Between Sovereignty and Statecraft: New France and the Contest for the Hudson Bay Watershed, 1663-1782
This dissertation analyzes French-Indigenous relations in the Hudson Bay watershed from the early 1660s to the 1780s. The Hudson Bay watershed was a dynamic contact zone where Indigenous, French, and British politics, cultures, and economies clashed and intermingled. Whereas French colonial scholars...
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University of Saskatchewan
2020
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ftusaskatchewan:oai:harvest.usask.ca:10388/12570 2023-05-15T16:35:06+02:00 Between Sovereignty and Statecraft: New France and the Contest for the Hudson Bay Watershed, 1663-1782 Berthelette, Scott Allan 1988- Englebert, Robert Kalinowski, Angela Labelle, Kathryn Hoy, Benjamin Hackett, Paul 2020-01-31T19:56:50Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10388/12570 unknown University of Saskatchewan http://hdl.handle.net/10388/12570 TC-SSU-12570 French Indigenous Métis New France Canada Atlantic Voyageurs Coureurs de bois Fur Trade Hudson Bay Western Sea Hudson’s Bay Company Thesis text 2020 ftusaskatchewan 2023-02-04T23:10:09Z This dissertation analyzes French-Indigenous relations in the Hudson Bay watershed from the early 1660s to the 1780s. The Hudson Bay watershed was a dynamic contact zone where Indigenous, French, and British politics, cultures, and economies clashed and intermingled. Whereas French colonial scholars have thoroughly examined French-Indigenous contact zones in other parts of North America, such as the pays d’en haut (Great Lakes region), the Illinois Country, and Louisiana, few have ventured to investigate French-Indigenous relations in the Hudson Bay watershed in any depth. Most of the scholarly attention on the region has hitherto focused on either local ethnohistories of Indigenous peoples or commercial and social histories of the British-run Hudson’s Bay Company. This study examines French non-elites in the Hudson Bay watershed – coureurs de bois, company clerks, runaway soldiers, and veteran voyageurs – who acted as intermediaries and cultural brokers between Indigenous peoples and the French colonial government. This dissertation contributes to a broader scholarly discussion on Euro-Indigenous cultural brokers in contact zones by framing French non-elites as ambivalent agents of empire. While French non-elites, such as voyageurs and coureurs de bois, were instrumental to fulfilling French imperial projects and extending a French presence into the Hudson Bay watershed, they were not simply unwavering agents of imperial power. Their own agendas and interests often ensured that western expansion and French imperial designs advanced at an erratic, haphazard, and oscillating pace. This demonstrates that French imperialism in Western North America was not a monolithic top-down process but rather a multifaceted one, with competing voices, perspectives, and agendas. Lastly, this study also challenges the chronological and spatial limitations of traditional Métis history. French non-elites underwent salient processes of métissage (cultural hybridity) to become backcountry specialists and cultural brokers between ... Thesis Hudson Bay University of Saskatchewan: eCommons@USASK Canada Hudson Hudson Bay |
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University of Saskatchewan: eCommons@USASK |
op_collection_id |
ftusaskatchewan |
language |
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topic |
French Indigenous Métis New France Canada Atlantic Voyageurs Coureurs de bois Fur Trade Hudson Bay Western Sea Hudson’s Bay Company |
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French Indigenous Métis New France Canada Atlantic Voyageurs Coureurs de bois Fur Trade Hudson Bay Western Sea Hudson’s Bay Company Berthelette, Scott Allan 1988- Between Sovereignty and Statecraft: New France and the Contest for the Hudson Bay Watershed, 1663-1782 |
topic_facet |
French Indigenous Métis New France Canada Atlantic Voyageurs Coureurs de bois Fur Trade Hudson Bay Western Sea Hudson’s Bay Company |
description |
This dissertation analyzes French-Indigenous relations in the Hudson Bay watershed from the early 1660s to the 1780s. The Hudson Bay watershed was a dynamic contact zone where Indigenous, French, and British politics, cultures, and economies clashed and intermingled. Whereas French colonial scholars have thoroughly examined French-Indigenous contact zones in other parts of North America, such as the pays d’en haut (Great Lakes region), the Illinois Country, and Louisiana, few have ventured to investigate French-Indigenous relations in the Hudson Bay watershed in any depth. Most of the scholarly attention on the region has hitherto focused on either local ethnohistories of Indigenous peoples or commercial and social histories of the British-run Hudson’s Bay Company. This study examines French non-elites in the Hudson Bay watershed – coureurs de bois, company clerks, runaway soldiers, and veteran voyageurs – who acted as intermediaries and cultural brokers between Indigenous peoples and the French colonial government. This dissertation contributes to a broader scholarly discussion on Euro-Indigenous cultural brokers in contact zones by framing French non-elites as ambivalent agents of empire. While French non-elites, such as voyageurs and coureurs de bois, were instrumental to fulfilling French imperial projects and extending a French presence into the Hudson Bay watershed, they were not simply unwavering agents of imperial power. Their own agendas and interests often ensured that western expansion and French imperial designs advanced at an erratic, haphazard, and oscillating pace. This demonstrates that French imperialism in Western North America was not a monolithic top-down process but rather a multifaceted one, with competing voices, perspectives, and agendas. Lastly, this study also challenges the chronological and spatial limitations of traditional Métis history. French non-elites underwent salient processes of métissage (cultural hybridity) to become backcountry specialists and cultural brokers between ... |
author2 |
Englebert, Robert Kalinowski, Angela Labelle, Kathryn Hoy, Benjamin Hackett, Paul |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Berthelette, Scott Allan 1988- |
author_facet |
Berthelette, Scott Allan 1988- |
author_sort |
Berthelette, Scott Allan 1988- |
title |
Between Sovereignty and Statecraft: New France and the Contest for the Hudson Bay Watershed, 1663-1782 |
title_short |
Between Sovereignty and Statecraft: New France and the Contest for the Hudson Bay Watershed, 1663-1782 |
title_full |
Between Sovereignty and Statecraft: New France and the Contest for the Hudson Bay Watershed, 1663-1782 |
title_fullStr |
Between Sovereignty and Statecraft: New France and the Contest for the Hudson Bay Watershed, 1663-1782 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Between Sovereignty and Statecraft: New France and the Contest for the Hudson Bay Watershed, 1663-1782 |
title_sort |
between sovereignty and statecraft: new france and the contest for the hudson bay watershed, 1663-1782 |
publisher |
University of Saskatchewan |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10388/12570 |
geographic |
Canada Hudson Hudson Bay |
geographic_facet |
Canada Hudson Hudson Bay |
genre |
Hudson Bay |
genre_facet |
Hudson Bay |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10388/12570 TC-SSU-12570 |
_version_ |
1766025242258440192 |