The Fur Trade Flashcards
How did it develop?
started because of the cod fishery NFLD
Indigienou people started trading meat and furs for pots and pans and tools - didn’t have blacksmith skills
lasted 250 years
The Beaver
the further north beavers were, the thicker fur = better quality for trading = harder to hunt
2 layers of fur: fur-guard and under hair, fur guard was removed and the under hair was felted
trade was demanded by Europeans - fashion item for high status people
Samuel de Champlain
selected by king Henri IV of France to set colonies in Nova Scotia
established fort Quebec
Haudenosaunee VS Wendat people conflict
trade happened around the st. lawrence river
the south Haudenosaunee people alied/traded with the dutch and raided the Wendat people because they had better furs, Wendat allied with the french, fought back
Wendat people got smallpox, lost the fight and were assimilated and wiped out
Consequences of the fur trade
Decline of beaver populations - searching for more furs, trade expansion
Indigenous people became reliant on European goods
Migration of Wendat people caused conflict among people groups, they were seen as intruders
control over the fur trade
English controlled the 13 colonies and Hudson’s bay The french controled Mississippi river and St. Lawrence river
trade Expansion
Trade spread by waterways, canoes were used, and the French sent big fleets over the great lakes.
Indigenous people acted as the middle man, gaining great power when trading
Decline of the fur trade
Hat makers stoped using fur and used silk instead.
Fur started to loose it’s fashion, less demand from Europe
What was the Environmental impact of the Fur trade?
Depletion of beaver population - longest hunt for an animal in history
Altered ecosystems, beavers controlled and damed up streams
indigenous’s people food sourse was taken away, needed help from the missionaries and trading posts
Impact on Indigenous people
they became reliant on trade, so when trading stoped, they had no economic purose. lead to famine
New technologies interupted cultural values
Many people immigrated and mixed: Metis people: Indigenous women + Fur traders
Bison
Main food sourse while trade occured.
pre contact population: 600 mill. After fur trade: 100 bison
US purposely killed off all the bison to starve out the Indigenous people
What is Exterpation?
Near extinction of a species
Conservation of Bison
NWT council of ordinance - put down rules - it was unlawful to hunt bison off cliffs, for sport, for pelts, and made closed season for females
What was the Laurentian thesis?
It was how our country was developed through the exploitation of the key staple product, beaver fur
Central trading centres
Quebec city, Montreal
this is where political power centralized, divided up the north and south of the st. lawrence river
What is a Buffalo Jump?
a hunting technique that Indigenous people used, slowly traping bison against a cliff’s edge, then spooking them off the cliff, falling to their death.
