A European Tug Of War

Long before a single settler felled a tree in Western New York, kings in Europe were dividing it with ink. There were claims or assertions. They could be real or imagined. They were put on parchment, whether it be maps, treaties, or edicts. Rarely, however, were they enforced. After all, you can’t police a territory where you have no police.

Why, then, would the powers of the day go through all the trouble of pretense?

Well, first, it was all pretend. Europeans did come to this New World. Some explored. Some conquered. Many settled. Still, their activities covered only a small fraction of their claims.

But it was the claim itself that rendered prestige. It was a symbol of potency, a symbol of growth, a symbol of worldwide acclaim. In other words, it spoke power to the competition.

And with these paper rights came the beginning of the documented history of the Greater Western New York Region. It’s not that there was no history during the pre-Columbian Era. It’s just that it was not documented in writing by contemporary chroniclers. But, as anyone who has ever played the telephone game remembers, what starts at the beginning isn’t necessarily reflected at the end of the line.* So, it’s not surprising that historians naturally treat oral history with some skepticism.

Relying on a paper trail provides insight into what people felt at the time. This documentation can include charts, illustrations, and formal announcements. During the Age of Exploration, these artifacts were often honored more in the breach than in actual enforcement.

As with so many things in the New World, it all began with Christopher Columbus. Whether they all laughed at him when he said the world was round is a question only Frank Sinatra could answer. The bigger question at the time was this: Spain or Portugal?

The Age of Exploration (a.k.a. “The Age of Discovery”) began several generations before Columbus set sail on the ocean blue in 1492. His discovery of the American continent, however, established the conflicting boundary assertions that first touched Western New York (by association, if not by actual intention).

Portugal kicked things off in 1418 by exploring the coast of Africa. This set the stage for territorial conflict with Spain well before 1492. Although it appeared that land claims took center stage, it was, in fact, access to the land and the resources it provided. They each sought exclusive rights to the maritime routes that provided access to those lands. What did those lands offer? Gold and slaves.

The Treaty of Alcáçovas of 1479 settled things (mostly in favor of Portugal). But remember, neither party was aware of the vast continent that lay on the other side of the Atlantic. As such, the dividing line was north/south, not east/west. Essentially, Portugal received all lands south of the Canary Islands, a couple of island chains north of that line, and all trade and navigation routes along the African coast. Spain just got the Canary Islands.

More importantly, this treaty set the tone for future dealings. For the first time, two European kingdoms agreed that undiscovered land (and the trade and resources that implies) could be divided by treaty, even if no one had actually been there yet.

Once Columbus set foot on the sands of San Salvador, he threw a monkey wrench into the Treaty of Alcáçovas. Portugal argued that Columbus’s discoveries fell within Portugal’s sphere under earlier agreements. In an attempt to mitigate the ensuing diplomatic rift, Pope Alexander VI issued three papal bulls in 1493. These bulls established a line west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands to update and amend the Treaty of Alcáçovas. They recognized Spain’s right to the new lands.

Ultimately, the pope facilitated a new treaty between the competing kingdoms. The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed by Spain and Portugal in 1494, redrew the dividing line. The boundary now ran north/south, dividing the Atlantic world into eastern and western spheres. Specifically, the treaty stated:

…agreed that a boundary or straight line be determined and drawn north and south, from pole to pole, on the said ocean sea, from the Arctic to the Antarctic pole. This boundary or line shall be drawn straight, as aforesaid, at a distance of three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands… And all lands, both islands and mainlands, found and discovered already, or to be found and discovered hereafter, by the said King of Portugal and by his vessels on this side of the said line and bound determined as above, toward the east… shall belong to… the said King of Portugal… And all other lands… found or to be found hereafter… by the said King and Queen of Castile, Aragon, etc., and by their vessels, on the western side of the said bound… shall belong to… the said King and Queen of Castile, Leon, etc., and to their successors.”¹

Although it may have intended to cede both continents to Spain, the line was drawn too far west, and Portugal gained rights to what is now Brazil.

