The first Federal Democracy on the American continent was not the United States, but rather
a confederation of indigenous nations collectively known as Haudenosaunee.
Their name means “The People of the Longhouse,” and refers to the big communal Longhouses
comprising their towns as well as their overarching political structure of five nations within
one house, working together for hundreds of years to make laws and conduct diplomacy.
This arrangement started around the 1400s as a way to stop Iroquoian-speaking nations
from fighting over resources and prestige, but their truly immaculate statecraft made
them a staggeringly-powerful force in the Beaver Wars.
Okay sure that sounds silly, but the competition to catch and sell beaver pelts to European
merchants was so fierce in the 1600s that the Iroquois conquered in every direction
to control the trade routes: causing a mass migration of displaced tribes to west of the
lakes, and showing French colonists up the river how little their claims of dominion
actually mattered.
The Iroquois’ knack for diplomatic chess served them well through the following century,
as they allied with Britain to defeat France in the 7 Years War – but chaos followed
the American Revolution, as competing alliances ripped the Haudenosaunee apart.
While the new United States diligently emulated the Iroquoian government, no amount of respect
could stop the cruel irony of their eager and endless push west.
The main goal of French colonization in the Americas was not to create large urban settlements,
but to get tons, and tons of money.
Sailing in from the Atlantic down to where the St Lawrence river narrows, the port city
of Quebec opened up to an expansive continental operation.
As if fur trading around the Great Lakes wasn’t big enough business, New France reached down
the Mississippi river and all the way to the Caribbean sugar fields.
Operating this vast network required a great deal of land and people but not that many
French people, so by the mid 1700s, the population of Nouvelle France was less than an 8th of
Paris.
Little Quebec had just 8,000 permanent residents, but its vital strategic position as the gateway
into the continent warranted some hefty fortifications: adding stone walls atop the city’s already-imposing
cliffs and arming the coast with cannons-for-miles.
But in 1759 there was no accounting for slapstick serendipity, as British forces stumbled through
a cavalcade of pure dumb luck to capture the city and swiftly confiscate half of North
America for itself.
But despite the new management, French Canadians could keep their culture, customs, and language
due to the Quebec Act of 1774 – and shock of the decade, being treated like people really
takes the edge off thoughts of Rebellion.
Clearly, this was not a universal experience.
Now it should be obvious that Colonialism is an elaborate form of theft, but Britain
really played this to the hilt, not just in Quebec but also New York.
Originally founded as New Amsterdam by Dutch fur-traders on the south shore of Mana-hata
Island in 1626, Britain conquered the city in 1654 as part of their quest to paint the
coast red.
But as in New France, everything beyond the cities was a dynamic mix of colonists and
indigenous nations and not a purely British domain, so New York cleverly played the charm
game to win over the local Dutch population and also forge a useful alliance with the
Iroquois further inland.
New York’s vantage at the base of the Hudson and Mohawk river valleys gave the city easy
access to a wealth of upstate farmland; so as the population grew, the economy boomed.
And this proved quite useful for the British Crown, who had a lot of debt to pay after
confiscating Canada in the 7 years war, and so levied a stamp tax on the colonies.
Things…
escalated, and so after decrying taxation without representation, boycotting British
imports, suffering a massive fire, fighting a whole-ass Revolution, and finally kicking
the British out of the colonies in 1783, New York took pride of place as the cultural and
economic powerhouse of the new American Republic.
If New York was the jewel in Colonial Britain’s crown, Boston was the pain in its ass.
Settled in 1630 by Puritan Protestants whose primary goal was to be As Far From The Church
Of England As Possible, Boston’s independent spirit was only briefly checked by London’s
attempt to impose a colonial governor, but the locals imprisoned him and continued gleefully
snubbing English authority into the 1700s.
Boston’s location on a peninsula in the middle of the Massachusetts bay made it a
great harbor for shipping, and naturally they were all too eager to turn this around on
Britain during the Stamp Act import boycotts.
After this success, those rambunctious Bostonians got bolder, leading to a full redcoat military
occupation of the city in 1768 to try and impose order – but this literally backfired
two years later when soldiers shot into a crowd of unarmed civilians, and news of this
Boston Massacre only heightened rebellious sentiment.
A new tax on Tea in 1773 was welcomed by, let’s say, oversteeping some green tea in
the Boston Harbor, and two years later when British soldiers tried to forcibly disarm
the colonial militia at nearby Concord: shots were fired, and the fight was on.
General Washington drove the British out of Boston in 1776, and Bostonians have been riding
that high ever since.
The Revolutionary War certainly marks a Starting Point for the United States, but it just as
clearly signals the End of a dynamic network in the continental Northeast.
Far from a case of Europeans sauntering in and manifesting their destiny in 6-to-10 business
days, the colonial powers in the 16 to 1700s were economically and diplomatically reliant
on the knowledge and skills of indigenous nations who were more than capable of playing
the colonists against each other.
Each player in this system had their own objectives – whether to expand their territory, make
fat stacks of cash, or create a settler colony a sixth the population of Britain – and
while it was the Americans and British Canadians who ultimately came out on top, those societies
remain shaped by influences like Haudenosaunee government or French Quebecois culture.
Does that make this a happy outcome?
Eheheheh, eheh, God no, this is colonialism – but the point here is to look past simple
“winners” and “losers” to understand the complexity and appreciate that there is,
in fact, more to American History than the United States.
Thank you for watching.
Seeing as the 4th of July and Canada Day both landed earlier this month, I thought it’d
be neat to look at cities in competition rather than just one state’s team.
Thanks as always to our lovely patrons, and shout-out to Nick from LA, who recognized
me by voice alone and specifically told us how much he enjoys the City Minutes.
This one’s for you, my guy.