seaboard elites to Britain.

  • Jewish communities established early synagogues in port cities like Newport.

• Greenland Inuit: Rituals around whale and seal hunting persisted; Christian teaching blended with older cosmologies after Danish missions.

• Symbols of territory: forts, flags, treaties, and wampum belts embodied contested claims of sovereignty.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Indigenous farmers rotated crops, built surpluses, and shifted villages as conditions required. Hunters diversified prey; Inuit adjusted hunting gear and routes to ice changes. Colonists overexploited cod, timber, and beaver but also relied on Native knowledge for survival in harsh climates. Beaver depletion shifted fur trade routes deeper into the interior, while forest clearing transformed seaboard ecosystems.

Political & Military Shocks

• Imperial wars: The Nine Years’ War, Queen Anne’s War, and the Seven Years’ War drew Indigenous peoples into shifting alliances.

• Seven Years’ War (1756–63): Britain seized New France, transforming the balance of power.

• American Revolution (1775–83): Created the United States from New England to Georgia; Loyalists resettled in Canada, reshaping its demographics.

• War of 1812: Britain and the U.S. clashed over the Great Lakes and Chesapeake; Native confederacies (notably Tecumseh’s) collapsed in defeat.

• Greenland: Danish rule consolidated after missions, linking Inuit more firmly into European frameworks.

Transition

By 1827 CE, Northeastern North America had become a patchwork of Indigenous nations, colonial legacies, and new settler republics. The fur trade and cod fisheries tied forests and coasts to Atlantic markets; French Canada endured under British rule; the United States secured independence and expanded inland. Greenland was drawn into Danish orbit. Indigenous nations remained vital, but faced epidemic disease, land dispossession, and broken alliances. What had begun as an imperial frontier was by the early 19th century a continental zone of nations, settler societies, and Native resilience under unprecedented pressure.

A series of four wars erupts in colonial North America between 1689 and 1763; the later wars of the period constitute the North American theater of the Seven Years' War.

Mainland Nova Scotia comes under British rule with the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, and the 1763 Treaty of Paris cedes Canada and most of New France to Britain after the Seven Years' War.

Northeastern North America

(1744 to 1755 CE): Colonial Rivalries, Indigenous Transformations, and Economic Innovations

Between 1744 and 1755, Northeastern North America experienced escalating colonial conflicts, significant indigenous adaptations driven by the introduction of the horse, expanding economic innovations, and the intensifying cultural impacts of the Great Awakening. This era profoundly reshaped relationships between European powers, indigenous societies, and colonial populations, setting conditions for larger-scale confrontations such as the upcoming French and Indian War.

Colonial Conflict and Geopolitical Rivalry

King George’s War and the Siege of Louisbourg (1744–1748)

King George’s War (1744–1748), part of the broader War of the Austrian Succession, escalated Anglo-French tensions. In 1745, colonial militia, supported by the British navy, successfully captured Louisbourg, a strategically critical fortress-town on Cape Breton Island. However, the subsequent Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) controversially returned Louisbourg to France, intensifying colonial dissatisfaction and sowing seeds of future conflict.

Expanding French Influence and Exploration

French Fortifications and the Ohio Valley

Throughout the late 1740s and early 1750s, France actively expanded its presence in the Ohio Valley, establishing forts, most notably Fort Duquesne (modern Pittsburgh) in 1754. French voyageurs explored extensive river valleys, including the Red, Arkansas, Platte, and Missouri Rivers, as well as regions around Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba, and the Lower Saskatchewan River, strengthening France’s vast fur-trading networks and indigenous alliances.

The Great Awakening and Cultural Transformation

Revivalism and Religious Liberty

The Great Awakening profoundly shaped colonial culture, increasing religious diversity and promoting ideas of religious liberty. Charismatic evangelical preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield continued driving religious fervor, significantly influencing future political thought and encouraging new denominations and cultural shifts across the colonies.

