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The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701: French-Native Diplomacy in the Seventeenth Century. By Gilles Havard. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-7735-2219-0. Maps. Illustrations. Glossary. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xi, 308. SCAN 24.95.
This is an expanded version of a Master's thesis first published as La Grande Paige de Montral (1992). This translation adds considerably to our understanding of the intricate French relationship with the numerous Amerindian groups in northeastern North America in the late seventeenth century. There are three useful appendixes: one dealing with the concept of a treaty and the role of Native pictographs; another featuring biographical sketches of the chief participants; and a third offering an English translation of the text of the Great Peace of 1701. A major contribution, apart from making the earlier French monograph accessible to unilingual anglophones, is an engagement in some historiographical debate. The author's own personal presentation is limited somewhat perhaps by too great reliance on Denys DelAge, Fritz Jennings, and Bruce Trigger.
This study traces the changing pattern and fortunes of alliances and diplomatic strategies without at the same time engaging in any evaluation...