Tarrantine War
The Tarrantiner War (1607-1615) was a military competition in the fur trade of North America between the Mi'kmaq (Lnu'k) Confederation (then usually called Tarrantiner ) and the allies Maliseet (Wolastoqiyik) and Passamaquoddy (Peskotomuhkatiyik) on the one hand as well as an alliance of the Penobscot (Panawahpskek) , the Penacook (Pawtucket) confederation and the dominant Kennebec (Kinipekw / Norridgewock) confederation under their Upper Sagamore Bashabes on the other hand. Rivalry between the tribes that lived in what is now Maine ( USA ) and the neighboring Canadian provinces , regarding predominance in the fur trade with the French in Port Royal , had existed for a long time.
In 1604, Pierre Dugua de Mons and Samuel de Champlain built Fort St. John at the mouth of the St. Croix River , thus establishing the constant fur trade with the Penobscot and the Maliseet. The French had chosen a poor location for their first trading post and after a year of flooding, cold and starvation, they moved the post to Port Royal across Fundy Bay in Nova Scotia . Although this land was owned by the Mi'kmaq, the French were able to continue the fur trade with the Eastern Abenaki . The Penobscot came to a supremacy over the other Abenaki tribes in the south and west through the European goods and especially weapons that they received in exchange for furs . Under the leadership of their Sagamores bashabe, the Penobscot formed a powerful coalition with neighboring confederations and threatened their traditional enemies, the Mi'kmaq, on the other side of the bay. The enmity had existed for a long time, but was exacerbated by the fur trade with the French.
Around 1607 this hostility escalated to the Tarrantiner War, which lasted eight years with interruptions. Meanwhile, the French, unhappy with their trading partners' conflict, continued the lucrative fur trade with both sides. Missionaries Jesuits arrived in 1610 to Port Royal and immediately began their missionary work in the neighboring Mi'kmaq. Regardless of the war, the French priests built a missionary and trading post for the Penobscot in 1613 near what is now Bar Harbor in Maine. This only existed for a short time, because it was destroyed in the same year by the English from Jamestown in Virginia . In 1615 the Mi'kmaq won the war after killing Bashabes in a raid on Mawooshen . For the next two years, the victorious Mi'kmaq descended the coast into Massachusetts , leaving death and destruction in their wake. However, here they met a more dangerous opponent - European diseases that followed them all the way home. Between 1616 and 1619 they were struck by three dire epidemics that spread across New England and Canada's maritime provinces, killing 75 percent of the entire Native American population.
consequences of war
The victory of the Mi'kmaq and the strengthening of the Iroquois League (Haudenosaunee) ultimately led to the organization of the later Wabanaki Confederation by the inferior tribes (Penobscot, Kennebec, Penacook); later the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy also joined this confederation to their former enemies.
The maps show the approximate location of the members of the Wabanaki Confederation (from north to south):
Eastern Abenaki (most important tribes: Penobscot , Kennebec , Arosaguntacook , Pigwacket )
Western Abenaki (most important tribes: Arsigantegok , Missisquoi , Cowasuck , Sokoki , Pennacook )
literature
- Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978, ISBN 0-16004-575-4