Nations of Canada - Quillette

Map detail of the Hudson River Valley, showing natives in a canoe, as well as beavers, turkeys and a mink

Dutchmen on the Hudson

In the 21st instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how the arrival of Dutch fur traders sparked an upheaval in regional Indigenous geopolitics.

Greg Koabel

20 Jul 2024 · 19 min read

A modern model depicting Samuel de Champlain’s 1608 Habitation at the site of what is now Quebec City.

The Birth of Quebec

In the 20th instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how Samuel de Champlain and Récollet missionaries established a fledgling French colony in what we now call Quebec City.

Greg Koabel

4 Jul 2024 · 17 min read

A Wendat group from Wendake, in modern Quebec, photographed in 1880.

The Wendat World

In the 19th instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how Indigenous societies greeted the French influx of the early seventeenth century.

Greg Koabel

29 Apr 2024 · 23 min read

A Different Way of Fighting

In the 18th instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes the confusion that resulted when French and Indigenous fighters jointly assaulted an Iroquois village in 1615.

Greg Koabel

14 Mar 2024 · 29 min read

Make Way for the Jesuits

In the 17th instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how The Society of Jesus became a powerful player in the colonization of North America.

Greg Koabel

30 Jan 2024 · 25 min read

The Laurentian Coalition Takes Root

In the 16th instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ historian Greg Koabel describes how Samuel de Champlain overcame a decade of frustration by finally establishing a successful French fur-trading monopoly.

Greg Koabel

12 Jan 2024 · 25 min read

Sailing Into Canada’s Great ‘Northern Sea’

In the fifteenth instalment of his series on the history of Canada, Greg Koabel describes Henry Hudson’s tragic 1610-11 voyage to the saltwater bay that now bears his name.

Greg Koabel

11 Dec 2023 · 31 min read

United Against the Iroquois

In the fourteenth instalment of his series on the history of Canada, Greg Koabel describes Champlain’s military alliance with France’s new Innu, Algonquin, and Wendat trading partners.

Greg Koabel

13 Nov 2023 · 24 min read

Champlain Goes to War

In the thirteenth instalment of our series on the history of Canada, Greg Koabel describes the crucial battlefield alliance that French explorers forged with Indigenous allies in 1609.

Greg Koabel

19 Oct 2023 · 26 min read

Champlain Gives It Another Go

In the twelfth instalment of an ongoing Quillette series on the history of Canada, Greg Koabel describes France’s halting efforts to create a permanent Canadian settlement in the early 1600s.

Greg Koabel

27 Sep 2023 · 30 min read

A Cartographer for the Ages

In the eleventh instalment of his series on the history of Canada, Greg Koabel describes how Samuel de Champlain fundamentally redirected France’s transatlantic colonial project

Greg Koabel

9 Sep 2023 · 22 min read

‘New France’ Stumbles Out of the Gate

In the tenth instalment of an ongoing Quillette series on the history of Canada, historian Greg Koabel describes the early—and tragically unsuccessful—French efforts to create a permanent colony

Greg Koabel

26 Aug 2023 · 20 min read

The Quest for Pelts

In the ninth instalment of an ongoing Quillette series on the history of Canada, Greg Koabel describes how the late 16th-century fur trade developed amid a disrupted Indigenous geopolitical landscape

Greg Koabel

13 Aug 2023 · 24 min read

Frobisher’s Failed Arctic Gambit

In the eighth instalment of an ongoing Quillette series on the history of Canada, Greg Koabel describes the legacy of Martin Frobisher, a brave explorer who antagonized the Inuit while harvesting worthless minerals

Greg Koabel

21 Jul 2023 · 38 min read

Come for the Whales. Stay for the Fur

In the seventh instalment of an ongoing Quillette series on the history of Canada, Greg Koabel describes how 16th-Century Basque whalers created a thriving industry in the waters off Newfoundland

Greg Koabel

8 Jul 2023 · 23 min read