Still, it meant Spain had rights to all other lands, including those that would become Western New York. It turned out that this claim was irrelevant. It was never enforced. Spain appeared to prefer hotter climes to the south.

The French, by contrast, perceived the void and made several attempts to fill it. In 1523, King Francis I of France commissioned Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the northeastern seaboard (roughly from modern-day Cape Fear, North Carolina, to Newfoundland). He “took possession of these countries in the name of France, beginning at the 33^rd degree of north latitude up to the 47^th.”²

By the late 1520s, maps referred to this portion of North America as “Nova Gallia” or “New France.”³

Claims began in earnest when explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula, declaring it “New France.” The French had no problem dealing with colder weather. Especially when beaver pelts could be had in abundance to make warm winter coats. If the Spanish colonized under the mantra of “God, Glory, and Gold,” the French marched under the banner of “Faith, Forts, and Furs.”

In 1604, France established its first colony in Acadia (modern Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and northern Maine).⁴ By 1607, the combination of harsh winters and high mortality rates led the French to deem this effort a failure. The colony was abandoned and relocated.⁵

The real beginning of New France was in 1608 when Samuel de Champlain established the first sustainable colony in Quebec. In the words of Reuben Gold Thwaites, in his 19^th century introduction to The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. I Acadia: 1610-1613, “New France was at last, after a century of experiments, fairly underway.”⁶ This allowed France to expand its North American fur trade. In addition, with an anchor now firmly in place in the St. Lawrence corridor, Champlain’s settlement proved to be a launching point for further expansion. From here, the first missionaries arrived and departed inland.⁷ As the missionaries established their presence within the interior of North America, the French military soon followed and built forts.

Why forts? It seems as though Champlain had stumbled upon a bitter war between two indigenous cultures. Given where they arrived, Champlain met the Algonquin and the Huron first.⁸ He naturally sided with them in their constant battles with the Iroquois (most famously on the lake along the New York-Vermont border that bears his name).

But that was just the first of many battles. Throughout the Great Lakes, the French built many forts. These acted as fortified trading posts, river chokepoints, and a visual (albeit thin) military projection. They supported France’s alliance diplomacy. Among the most famous of these forts were Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), Fort Detroit (Detroit), Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh), and Greater Western New York’s own Fort Niagara.

Together, this string of forts along with their territorial claims stretched from the St. Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi River. It is often referred to as the “French Line.” Described in 1741 as “a line of forts tho at considerable distances, between that [Mississippi] river and Quebeck,”⁹ its strategic purpose was to connect New France to Louisiana.

The French weren’t the only European power to build forts during the early 17^th century. On August 3, 1610, the Dutch (in a boat hired by the Dutch East India Company and captained by Englishman Henry Hudson) arrived at the bay that bears his name and promptly sailed up the river.¹⁰ By 1614, they had erected Fort Nassau on Castle Island (present-day Albany). Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long, so they built Fort Orange in 1623 slightly north of that location.¹¹

Unlike the French and later the English, the Dutch sought to establish a foothold for trade, not settlement. They were not anti-settlement — just commercially driven.¹² Through their actions on (primarily) trade and (to a lesser extent) colonization, the Dutch established the precedent for competing European powers. Their rigorous free trade policy often put them at a competitive advantage.¹³ For the Dutch, it wasn’t “God, Glory, and Gold,” it was “Commerce, Collaboration, and Capital.”

The British, on the other hand, preferred “Sovereignty, Settlers, and Soil.”