Indigenous Adaptations: Plains Tribes and Horse Culture

Adoption of the Horse on the Plains

From about 1740, the widespread adoption of horses dramatically transformed Plains societies. Tribes like the Crow, Hidatsa, Eastern Shoshone, and Northern Shoshone became skilled horse breeders and traders, maintaining relatively large herds despite harsh northern winters. These tribes' equestrian proficiency allowed them to hunt bison more effectively, altering their economies, cultures, and territorial reach significantly.

Intertribal Rivalries and Alliances

The Crow increasingly became targets for raids and horse thefts from tribes lacking large horse herds, including the powerful Blackfoot Confederacy, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Pawnee, and Ute. Emerging threats from the south and east, notably from the horse-rich Lakota (Sioux), Cheyenne, and Arapaho, intensified competition and conflict over valuable horse herds and hunting grounds.

Friendly relations developed between the Crow and other northern Plains tribes such as the Flathead (Salish), Nez Perce, Kutenai, Shoshone, Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache, although periodic tensions existed. Meanwhile, the formidable Iron Confederacy (Nehiyaw-Pwat), a northern Plains alliance centered on the fur trade and dominated by the Plains Cree and Assiniboine, emerged as a significant rival to the Crow. This confederation later included groups such as the Stoney, Saulteaux, Ojibwe, and Métis, shaping regional politics and economics.

Indigenous Populations and Demographic Shifts

Decline and Consolidation of Eastern Tribes

By 1750, the indigenous population along the eastern seaboard—numbering around 120,000 in the sixteenth century—had dramatically declined to fewer than 20,000 due to disease and warfare. Surviving tribes often consolidated or redefined their identities. For instance, the Mohegans merged with surviving Pequot peoples, and the Mahicans became known as the Stockbridge Indians after relocating to Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Migration of the Tuscarora

Following their defeat in the Tuscarora War (1711–1713) against Carolina colonists, the Tuscarora migrated northward. By the mid-eighteenth century, they had joined the Iroquois Confederacy, becoming its sixth nation, a significant adaptation reshaping Iroquois political and social structures.

British Colonies: Economic Prosperity and Social Change

South Carolina’s Wealth and Cultural Expansion

South Carolina’s economy thrived due to rice cultivation and maritime trade, significantly dependent on enslaved African labor. By mid-century, Charleston was a leading colonial port, exporting rice, indigo, naval stores, and lumber. Prosperity fueled significant cultural growth, exemplified by institutions like the Charleston Library Society (founded 1748) and by the first theater building in America, erected in Charleston in 1736.

Indigo Cultivation by Eliza Lucas (1747–1750)

In 1747, Eliza Lucas introduced and perfected indigo cultivation in the Lowcountry with critical knowledge from enslaved Africans from the Caribbean. Supported by British subsidies, indigo quickly became a leading export by 1750, greatly enriching South Carolina’s economy.

Colonial Frontier Tensions

Virginia and the Ohio Valley Conflict

Virginia’s expanding colonial claims conflicted directly with French ambitions in the Ohio Valley. Virginia asserted territorial rights based on treaties with the Iroquois Confederacy and royal charters, while France insisted on the region’s inclusion within Louisiana. This dispute heightened frontier tensions, ultimately leading to confrontations that foreshadowed the upcoming French and Indian War.

Frontier Tensions with Spanish Florida

Continued Anglo-Spanish Rivalries

The earlier unsuccessful siege of St. Augustine (1740) by James Oglethorpe left lingering distrust and frequent minor conflicts along the Georgia-Florida border. These continued hostilities underscored broader British-Spanish rivalry in the southeastern colonies.

Environmental Transformations and Agricultural Innovations

African Agricultural Techniques and Landscape Change

Enslaved Africans further refined sophisticated irrigation and water-management techniques central to rice cultivation in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. These innovations significantly reshaped regional landscapes, ensuring increased agricultural productivity, which underpinned the colony’s wealth and prominence.

