From Champlain and Hudson's initial voyages some 400 years ago, to the surrender of Montreal in 1760, offers unprecedented coverage of the 150-year struggle between New World rivals along this natural invasion route—a struggle which would ultimately determine the destiny of North America. Unlike other volumes on this period, includes extensive coverage from the French and Dutch as well as British perspectives, examining events in the context of larger colonial confrontations. Drawing on hundreds of firsthand accounts, it recaps political maneuvers and blunders, military successes and failures, and the remarkable people behind them all: cabinet ministers in Paris, Amsterdam, and London; colonial leaders such as Stuyvesant, Frontenac, and Montcalm; shrewd diplomats of the Iroquois Confederacy; and soldiers and families on all sides of the conflict. It also highlights the growing friction between Britain and her American colonies, which would soon lead to a different war.