IMPERIALISM AND INDEPENDENCE 79If the Cherokee map on page 72 showed us a native
perspective on trade and diplomacy, this gives us a
colonial view of the same. Cadwallader Colden was
surveyor general of the New York colony, and one
of the first Europeans to chronicle Indian life and
history in North America. His 1723 map of the Five
Nations of the Iroquois captures the geopolitics of the
early eighteenth century. In fact, Colden’s map is a
snapshot of the diplomatic maneuvering in the
Ohio Valley that eventually led to the French and
Indian War.
The map’s history begins in 1720, when New
York welcomed William Burnet as the new colonial
governor. Burnet sought to improve trade with the
Algonquian-speaking tribes to the west, which were
closely aligned with French traders. To that end,
Colden traveled to the frontier outpost of Albany in
the fall of 1721 to negotiate an agreement with the
Iroquois. His aim was to ensure that tribes further
west could safely travel across Iroquois lands in order
to trade with the British in New York. The continued
growth of Indian trade was crucial to the commercial
success of New York, both internally and relative to
the other colonies and across the Atlantic.
After he returned from Albany, Colden wrote a
long history of the Five Nations that was designed to
challenge French power in the Great Lakes and Upper
Mississippi River. The map itself reflects a British
goal, but, given the limited contemporary knowledge,
Colden was forced to rely upon Guillaume de L’Isle’s
French map (page 66) for the geographical detail.
A closer look reveals that Colden and Burnet had
other ambitions as well: several places marked
Cadwallader Colden, “A Map of the
Country of the Five Nations, belonging
to the Province of New York; and of the
Lakes near which the Nations of Far
Indians live, with part of Canada,” 1755
IROQUOIS DIPLOMACY
“carrying place” or “car. place” indicate their belief
that only a short distance separated the Great Lakes
and the headwaters of the Ohio River. With the
Ohio draining into the Mississippi, this was indeed
an important claim. These notations on the map
underscore the British aim of building a network
of communication and transportation that would
ultimately reach the Gulf of Mexico.
In these years, the Iroquois Confederacy had
emerged as a powerful force of its own, concluding
treaties with both the British and the French in 1701.
Colden was keenly aware of this situation. As he put
it, the Iroquois “used” the French Jesuits as hostages
and could easily have destroyed the emerging colony
of Quebec, shown at upper right. Their diplomatic
skills made them a feared adversary, particularly
given how “extreamly Revengeful the Indians
naturally are.” In response, the British proceeded
deliberately and carefully to cultivate an alliance
with the Iroquois that might facilitate westward
trade and settlement.
Like the maps by Herman Moll and Guillaume de
L’Isle, this one captures the intense rivalry between
the French and the British for control of the Ohio
Valley and the Mississippi River. While the French
controlled the waterways, the British allied with
the Iroquois Confederacy and used those alliances
to claim control even where they had no settlers.
Firsthand British knowledge of this region was also
sorely limited, placing them even more at the mercy
of the Iroquois. This also reminds us that British
ambitions in the West were just beginning to gain
momentum in the 1720s and 1730s.
Colden himself warned that the French could
use the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes to
penetrate the interior and to corner trade with native
tribes. In response, Governor Burnet—with Colden’s
support—urged Great Britain to restrict trade
between the colonists and the French. Though the
plan failed, the map indicates the emerging British
designs on the trans-Allegheny West. In fact, this
1755 reissue of the map was published just after the
French and British had gone to war.