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Francis Parkman , ", A Half-Century of Conflict"

Readers have written outstanding reviews of Parkman's great work. I wish to mention a couple of interesting points the other readers haven't.

Parkman explains the failure of France to succeed in dominating North America, and why the English succeeded. He attributes this to several causes. First, France produced genuine heroes in North America: both the well-known explorers such as Champlain and laSalle, and the amazing but lesser-known Jesuits. But the French efforts were sponsored and dominated by institutions: the French Court, with all its corruption, and the Catholic Church, especially the Jesuits. Their settlers, often selected from the lowest strata of society, were severely restricted in every regard. The English colonies, in contrast, were endeavors of the people of the colonies, who formed their own governments, and had great political and economic freedom. People actually WANTED to come to the English colonies. The English colonies enjoyed a spectacular organic growth, while French Canada was ultimately moribund. "There was no real motive for emigration. No persecution expelled the colonist from his home; for none but good Catholics were tolerated in New France. The settler could not trade with the Indians, except on condition of selling again to the Company at a fixed price. He might hunt, but he could not fish; and he was forced to beg or buy food for years before he could obtain it from that rude soil in sufficient quantities for the wants of his family." (p. 509)

Regarding the native Americans in eastern Canada and the New York / New England area, Parkman certainly does not limit himself to viewing them as savages. He does indeed dwell on their ferocity (well documented elsewhere), but he also portrays them as economically sophisticated. Moreover, he does not play down the Spanish "hounds of hell" who slaughtered their French captives, nor the "mutual outrages" perpetrated by the English and Spanish upon one another.

He attributes the ultimate inability of the Indians to compete with the European culture as the result of the Indians' democratic society, wherein no one had the left to order anyone else what to do. Their only government was "the intermittent one of councils." Consequently, any man in the tribes could begin a war, if he only could get together a few like-minded men, and anyone could walk away from a war begun by the advice of councils.

One more interesting, and for me enlightening point is Parkman's discussion of the tremendous weight the Indian women had in their society: they had women's councils who selected one of their number to represent them in the men's councils; and they were not ignored on important issues.

All in all, it may be a mistake to think Parkman lacking in penetrating understanding or sympathy for the French and the Indians.

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