The Iroquois Confederacy

As we learned from the video in class on Friday, the Iroquois nation was formed by a confederation of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondoga, Oneida, and the Mohawk tribes.

Eventually a sixth tribe from Tuscarora was added in 1720.

 While most would like to believe that the American nation was founded strictly based on the principles of the Founding Fathers, however without the Iroquois nation, there may not be a United States of America. The Iroquois were influential first in the French and Indian war (or the 7 years war). The French had a big advantage early on in the war as they were allied with the Huron tribe among other Native American tribes, who knew the land and were able to blend in and win battles with great ease. However due to an earlier alliance by Samuel de Champlain with the Hurons and against the Iroquois, the Iroquois remained neutral in the conflict. Eventually the British/Americans were able to convince the Iroquois to join their side, who greatly helped in the same way the Hurons had helped the French. After winning the 7 years war, the Colonists as you may know revolted against their British rulers. However a little known fact is that during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence the Chiefs of the Iroquois Nation were invited to speak at the Continental Congress and then later when the revolutionaries were writing the Constitution, Ben Franklin and others looked to the Iroquois Constitution for inspiration and in fact if you closely examine the two it seems as if some parts of the the U.S. Constitution were taken directly from that of the Iroquois.

Migrations of early man

As we learned in class on Friday and today, the first ancestors of modern Humans originated in Africa and spread out first westward into Asia and Australia and then across the Frozen Land Bridge to the Americas. I'm sure many of you have seen the movie Ice Age, while the movie obviously deals with talking animals, it portrays the different animals leaving an area due to the change in climate, this would then lead to the Hunter-Gatherer type nomads living in the area to following the animals. Another good example some aspects of the life of early man is the movie 10000 B.C. Specifically the mammoth hunting scene towards the beginning that is a good depiction of how groups of smaller and weaker humans would work together to take down the much larger and stronger mammoth.

Hi all and welcome to World History 1X. As you all know i am assisting Mr. Rogers this year and will be teaching some sections of the class. I will be posting little blurbs after class that we do in class throughout the semester. Be sure to leave comments on the different sections, also if you want me to write about a certain topic just let me know in class or in the comments section