Great Britain emphasized colonization primarily along the Atlantic seaboard “from Canceau to New England.”¹⁴ In addition, while the various royal houses sponsored national interests in the New World, the British crown granted private-interest charters to establish colonies.¹⁵ That didn’t stop the English from making broad assertions. These charters, including those of Virginia (1609)¹⁶, Massachusetts (1629)¹⁷, and Connecticut (1662)¹⁸, extended from “sea-to-sea.” In other words, once a colony established a foothold on the Atlantic coast, it could lay claim to all land immediately west (between specified lines of latitude), all the way to the Pacific Ocean. These paper boundaries would prove to be problematic.

While the private companies’ interests were initially financial, not all efforts emphasized the economy. Some, most notably the Pilgrims, had a more notable priority: freedom.

But it’s the financial objective that would lead to trouble. As the coastal settlements grew, British traders moved inland, finding New York particularly attractive.¹⁹ There, they confronted the direct competition of Dutch interests,²⁰ and, at first, the indirect competition of French interests.²¹

In both cases, these other nations had already established vast and profitable trading networks. By 1640, the Dutch had “at least 15 years in succession yearly 5,000 or 6,000 skins.”²² For the French, fur trading was as much a social event as an economic one.²³

As a late entrant, Britain had to rely on its diplomatic wits to win the day in what would ultimately become a three-way contest. With the French fur network expanding, the Dutch with firm commercial leverage in the Hudson corridor, the English had to determine the best way to satisfy the appetite of their growing colonies.

All three empires sought the same opportunity. They realized none could seize that prize without the people who already controlled the door.

The trouble was, who really controlled the door? That pre-Columbian feud would need to be resolved first in what would become a proxy war for the Europeans.

* In the Telephone game, players form a circle. The starter whispers a story to the person on his right. That person repeats the story – to the best of his ability – to the person on his right. And so on until the story returns to the original starter. By that time, the original story has been dramatically changed.

Interested? Have you joined the 1786 Project yet? Go to http://1786project.com/ to access cool stuff about the history of the Greater Western New York Region! (And find out how to participate in the hidden treasure hunt!)

¹ Treaty between Spain and Portugal concluded at Tordesillas; June 7, 1494.
² The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. IV Acadia and Quebec: 1616-1629, Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, 1897, p. 105.
³ Girolamo de Verrazzano, 16^th century cartographer, brother of Giovanni d Verrazzano, c. 1529., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
⁴ The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America, Allan Greer, ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston, 2000, p. 9.
⁵ Voyages of Samuel De Champlain 1604-1618, W.L. Grant, ed., Charles Scribners’ Sons, New York, 1907, p. 78.
⁶ The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. I Acadia: 1610-1613, Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, 1897, p. 4.
⁷ Voyages of Samuel De Champlain 1604-1618, p. 7.
⁸ Ibid., p. 239.
⁹ Broadhead, John Romeyn, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York V 6, E.B. O’Callaghan, ed, Weed, Parsons & Co, 1855, p. 182.
¹⁰ The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. XLV: Lower Canada, Acadia, Iroquois, Ottawas, 1659-1660, Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, 1899, p. 272.
¹¹ Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, NYS Library, p. 210.
¹² Ibid., p. 80.
¹³ The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. XXVIII Hurons, Iroquois, Lower Canada: 1645-1646, Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, 1898, p. 113.
¹⁴ The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. XLV Lower Canada, Acadia, Iroquois, Ottawas, p. 59.
¹⁵ The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. IV Acadia and Quebec: 1616-1629, p.253.
¹⁶ The Second Charter of Virginia: May 23, 1609, The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/va02.asp, retrieved 3/2/26.
¹⁷ The Charter of Massachusetts Bay: 1629, The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mass03.asp, retrieved 3/2/26.
¹⁸ Charter of Connecticut: 1662, The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ct03.asp, retrieved 3/2/26.
¹⁹ Broadhead, John Romeyn, p. 122.
²⁰ Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, p. 527.
²¹ Broadhead, John Romeyn, p. 565.
²² Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, p. 483.
²³ The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. XLIX Lower Canada, Iroquois: 1663-1665, Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, 1899, p. 49.