Legacy of the Era (1744–1755 CE)

The years 1744 to 1755 marked significant geopolitical, cultural, and economic shifts in Northeastern North America. Colonial rivalries escalated with the return of Louisbourg to France, intensifying Anglo-French hostilities. French territorial ambitions, notably in the Ohio Valley, significantly raised tensions with Britain and its colonies, setting the stage for broader future conflicts. The Great Awakening fundamentally reshaped colonial religious, social, and political thought. Indigenous societies rapidly adapted, especially on the Plains, where the widespread adoption of horses transformed economies, societies, and intertribal relations. The severe population decline and tribal consolidations among eastern indigenous groups permanently altered regional demographics. South Carolina’s economic expansion, driven by enslaved labor, indigo cultivation, and maritime trade, solidified economic and social hierarchies, while Virginia’s contested claims in the Ohio Valley intensified colonial rivalries. These intertwined developments established essential conditions for the impending French and Indian War, dramatically reshaping North America’s future.

The Albany Congress is the first time in the eighteenth century that colonial representatives meet to discuss some manner of formal union.

In the seventeenth century, some New England colonies had formed a loose association called the New England Confederation, principally for purposes of defense, as raiding by French and allied native tribes was frequent.

In the 1680s, the British Government created the Dominion of New England as a unifying government on the colonies between the Delaware River and Penobscot Bay; it was dissolved in 1689.

The following year, Jacob Leisler had summoned an intercolonial congress, which met in New York on 1, May 1690, to plan concerted action against the French and the natives.

Because of differences in threat, he had attracted only the colonies as far south as Maryland.

The Albany delegates spend most of their time debating Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan of union to create a unified level of colonial government.

The delegates vote approval of a plan that call for a union of eleven colonies, with a president appointed by the British Crown.

Each colonial assembly is to send two to seven delegates to a "grand council," which is to have legislative powers.

The Union is to have jurisdiction over Native affairs.

The plan is rejected by the colonies' legislatures, which are jealous of their powers, and by the Colonial Office, which wants a military command.

Much of the elements of the plan will later be the basis for the American governments established by the Articles of Confederation of 1777 and the Constitution of 1787.

Benjamin Franklin will later speculate that the colonial separation from England might not have happened so soon had the 1754 plan been adopted.

Washington had returned to Williamsburg and informed Dinwiddie that the French had refused to leave.

Dinwiddie commissions Washington a lieutenant colonel, and orders him to begin raising a militia regiment to hold the Forks of the Ohio, a site Washington had identified as a fine location for a fortress.

Even before learning of the French refusal to decamp, Dinwiddie had issued a captain's commission to Ohio Company employee William Trent, send a small force of Virginia militia in January 1754 to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio River, where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers merge to form the Ohio at present-day Pittsburgh.

Dinwiddie had issued these instructions on his own authority, without even asking for funding from the Virginina House of Burgesses until after the fact.

Trent's company had arrived on site on February 1754, and began construction of a storehouse and stockade with the assistance of Tanacharison and the Mingos.

Work began on the fort on February 17, but by April a much larger French force of eight hundred Canadien militia and French troupes de la marine under the command of Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecœur, who has taken over command from Saint-Pierre.

When Contrecœur learns of Trent's activity, he leads a force of about five hundred men (troupes de la marine, militia, and natives) to drive them off (rumors reaching Trent's men put its size at one thousand).

Contrecœur's force arrives at the forks on April 16; the next day, Trent's force of thirty-six men, led by Ensign Edward Ward in Trent's absence, agree to leave the site.

The French now begin construction of the fort they called Fort Duquesne in honor of the Marquis de Duquesne, the current governor of New France.

The fort is built on the same model as Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario.

Dinwiddie had named Joshua Fry to the position of Commander-in-Chief of colonial forces, and had ordered him to take the French-held Fort Duquesne.

During the advance into the Ohio Country, Fry suddenly falls off his horse and dies from his injuries on May 25, 1754, at Fort Cumberland, upon which the command of the regiment falls to Washington.

Washington, newly promoted to colonel of the newly created Virginia Regiment, had set out on April 2, 1754 with a small force of fewer than one hundred and sixty recruits to build a road to, and then defend, Fort Prince George.

Washington had been at Wills Creek in south central Pennsylvania when he received news of the fort's surrender.

He assumes command of the expedition upon the death of Colonel Fry.

Washington's force, marching through the forests of the frontier, is joined by more men at Winchester.

He learns of the French advance at this point from Captain Trent.

