A Canadian history podcast where the host, Christina Austin, invites friends to revisit what they may have learned in history class by giving a fuller picture of Canadian history beginning with the earliest human inhabitation until the years after the World Wars.
https://maplehistorypodcast.ca/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A Canadian history podcast where the host, Christina Austin, invites friends to revisit what they may have learned in history class by giving a fuller picture of Canadian history beginning with the earliest human inhabitation until the years after the World Wars.
https://maplehistorypodcast.ca/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Charles St Etienne de La Tour had lived in Acadia since he was a teenager and had been working to build this nascent French colony when another man, Charles de Menou d'Aulnay Charnize came with ambitions and an ego. These rival ambitions would slowly grow into full antagonism and then violence.
Books:
Faragher, John Mack. A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.
MacDonald, M. A. Fortune and La Tour: The Civil War in Acadia. Agincourt, ON: Methuen Publications, 1983.
Trudel, Marcel. The Beginnings of New France, 1524–1663. Translated by Patricia Claxton. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973.
Magazine Articles:
Poizner, Susan. “The Lioness of Acadia.” The Beaver (Canada’s History Magazine), February–March 2007, 36–41.
Pelchat, André. “Private War Over Acadia.” Beaver (Canada’s History) 80, no. 6 (December 2000–January 2001): 8–11.
Journal Article:
Henneton, Lauric. “‘Fear of Popish Leagues’: Religious Identities and the Conduct of Frontier Diplomacy in Mid-17th-Century Northeastern America.” New England Quarterly 89, no. 3 (September 2016): 356–83.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Entries:
Ryder, Huia, and ———. “Biencourt de Saint-Just, Charles de.” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1. University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/biencourt_de_saint_just_charles_de_1E.html.
MacBeath, George. “Jacquelin, Françoise (Françoise-Marie).” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1. University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jacquelin_francoise_marie_1E.html.
Baudry, René. “Menou d’Aulnay, Charles de.” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1. University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/menou_d_aulnay_charles_de_1E.html.
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The English had made progress with colonization in North America but they had eyes on Quebec too. In 1629 they made their move and things went terribly for the French colonists and Champlain over the next few years.
Sources:
Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer
The Children of Aateantsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 by Bruce Trigger
Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered by Bruce Trigger
Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie
A Great and Noble Scheme by John Mack Faragher
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The Jesuits came to Quebec on a mission in 1625 to save souls and not to make friends.
Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer
The Children of Aateantsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 by Bruce Trigger
Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered by Bruce Trigger
Huron Wendat: The Heritage of the Circle by George E. Sioui
The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America - edited with an introduction by Allan Greer
The Jesuit Relations: A Biography by Micah True
Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie
To support the show consider signing up for the Patreon
Follow me on TikTok @MapleHistoryPod
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Some familiar faces return to Acadia where they are welcomed back by the Mi'kmaq but new people join the colony and it does not go well.
Sources:
John Mack Faragher, A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland. 2005
Thorp, D. B. (1996). Equals of the King: The Balance of Power in Early Acadia. Acadiensis, 25(2), 3. Retrieved from University of New Brunswick | UNB.
Wachtel, J. R. (2021). “A ‘Bon François’ Desirous of the Glory of the King”: Intra-Catholic Anti-Jesuitism and the Collapse of the Port Royal Mission, 1610-1613. Acadiensis, 49(2). Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/view/31555
To support the show consider signing up for the Patreon
Follow me on TikTok @MapleHistoryPod
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To support the show consider signing up for the Patreon
Follow me on TikTok @MapleHistoryPod
Follow me on BlueSky @MapleHistoryPod.bsky.social
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) got a shocking introduction to Europeans in 1609 when Champlain joined a raid into Haudenosaunee territory but they were quick to learn how to seek out other European allies for their benefit. When the Dutch arrived they sought out a trade relationship but so did the Mahican who also lived in the same area as some of the Mohawk. This episode will discuss the early days of the Dutch colony in New York and their relationship with the Haudenosaunee.
Sources:
Books
Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer
The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire by Francis Jennings
The Edge of the Woods by Jon Parmenter
The Ordeal of the Longhouse by Daniel K. Richter
Journal Articles
Parmenter, Jon. 2013. “The Meaning of Kaswentha and the Two Row Wampum Belt in Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) History: Can Indigenous Oral Tradition Be Reconciled with the Documentary Record?” Journal of Early American History 3 (1): 82–109. https://doi.org/10.1163/18770703-00301005
Parmenter, Jon. “In the Wake of Cartier: The Indigenous Context of Champlain’s Activities in the St. Lawrence Valley and Upper Great Lakes, 1550–1635.” In When the French Were Here—and They’re Still Here, edited by Nancy Nahra, 88–104. Burlington, VT: Champlain College, 2010.
