Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay

Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay

Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay: When the English built trading posts on Hudson Bay the French tried to drive them out. This lasted from 1672 until 1713 when British sovereignty over the Bay was recognized by the Treaty of Utrecht. In 1782 Fort Churchill was captured by the French.

Since the posts were held by at most a few dozen traders and laborers they could easily be captured by a small group of soldiers, but it was difficult to send soldiers to the Bay and impractical to keep them there over winter. The short ice-free season made it difficult to take all the posts in one year. Thus the posts changed hands more or less at random whenever one side or the other sent a force into the Bay. Only in 1697 did significant British and French forces meet on the bay. Before 1689 the two kingdoms were at peace and the use of force was questionable.

References

• Arthur S. Morton, 'A History of the Canadian West to 1870-71', no date, but circa 1940
• Peter C. Newman, 'Empire of the Bay', 1998

Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-French_conflicts_on_Hudson_Bay