Description: King William's War encompassed several proxy wars being fought by the English and the French through their native allies: the Beaver Wars, a long running feud between the Iroquois Confederacy, New France, and New France's native allies over control of the lucrative fur trade, and the second Wabanaki War between New England colonists and the pro-French Wabanaki of Maine, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. These two conflicts officially became one with the arrival of news of a declaration of war between France and England in 1689. The next nine years saw coordinated attacks, including French assaults on Schenectady, New York, and Massachusetts, and English attacks around Montreal and on Nova Scotia. The war ended diplomatically, but started again five years later in Queen Anne's War. A riveting history full of memorable characters and events, and supported by extensive primary source material, King William's War: The First Contest for North America, 1689-1697 by Michael G. Laramie is the first book-length treatment of a war that proved crucial to the future of North America.
Review Quotes: "In his comprehensively researched and detailed accounting of an eight-year period of Colonial North American history characterized by Native American and European struggles to control trade, Laramie focuses on the French, English, and Dutch power dynamics brought to the New World and their impact on relations and interactions with the various Native American nations in the northeastern region of North America. The author's precise writing style provides important contextual background to the years leading up to the more often studied French and Indian War. The tightly written chapters divide the history into manageable bites, covering the Native American narrative of the Iroquois, Huron, Wabanaki, and many other nations, as well as chronicling the English, French, and Dutch attempts to control and dominate the valuable fur trade. An extensive notes section, bibliography, and index allow students and scholars to easily navigate this-well researched book."--Choice
"Laramie fills an important gap in historiography with this, the first extended study of King William's War in well over a century. He places the 1689-1697 war in context by devoting a third of the text to the Indian, Dutch, French, and English conflicts of the seventeenth century. Clearly and concisely written, Laramie convincingly argues that France did not so much win King William's War as England lost it. The lack of unity among the English colonies, the focus of officials in London on the Caribbean, and 'a lack of will' to win by Englishmen on both sides of the Atlantic all contributed to their defeat."--James C. Bradford, professor of American history, Texas A&MUniversity, and author of America, Sea Power, and the World