Carpenter, Roger. “Making War More Lethal: Iroquois vs Huron in the Great Lakes Region, 1609-1650.” Michigan Historical Review 27, no. 2 (Fall 2001): 33-51.
To support the show consider signing up for the Patreon
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Champlain is back and forth between France and Canada as he tries to find his way into the well established trade and kinship networks of the Wendat. He also gets married and his choice of bride isn't great.
Sources:
Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer
The Making of Canada: An Epic History in Twenty Extraordinary Lives by Greg Koabel
The Children of Aateantsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 by Bruce Trigger
Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered by Bruce Trigger
Journal Article:
Carpenter, Roger. “Making War More Lethal: Iroquois vs. Huron in the Great Lakes Region, 1609 to 1650.” Michigan Historical Review 27, no. 2 (Fall 2001): 33–51. DOI: 10.2307/20173927
Fox, William "“It’s not personal, it’s strictly business”: Historical Accounts and Archaeological Evidence Concerning an Early-Seventeenth Century Partnership". Ontario History 115, no. 1 (2023) : 99–113. https://doi.org/10.7202/1098786ar
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*This episodes contains a detailed account of torture.
Champlain steps dramatically into a complex world of ancient kinship networks, complex diplomacy, and a long simmering war when he founds the city of Quebec in 1608. He finally meets the powerful Wendat people and assists them and their allies in a famous battle against the Haundenosaunee in the heart of Mohawk territory.
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We take a look at the Beothuk people in this episode from their ancient beginnings on the island of Newfoundland to their demise through disease, starvation, and murder. It is a tragic story of the effects of colonization on a small population on an unforgiving land.
Sources
Books:
Beothuk: How Story Made a People (Almost) Disappear by Christopher Patrick Aylward
A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk by Ingeborg Marshall
The Mi'kmaq: Resistance, Acommodation, and Cultural Survival by Harald E.L. Prins
Journal Articles:
Pastore, R. (1989). The Collapse of the Beothuk World. Acadiensis, 19(1), 52. Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/view/12292
Gilbert, W. (2011). Beothuk-European Contact in the 16th Century:: A Re-evaluation of the Documentary Evidence. Acadiensis, 40(1), 24–44.
Holly, Donald H. “The Beothuk on the Eve of Their Extinction.” Arctic Anthropology 37, no. 1 (2000): 79–95. doi:10.2307/40316519.
Online:
Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador (Several pages on this site)
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In this episode, we explore the early French attempts to settle in what would become Acadia, from Saint Croix to the more promising shores of Port-Royal. Who were the people who came? What were they hoping for? And how did they survive in a land already home to the Mi’kmaq? Join us as we discuss the story of one of the first European settlements in what is now Canada and the important relationship between those a settlers and the Mi'kmaq.
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Sources:
John Mack Faragher, A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland. 2005
David Hackett Fischer, Champlain's Dream. 2008
Daniel N. Paul, We Were Not The Savages 4th Ed, 2022
Marcel Trudel, The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663. 1973
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There had been a few men with colonial ambitions from France but they had all ended in failure. Champlain starts his colonial career as an observer ready to learn some lessons from his predecessors.
Sources:
Champlain's Dream by David Hacket Fischer
Colonialism and Capitalism: Canada's Origins 1500-1890 vol.1 by Bryan D. Palmer
Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered by Bruce Trigger
The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663 by Marcel Trudel
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All but one of Cartier's kidnapped Stadaconans have died but he's ready to make his third voyage back to Canada. This time he's second in command to Roberval and, let's just say, they don't make a great team.
Further reading:
Jacques Cartier, The Voyages of Jacques Cartier, edited by Ramsay Cook (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993). In particular the introduction is very helpful - "Donnacona Discovers Europe: Rereading Jacques Cartier's Voyages" by Ramsay Cook
Marcel Trudel, The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663, 1973.
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A closer look at the spirituality, cultural norms, The Feast of the Dead burial ritual, and overall society of the Wendat Confederacy. Be warned that there is some discussion of torture and somewhat graphic descriptions of how death rituals were carried out.
For further reading:
Dispersed But Not Destroyed by Kathryn Magee Labelle
If you really want to go deep into the history of the Wendat people, you can read The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 by Bruce G. Trigger. It also works as a doorstop when you finish with it. It is great, but a huge book.
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