Wilderness Empire: A Narrative (Winning of America Series)

For over two hundred years no Indian force in America was so powerful and feared as the Iroquois League. Throughout two thirds of this continent the cry of "The Iroquois are coming!" was enough to demoralize entire tribes. But these Iroquois occupied and controlled a vast wilderness empire which beckoned like a precious gem to foreign powers. France and England secured toeholds and suddenly each was claiming as its own this land of the Iroquois. Alliance with the Indians was the key; whichever power controlled them could destroy the other. Wilderness Empire is the gripping narrative of the eighteenth-century struggle of these two powers to win for themselves the allegiance of the Indians in a war for territorial dominance yet without letting these Indians know that the prize of the war would be this very Iroquois land. It is the story of English strength hamstrung by incredible incompetence of French power sapped by devastating corruption. It is the story of the English Indian and French individuals whose lives intertwine in the greatest territorial struggle in American history--the French and Indian War.