The five Haudenosaunee Nations (the Iroquois), living between the Mohawk River and Niagara, were once bitter enemies. Tekanawí:ta, the Great Peacemaker, brought them together aided by Hiawatha, an Onondaga. United and governed by the Great Law of Peace, the first constitution in the Americas, the nations used commerce, diplomacy and military power to defeat the Algonquin, the Mohicans, and the Wabanaki Confederacy competing for territory.

French fur traders and their Wendat and Algonquin allies were in competition with the Iroquois for territory. The Iroquois formed an alliance with the Dutch fur traders. When Champlain killed two Iroquois chiefs with his arqebus at the Battle of Ticonderoga in 1609, the Franco-Iroquois rivalry lasted for almost 100 years. When the British replaced the Dutch as a continental power, the Iroquois Confederacy forged a new alliance which would conquer North America.