Great Peace of Montreal

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Copy of the original contract, with pictograms of the signed peoples

The Great Peace of Montreal is a peace treaty signed in 1701 between the government of the French colonies of North America ( New France ) and the 40 Indian peoples ( First Nations ) who settled there . It was signed on August 4, 1701 by the governor of the provinces Louis-Hector de Callière and 1,300 members of the 40 indigenous peoples.

prehistory

After the founding of Québec by Samuel de Champlain (1608) and the rest of the fighting subsided, today's border area in eastern Canada and the USA was at peace for several decades. After initial struggles, the French had managed to come to peaceful agreements with some indigenous peoples in the interests of the fur trade . Thanks to the clever diplomacy and language skills of the fur trader Nicolas Perrot , the French colonists were able to ally themselves with the Hurons and Algonquin in 1684 against the expansionist tendencies of the Iroquois .

Iroquois Wars and War of Succession in Europe

But around 1680 there were again long battles (see Beaver Wars ) when the Iroquois were supported by the Netherlands . After the intervention of French associations, the Iroquois were pushed back, but in 1689 they caused a slaughter among their opponents near Lachine . In the same year, the nine-year war of the Palatinate Succession broke out in Europe , in which France faced the Vienna Great Alliance of the Empire with England, Holland, Spain and Savoy. This war soon spread to North America, where English and French colonists fought frontier battles in a sideshow of King William's War .

The French plan to conquer Nieuw Amsterdam (now New York ) was soon abandoned and some settlements in New England were raided instead . On the other hand, the English attempts to conquer Québec failed in 1690 . In India, the Dutch took Pondicherry from the French in 1693 , while the latter attacked Cartagena in Colombia in 1696/97 and in Europe in 1697 took the Catalan capital of Barcelona . These successes contributed to the fact that at least Spain was ready for peace. In autumn 1697 the European war ended with the Peace of Ryswick , as a result of which Louis XIV. Wilhelm III. recognized as King of England.

Difficult peace efforts

In North America, however, the conflict between the two powers remained open, among other things because the settlement area of ​​the Iroquois was claimed by both England and France. The latter fought with its allies mainly in the area of ​​the Great Lakes .

England could not support the Iroquois sufficiently because of the simultaneous naval warfare , and they also suffered from diseases brought in by Europe. From 1698 onwards, the decline of the fur trade also prompted regional peace efforts, which were prevented by England. Only after a successful campaign in their heartland did real negotiations take place in the tribal area of ​​the Onondaga in March 1700 . In September, a preliminary peace treaty was signed in Montreal with the Iroquois Five Nations and their 13 emissaries.

A larger conference was arranged for the summer of 1701 , to which representatives of all peoples in the Great Lakes area were invited. On the French side, in addition to diplomats and the military, there were also missionaries who were highly regarded by the Indians and who had contributed a lot to peace efforts since Nicolas Perrot .

The first delegations of the tribes arrived in Montreal at the beginning of July 1701 - after a long journey in some cases. But the negotiations dragged on for a month because each side wanted to get the most out of it.

The signing of the peace treaty took place in a wide, festively decorated field outside the city. The tribal symbols of each delegation, most of which represented animals, were placed under the contract document (see picture above). The chiefs then praised the agreement and took turns to let the pipes of peace go. A big banquet concluded the ceremony.

In the English-speaking world, the Peace of Montreal is also known as the Grand Settlement of 1701 , which can, however, be confused with the Act of Settlement 1701 .

The affected Indian peoples in the Great Lakes area (settlement areas around 1600, supplemented by Huron migrations up to 1700). The tribes with Iroquois languages are colored purple.

Effects of the Montreal Peace

The peace treaty was characterized by three peculiarities: the large number of contracting parties, the traditional Indian method of negotiation and the role of arbitrator of the French in any disputes between individual tribes. In addition, the Iroquois guaranteed their neutrality in the event of conflicts between the English and French colonies.

After the peace agreement, trade and geographic expeditions could be resumed. The Jesuit priests and missionaries continued their interrupted work in the north. Antoine Laumet, Sieur de Cadillac began his journey of discovery around the Great Lakes and founded the city of Detroit .

The Great Peace proved to be essentially tenable and the treaty is recognized by the Indians to this day, because it was created in patient negotiations with mutual respect. The US historian Francis Parkman (1823-1893) said:
“Spanish civilization crushed the Indian; English civilization scorned and neglected him; French civilization embraced and cherished him. "

Memorial sites, archives

On the 300th anniversary of the peace treaty, a large square in Old Montreal was renamed Place de la Grande-Paix-de-Montréal . In Québec , some locations bear the names of Kondiaronk , chief of the Hurons, and Petun , one of the architects of the treaty. The Kondiaronk-Belvedere was built in the Mont Royal Park and offers a beautiful view of Montreal.

The Archives nationales d'outre-mer , an authority of the Republic of France in Aix-en-Provence , make a dossier La grande paix de 1701 available online , which is based on their extensive archive material on the subject, including: a copy of the original documents shown above, made a few days after the conclusion of the contract.

See also

literature

(from : Great Peace of Montreal )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charlotte Gray “'The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder” Random House, 2004
  2. ^ Karl W. Schweitzer: Ryswick (Rijswijk), Treaty of , in “The Treaties of the War of the Spanish Succession: An Historical and Critical Dictionary”, Westport 1995, p.389 ff
  3. ^ Francis Parkman, quoted in Alfred A. Cave, pp. 42, p. 42
  4. ↑ Online