King William's War

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(1689-97) the first in what can be thought of as the French and Indian Wars (1754-63). Remotely tied to the War of the Grand Alliance (1689-97), it pitted French Canadians and their Indian allies against New England colonists and their Indian allies in long-term warfare throughout lower Canada and New England. The British took Port Royal in Nova Scotia and the French carried out successful attacks in New York, New Hampshire, and Maine. The Peace of Ryswick ended the war, although hostilities broke out soon after. See also King George's War.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

King William'S War (1689–1697). This first of the French and Indian wars was already smoldering on the New England frontier when England declared war on France in May 1689. English traders had recently established the Hudson's Bay Trading Company, which competed with French traders in Canada. Angry at British interference in the fur trade, the French incited the Abenaki tribes of Maine to destroy the rival English post of Pemaquid and attack frontier settlements. By this time, political divisions had fragmented the northern British colonies, each jealous of its own frontiers. These divisions interfered with relations between white settlers and American Indians and rendered British colonists susceptible to military assault. When the European conflict known as the War of the League of Augsburg erupted on the North American frontier, it became a struggle for colonial supremacy.

Conditions were unstable in Canada, as well. When Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, arrived in 1689 to begin his second term as governor, he found the colony plagued by Iroquoian raids. To calm the French settlers and regain the allegiance of his Indian allies, he sent out three war parties in 1690: the first destroyed Schenectady, the second attacked and burned the little settlement of Salmon Falls on the New Hampshire border, and the third forced the surrender of Fort Loyal, an outpost at the site of the present city of Portland, Maine.

Terror spread throughout the English colonies, and Massachusetts raised a fleet of seven ships, one of which captured and plundered Port Royal, Nova Scotia. In May 1690, representatives of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New York met in New York City. They planned a united attack by land on Montreal with the promised cooperation of the Iroquois. At the same time, Massachusetts and the other New England colonies undertook to attack Quebec by sea. Both expeditions were failures. New York and Connecticut troops, traveling from Albany, could not advance farther than the foot of Lake Champlain. The New England fleet fared no better.

Realizing that they lacked sufficient financial resources and military organization, the leaders of the northern English colonies appealed repeatedly to the English government for help. Britain sent a fleet to North America, but it arrived with a fever-stricken crew, so the contribution amounted to little. Frontenac made similar appeals to France for help, with no better luck. The French squadron sent to capture Boston was delayed by head winds, ran short of provisions, and could do nothing.

Although the French won this war, the Treaty of Ryswick, which settled the conflict, was inconclusive and did not result in significant transfers of North American land between European powers. The consequences for the American Indians in the region, however, were severe. The war ignited a much longer struggle between the Algonquins and the Iroquois, which proved disastrous for both as they tried to negotiate with French and British colonists and officials. Because so many of the tensions that initially provoked the conflict remained unresolved, the North American frontier would again erupt in violence five years later, in Queen Anne's War.

Bibliography

Gallay, Alan, ed. Colonial Wars of North America: 1512–1763: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1996.

Leach, Douglas Edward. Arms for Empire: A Military History of the British Colonies in North America, 1607–1763. New York: Macmillan, 1973.

King William's War
Part of the Nine Years' War
Date 1689 – 1697 Location North America Result Treaty of Ryswick Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
France  New France  First Nations allies	England English America  Iroquois Confederacy

v • d • e Theatres of the Nine Years' War Nine Years' War – Williamite War in Ireland – King William's War

v • d • e King William's War Schenectady – Port Royal – Quebec – La Prairie – York – Hudson's Bay

The first of the French and Indian Wars, King William's War (1689–97) was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–97). It was fought between England, France, and their respective American Indian allies in the colonies of Canada (New France), Acadia, and New England.

Contents 1 Cause of war 2 War 3 Aftermath 4 See also 5 External links 6 Notes

Cause of war

England's Catholic King James II was deposed at the end of 1688 in the Glorious Revolution, after which Protestant William of Orange was made king. William joined the League of Augsburg against France, where James had fled.

Tensions on the frontier between the Dominion of New England (which included present-day New England) and the colonies of New France to the north were already under some stress, as New England's governor Edmund Andros had engaged in a raid against French settlements in Penobscot Bay in 1688. Andros, a Catholic appointed by King James, was deposed in 1689 when news of the revolution reached Boston.

War

In June 1689, several hundred Abenaki and Pennacook Indians under the command of Kancamagus and Mesandowit raided Dover, New Hampshire, killing more than 20 and taking 29 captives, who were sold into captivity in New France. Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin, a Frenchman whose home on Penobscot Bay (near present-day Castine, Maine, named for him) had been plundered by Governor Andros in 1688, led an Abenaki war party to raid Pemaquid in August 1689. In response Benjamin Church, noted for his Indian fighting skill from King Philip's War, led an expedition into the territory of present-day Maine that was largely ineffectual except for dissuading an attack against Falmouth (present-day Portland).^[1]

Also in August 1689, 1,500 Iroquois attacked the French settlement at Lachine before New France had even learned of the start of the war. Frontenac later attacked the Iroquois village of Onondaga. New France and its Indian allies then attacked English frontier settlements, most notably the Schenectady Massacre of 1690. The English captured Port Royal, Nova Scotia, the capital of Acadia, and then launched an expedition to seize the capital of New France, but were defeated in the Battle of Quebec. The French attacked the British-held coast, recapturing Port Royal.

The Quebec expedition was the last major offensive of King William’s War; for the remainder of the war the English colonists were reduced to defensive operations and skirmishes. In early 1692, in the Candlemas Massacre an estimated 150 Abenakis commanded by officers of New France entered the town of York, Maine, killing about 100 of the English settlers and burning down buildings. The Iroquois Five Nations suffered from the weakness of their English allies.^[2] In 1693 and 1696, the French and their Indian allies ravaged Iroquois towns and destroyed crops while New York colonists remained passive. After the English and French made peace in 1697, the Iroquois, now abandoned by the English colonists, remained at war with New France until 1701.^[3]

Aftermath

The Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 ended the war between the two colonial powers, reverting the colonial borders to the status quo ante bellum. The peace did not last long,^[4] and within five years the colonies were embroiled in the next of the French and Indian Wars, Queen Anne's War. After their settlement with France in 1701, the Iroquois remained neutral in the early part of the war.

See also

• Queen Anne's War (1702–13)
• King George's War (1744–48)
• French and Indian War (1754–63), last of the French and Indian Wars
• British military history

External links

• King William's War (1689–97) at usahistory.info

Notes

1. ^ Drake, The Border wars of New England, pp. 10-42
2. ^ Taylor: American Colonies: The Settling of North America, p.290
3. ^ Taylor: American Colonies: The Settling of North America, p.291
4. ^ Trafzer, Clifford E. As long as the grass shall grow and rivers flow a history of Native Americans. Fort Worth: Harcourt College, 2000

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