The Background of the Attack
The year 1689 saw the beginning of
the series of conflicts between Britain and France, which is sometimes called
the Second Hundred Years' War. In that
year the War of the League of Augsburg (called by Americans King William's War)
broke out in Europe. Inevitably it was
fought on the western as well as the eastern side of the Atlantic, and French
and English colonists were soon at each other's throats in a struggle, which
was embittered by the religious hatreds
existing between Puritan New
England and Roman Catholic New France.
It was
fortunate for the French colony that this same year 1689 saw the return as
Governor of the old but formidable veteran Count Frontenac, (He was now
69. He had served a previous
term
as
Governor, 1672-82.) perhaps the stoutest defender it ever had. During the winter of 1689-90 Frontenac sent
out three war parties over the snow against the frontiers of the English
colonies. The blows struck by these
expeditions goaded New England and New York into making a great effort to clear
the French from America. In 1690 they
produced a grand design
for
an attack upon New France and in particular upon the centre of French power,
the town of Quebec.
The English colonies were far
stronger than New France in population and in wealth. Luckily for the French, however, the English were disunited and
full of mutual jealousy. In these
circumstances, the courage, sound leadership and effective organization of the
French community enabled it to resist its aggressive and
numerous
neighbours not only in 1690, but for two generations afterwards. Its autocratic system of government, while
certainly adverse to the progress of the colony in the long run, was favourable
to military efficiency. When at last
New France fell it was not the American colonies that conquered it, but a great
armament dispatched from England, backed and transported by the Royal Navy.
The
English colonies' plan for the campaign of 1690 was conceived on lines similar
to those followed with success seventy years later; but the military resources
of the colonies at this time were unequal to carrying out such a great
conception. The intention was to make a
double attack. A land expedition was to
move up the line of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain against Montreal;
while, simultaneously, a seaborne force was to sail up the St. Lawrence and
attack Quebec. The command of this
latter enterprise was given to Sir William Phips, a "rude sailor" who
owed his reputation and his knighthood to his success in salvaging the cargo of
a wrecked Spanish treasure galleon, and had little military experience. Phips' attempt to carry out the scheme
produced one of the most dramatic episodes in the early history of Canada.
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