The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701

by Havard, Gilles; Aronoff, Phyllis; Scott, Howard; Aronoff, Phyllis; Scott, Howard

• ISBN13: 9780773522190
• ISBN10: 0773522190
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-07-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ Pr

Summary

The last decades of the seventeenth century were marked by persistent, bloody conflicts between the French and their Native allies on the one side and the Iroquois confederacy on the other. In the summer of 1701, 1,300 representatives of forty First Nations from the Maritimes to the Great Lakes and from James Bay to southern Illinois met with the French at Montreal. Elaborate, month-long ceremonies culminated in the signing of The Great Peace of Montreal, which effectively put an end to the Iroquois wars. In The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701 Gilles Havard brings to life the European and Native players who brought about this major feat of international diplomacy. He highlights the differing interests and strategies of the numerous First Nations involved while giving a dramatic account of the colourful conference. The treaty, Havard argues, was the culmination of the French colonial strategy of Native alliances and adaptation to Native political customs. It illustrates the extent of cultural interchange between the French and their Native allies and the crucial role the latter played in French conflicts with the Iroquois and the British. As we approach the 300th anniversary of the treaty's signing in August 1701, Gilles Havard emphasizes its contemporary significance: in signing a treaty with forty separate parties the French recognized the independent sovereignty of every First Nation. This translation is significantly revised and updated from the original French publication of 1992.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Chronology	viii
Maps	xii
Introduction	3	(10)
PART ONE THE POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC ARENA	13	(46)
Key Elements of Amerindian Diplomacy	15	(12)
Alliances and Strategies in the Late Seventeenth Century	27	(19)
Wars and Peace in the Seventeenth Century	46	(13)
PART TWO NEGOTIATIONS ON ALL FRONTS, 1697-1701	59	(50)
Iroquois Delegations and Colonial Rivalries	61	(18)
Accommodation and Confrontation in the West	79	(12)
On the Path to Montreal, 1700-1701	91	(18)
PART THREE THE MONTREAL CONFERENCE, SUMMER 1701	109	(76)
Montreal, Capital of Peace: 21 July to 7 August 1701	111	(31)
The Tree of Peace	142	(18)
1701: A New Situation	160	(19)
Conclusion	179	(6)
Appendix 1 The Nature of the Treaty and the Amerindian Pictographs	185	(5)
Appendix 2 The Cast of Characters in the Great Peace of Montreal	190	(20)
Appendix 3 English Translation of the Montreal Treaty of 1701	210	(6)
Abbreviations	216	(1)
Notes	217	(60)
Glossary of the Names of Native Peoples	277	(4)
Bibliography	281	(18)
Index	299