Phases of the Fur Trade Notes

Phases of the Fur Trade Notes

1. Phase 1

   • Early Fur Trade
     • Competition Affected:
       • Environment
         • More trapping of beavers and other animals
           • First Nations relied on beavers and other animals for food
           • Near extinction of beavers
           • Balance of food chain affected
         • New Settlements formed
           • European settlement caused extinction of Beothuk
       • New Technology
         • guns
         • new types of traps
           • Instead of wood traps, they got metal traps
         • traded beaver pelts for new useful tools (pots pans, knives etc.)
           • Replaced wood, rock, bones for making tools
       • Way FN used land
         • new focus on trapping for trade
         • No longer just using land to support needs for food, clothing etc.
         • Reduction in available land for First Nations
       • Family Life
         • New way for First Nations to support family - due to competition for fur trade
         • disease could affect families - death
         • Dying from guns
         • Metis babies- from French marrying First Nations - change family dynamic
     • Started with cod fishing
     • Came a shore to trade with First Nations
       • Traded furs for iron goods, knives etc.
   • 1500-1603

2. Phase 2

   • Expansion Inland
     • Coureurs de Bois took over middlemen for French after Ouendat defeat
   • 1603-1670
   • Interactions between groups
     • French
       • Needed First Nations as trade partners
         • Better access to furs
     • British
       • Fighting French, Kichespirini, Ouendat, Mi'Kmaq
         • Defeated Ounedat - no longer middlemen for French
     • Metis
       • Born from French and First Nations
       • French wanted a strategic partnership with First Nations, so married them
     • First Nations
       • Kichespirini, Ouendat, Mi'Kmaq allied with French
       • Haudenosaunee and Anishnabe allied with British and Dutch
       • Ouendat out as middlemen opened door for new middlemen
       • Pressured to convert to Christianity
       • Made First Nations reliant/dependable on Fur Trade and Europeans
   • France dominated
     • Quebec and Montreal main shipping centres
       • Unloaded trade goods in Quebec and loaded furs to head back to France
       • along St. Lawrence
   • French-Haudenosaunee War
     • Started because of fur trade
     • Haudenosaunee allied with British and Dutch
     • French allied with Ouendat, Mi'kmaq, Innu, Kichespirini.
       • Ouendat were "middlemen" between French and First Nations
       • Kichespirini allied with French for guns and protection
     • British needed to challenge French domination in fur trade
     • Ouendat defeated
     • Truce agreed upon in 1701

3. Phase 3

   • Rival Networks
     • HBC vs. NWC
   • 1670-1760
   • Britain established HBC in 1670
     • to compete directly with French in fur trade
     • Britain gave merchants monopoly
       • Gave HBC land called Rupert's Land
         • Land surrounded Hudson's Bay
           • Easy access to furs - without transporting too far- easy access back to Britain
     • Needed Cree and Nakoda as middlemen
       • between Hudson's Bay forts and First Nations to West
   • French began creating fur trade forts
     • in Great Lakes region
     • Hired Voyageurs to transport furs - essential link in French fur trade routes
     • Metis emerge
       • French strategy to develop partnerships with FN groups
       • Scottish Metis working for HBC also emerged
   • Economic competition
     • HBC now competing with French
       • Driving fur traders and companies/merchants to expand to new territories and include more groups of people (FN)
       • More people involved in fur trade - making money
         • more people from Europe immigrating to North America for job and business opportunities in Fur Trade
           • Not just businesses in fur trade, but ones that support fur trade (shops, builders, clothe makers, etc.)
           • Just like people from all over Canada moving to Alberta to make money from oil industry
             • Creates business and job opportunities that support oil industry - engineers, construction workers, airline industry, Tim Hortons, etc.

4. Phase 4

   • The Drive West
   • 1760-1821
   • New France becomes British Colony
   • North West Company (NWC) takes over French trade routes
     • throughout St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes region
     • Owned by British merchants
       • depended on Canadian and Metis workers
   • Economic Competition between HBC and NWC
     • Competition between HBC and NWC led companies to move west to find new supplies of fur and FN partners
   • Pemmican trade started
     • made of dried beef, animal fat and berries
     • fur network gets larger - Voyageurs, traders and shippers were traveling further - needed food that travelled well
       • Pemmican could last up to 30 years!
   • Territorial Expansion
     • Fur trade moved west - so did people working in fur trade
       • Cree, Nakoda, Anishnabe moved with European companies west
     • forts created out West
       • Forts created are now Canadian towns and cities - some major cities
         • Fort Garry = Winnipeg, Fort Edmonton = Edmonton, Fort William = Thunder Bay, Fort Calgary = Calgary
         • Because people came for business/job opportunities, and settled there for good

5. Phase 5

   • Monopoly in West
   • 1821-1870
   • HBC and NWC merged into HBC
     • competition led to fighting, shootings, hostage taking
     • Britain stepped in to end conflict
   • Fur Trade declines - end of fur trade
     • Buffalo began to disappear
     • Beaver disappearing
     • **European demand for furs falls
   • Britain sells Rupert's Land to Canada
     • Sold in 1869 - two years after Canada formed