The French And Indian War

 Starting where I left off yesterday. Indigenous peoples had a long tradition of trade among the many tribes of North America. They put that knowledge to good use in doing business with the British and the French.

The British established the Hudson's Bay Company, which still exists today, a network of trading forts around that bay, where First Nations traders would come to sell their goods.

Some of the relics of those forts can be found here.

The Bay still exists today as retail stores. Its signature striped pattern is found in multiple products, especially the blanket.

As time when on and both sides jockeyed for greater influence and position, tensions rose. In the Atlantic, the British governor paid for Mi'kmaw scalps, and the Acadians would be expelled from the area.

Over the course of 150 years in the new world, the British and French would continue to work against each other, caught up in smaller skirmishes and fights, a perpetual state of hostility mirroring their long vendetta in Europe.

This large painting is Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, dating around 1751, from the circle of Samuel Scott.

Four indigenous chiefs made a visit to London to meet Queen Anne in 1710 to ensure British support against the French in North America. Queen Anne commissioned paintings of them.

It was called the Seven Years War in the rest of the world, and the French and Indian War here in North America. It would decide the fate of the continent, and lead to further developments down the line. Indigenous peoples would be on both sides of the war.

At the climactic Battle of the Plains of Abraham just outside Quebec City, the British would win the day, a battle that decided much of the fate of the war. Both commanding generals for the British and French, Wolfe and Montcalm, would die. They are seen here in portraits.