History Browser

A party of men under Dollard des Ormeaux, commander of the Montreal garrison, was surprised by a much larger group of Iroquois. Besieged at a disused Algonquin fort at Long-Sault on the Ottawa River, the Frenchmen and their Huron allies were wiped out.

Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two Iroquois chiefs in 1609 at Ticonderoga. This set off a long, bitter war between the French colonists and the Iroquois Confederacy.

From 1650 to 1760, French settlements in Québec City, Montréal, and Trois-Rivières created a society organized for war. Under the order of Louis XIV, King of France, every man underwent mandatory military training. Supported by allies of the First Peoples and a small garrison of professional soldiers, the Canadien militia formed the backbone of the colony’s military forces until the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763).