Beginning in the late 1630s, a diversity of Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples established under the auspices of Jesuit and, later, Sulpician missionaries a string of village communities in the St. Lawrence Valley. A diversity of peoples, whom the French lumped under the rubrics of “Algonquins”, “Montagnais”, “Hurons”, “Iroquois”, “Abenakis” and “Loups”, migrated to these villages in the hope of bettering their lives in trying times. This dissertation retraces the formation and the early development of these communities, exploring the entangled influence of armed conflict, diplomacy, kinship, and leadership on migration, community-building, and identity formation. The historiography of the St. Lawrence Valley – the French colonial heartland in North America – has tended to relegate these Aboriginal communities to the margins. Moreover, those scholars who have considered the formation of mission villages have tended to emphasize missionary initiative. Here, these villages are reimagined as a joint creation, the result of intersecting French and Aboriginal desires, needs, and priorities. The significance of these villages as sites of refuge becomes readily apparent, the trajectories of individual communities corresponding with the escalation of conflict or with its tense aftermath. What also becomes clear is that the course of war and peace through the region cannot be accounted solely by the relations of the French and Iroquois, or of the French and British crowns. Paying close attentions to the nuanced personal and collective identities of the residents of the mission villages and their neighbours allows us to gain a better understanding of the geopolitics of the northeastern woodlands during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Beginning in the late 1630s, a diversity of Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples established under the auspices of Jesuit and, later, Sulpician missionaries a string of village communities in the St. Lawrence Valley. A diversity of peoples, whom the French lumped under the rubrics of “Algonquins”, “Montagnais”, “Hurons”, “Iroquois”, “Abenakis” and “Loups”, migrated to these villages in the hope of bettering their lives in trying times. This dissertation retraces the formation and the early development of these communities, exploring the entangled influence of armed conflict, diplomacy, kinship, and leadership on migration, community-building, and identity formation. The historiography of the St. Lawrence Valley – the French colonial heartland in North America – has tended to relegate these Aboriginal communities to the margins. Moreover, those scholars who have considered the formation of mission villages have tended to emphasize missionary initiative. Here, these villages are reimagined as a joint creation, the result of intersecting French and Aboriginal desires, needs, and priorities. The significance of these villages as sites of refuge becomes readily apparent, the trajectories of individual communities corresponding with the escalation of conflict or with its tense aftermath. What also becomes clear is that the course of war and peace through the region cannot be accounted solely by the relations of the French and Iroquois, or of the French and British crowns. Paying close attentions to the nuanced personal and collective identities of the residents of the mission villages and their neighbours allows us to gain a better understanding of the geopolitics of the northeastern woodlands during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Cette thèse consiste en une étude comparative du métier d’intendant au Canada et dans les généralités de Bretagne et de Tours dans la première moitié du 18e siècle (1700-1750). Elle s’appuie sur l’intendant pour s’interroger sur l’existence de spécificités dans l’exercice du pouvoir en contexte colonial par rapport au contexte métropolitain. Considéré par la plupart des historiens de la France d’Ancien Régime comme le personnage clé de l’évolution politique qui aurait fait passer la monarchie de sa phase judiciaire jusqu’à sa phase dite « administrative », l’intendant de justice, police et finance ou commissaire départi est au coeur des débats sur l’absolutisme et son rôle de première ligne dans l’oeuvre de centralisation monarchique en fait le sujet idéal pour observer la portée réelle de ce régime sur le terrain.L’examen du fonctionnement de l’intendance est un préalable obligé pour qui veut comprendre les rapports entre administrateurs et administrés et mieux cerner la capacité de régulation de l’État. Dans le cadre des attributions définies par sa commission, quelles sont les tâches qui l’occupent concrètement ? Cette thèse s’intéresse à l’intendant du point de vue de sa pratique, en s’appuyant sur la description interne des sources produites par l’intendant pour décortiquer ses mécanismes d’intervention. Deux types de documents sont analysés successivement, soit la correspondance, incluant les pièces jointes et les documents de travail, et les actes de portée réglementaire, incluant les ordonnances et les arrêts du Conseil d’État. Chemin faisant, nous avons fait la rencontre des individus et groupes qui sollicitent l’intervention de l’intendant, levant le voile sur les rapports de pouvoir et les interactions qui le lient à ses supérieurs, aux justiciables et aux institutions locales. L’exercice permet de poser en des termes nouveaux l’action de ce personnage dont on connaissait les attributions et principales décisions, mais beaucoup moins leur logique sous-jacente / This thesis consists in a comparative study of the intendant’s métier in Canada and in the généralités of Bretagne and Tours in the first part of the eighteen century (1700-1750). The thesis relies on the intendant to consider the existence of specificities in the exercise of power in the colonial context by comparison with the metropolitan context. Considered by most of the historians of France Ancien Regime as the key person of the political evolution to push through the monarchy from its judicial phase to its « administrative » phase, the intendant of justice, police and finance or commissaire départi is in the core of the debates on absolutism and his front line role in working to centralize the monarchy makes him the ideal subject to observe the real impact of this Regime.The examination of the functioning of the intendancy is an absolute prerequisite to understand the relation between administrators and administered and identifies the State will to control. As part of the defined attributions by his commission, what are the tasks that occupy him concretely? This thesis is about the intendant from the point of view of his pratique, relying on the description of the material produced by the intendant to examine his mechanisms of interventions. Two types of documents are successively analysed, namely the correspondence including the appendix and the working documents, and judgments, including the ordinances and the arrêt du Conseil d’Etat. In this process, we met individuals and groups who require the intervention of the intendant,lifting the veil on the power relationship that ties him to his superiors, to the claimants awaiting justice and to local institutions. This exercise allows to set in new terms the action of this personage on which we knew the attributions and main decisions but much less the underlying logic

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.