New Contacts

Viking sailors reached the New World a thousand years ago, settling for a brief few years in Newfoundland (and probably further elsewhere in North America) and coming into conflict with Indigenous peoples.

Centuries later other Europeans would make their way to the New World. By this time they had firearms- which changed the way First Nations peoples conducted themselves in war entirely.

The French made alliances with some of the tribes in what would eventually be called New France. This led to the Post Contact Wars.

The musket is reflective of that time. So too is the tomahawk- a new take on an old Indigenous weapon. French metal work replaced the old stone blade with a metal one, making what was already a deadly weapon that much more formidable.

Illustrations and a medal are displayed here dating back to the Post Contact Wars of French soldiers sent to the New World to assist, 

The French had been at odds with the British for centuries in Europe. They brought their old rivalry to the New World.

This exploded into war in what is called the French and Indian War in North America, and the Seven Years War elsewhere in the world. Churchill would describe it as the first truly global war.

The expulsion of the Acadians was part of this period.

This mortar was used in the defenses of Louisbourg, which fell to the British.

The path leads between two projected screens, where re-enactors are seen, both from the French and British sides at the pivotal Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City.

A topographic model of that place, outside the walls of the old city, is here, with lines designating  military formations. Soldiers and militia under British general James Wolfe would meet their French counterparts under General Montcalm in battle. Both generals would die, and the British would prevail. It would be the end of New France.