The Fractured Alliance : an Account of the Unsuccessful Alliance between the French and Algonquians in the Great Lakes Region, 1650- 1750

Abstract

French traders, missionaries, and administrators arrived in the Great Lakes region in the middle of the 17th century. Upon their arrival they found villages of Algonquian speakers who they attempted to force into a coercive alliance. Unfortunately, for the French they would not have the ability to establish a coercive alliance. Their low population would limit the ability of the French to create a stable economy to trade with the Algonquians. Also, the population was made up of different constituencies that often opposed one another. They also would not understand the cultural elements of Algonquian life. The French could not provide the type of alliance that the Algonquians had set out to create with them. Finally, the encroachment of the British into the Ohio River Valley during the Seven Year's War would dismantle the French alliance and oust them from the continent.