Trent also brings a message from Tanacharison, who promises warriors to assist the British.

Washington, to keep Tanacharison's support, decides not to turn back, choosing instead to advance.

He reaches a place known as the Great Meadows (now in Fayette County, Pennsylvania), about thirty-seven miles (sixty kilometers) south of the forks, began construction of a small fort and awaited further news or instructions.

Contrecœur operates under orders that forbid attacks by his force unless they are provoked.

He sends Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville with thirty-five soldiers on May 23 to see if Washington had entered French territory, and with a summons to order Washington's troops out; this summons is similar in nature to the one Washington had delivered to the French four months earlier.

Washington is informed on May 27 by Christopher Gist that a Canadian party numbering about fifty is in the area.

In response, Washington sends seventy-five men with Gist to find them.

That evening, Washington receives a message from Tanacharison, informing him that he had found the Canadien camp, and that the two of them should meet.

Despite the fact that he had just sent another group in pursuit of the Canadians, Washington goes with a detachment of forty men to meet with Tanacharison.

The Mingo leader has with him twelve warriors, two of whom are boys.

After discussing the matter, the two leaders agree to make an attack on the Canadians.

The attackers take up positions behind rocks around the Canadian camp, counting not more than forty Canadiens.

Exactly what happened next has been a subject of controversy and debate.

Washington ambushed the French, killing ten to twelve, wounding two and capturing twenty-one.

The few primary accounts of the affair agree on a number of facts, and disagree on others.

They agree that the battle lasted about fifteen minutes, that Jumonville was killed, and that most of his party were either killed or taken prisoner.

The exact manner of Jumonville's is death is uncertain, but by several accounts Tanacharison executed Jumonville in cold blood, crushing his head with a tomahawk and washing his hands in Jumonville's brains.

One account, reported by a native to Contrecœur, claims that Jumonville had been killed by Half King while the summons was being read.

The dead are left on the field or buried in shallow graves, where they will later be found by the French.

According to Canadian records, most of the dead were colonials.

The Battle of Jumonville Glen is widely considered the formal start of the French and Indian War and ultimately of the Seven Years' War.

Following the battle, ...

Washington had expected to be attacked after retiring from Jumonville.

Tanacharison attempts to convince the Delaware, Shawnee and the Seneca to join the Virginians at Great Meadows.

With about one hundred and fifty Virginians at Great Meadows, they had begun to construct a fort, which had been completed on June 3.

The fort, which Washington names Fort Necessity, is a circular stockade made of seven-foot-high (two point one meters) upright logs covered with bark and skins built around a little hut that contains ammunition and provisions.

The rest of the Virginia Regiment arrived at Great Meadows on June 9.

One hundred British regulars under the command of James Mackay arrive a few days later, but instead of making camp with the Virginians they camp separately outside the fort.

Washington has heard that there are five hundred poorly-supplied French troops at Fort Duquesne, and thus he had led the three hundred Virginians out of Great Meadows on June 16 to widen the road for those who would follow to an advanced position at Red Stone Creek.

Washington meets on June 18 with Tanacharison, who tells him that he has been unable to convince the other chiefs to assist Washington and says that he will also be unable to help the Virginians.

Although Washington has lost native support, making his troops more vulnerable to attack, he continues to widen the road towards Red Stone Creek.

After a council of war on June 28, Washington orders the withdrawal to Great Meadows.

This same day, six hundred French and one hundred natives leave Fort Duquesne led by Louis Coulon de Villiers, the older brother of the slain Jumonville.

The Virginians have to abandon most of their supplies in order to keep ahead of the French/Canadian force.

The Virginia Regiment reaches Fort Necessity on July 1.

The provision hut is depleted, and there as little shelter from the heavy rain that starts to fall on the second.

With the rain, the trenches that Washington had ordered to be dug have turned into streams.

Washington realizes that he will have to defend against a frontal assault and also realizes that it will be difficult because the woods are less than one hundred yards away, within musket range, making it possible for a besieging attacker to pick off the defenders.

To improve the defense, Washington orders his men to cut trees down and to make them into makeshift breastworks.