The Earliest Conflicts

The permanent galleries inside the War Museum are organized chronologically. The first one looks at early conflicts into the late 19th century. Conflict has been part of Canada for thousands of years, with inter-tribal hostilities.

Weapons of pre-contact peoples can be seen in reproduced versions below at left.

A model of an Iroquois village, with fortifications, is found here.

The Vikings were the first outsiders to make contact in North America, and for a number of years, there was conflict to be found between these travelers and First Nations peoples of the East Coast.

Hundreds of years later, Europeans would return to stay and establish settlements.

Firearms had become part of their arsenal. Conflict in the new world would take on a different form.

The French made alliances with tribes in eastern Canada. This would draw the French into conflict with the enemies of their new allies- the Post-Contact Wars.

 

This pair of life sized mannequins shows the bond of allies- the French militiaman and the Ojibwa warrior, learning from each other and sharing technology. 

The old rival of the French had established themselves in the New World, where the British jockeyed for position as well. This would ultimately lead to the French and Indian War.

Called the Seven Years War elsewhere, it raged across the world. Churchill described it as the first global war.

This mortar was used during the siege of Louisbourg.