The Great Treaty of 1722 was a document signed in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

by leaders of the Five Nations of

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Province of New York The Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and later royal colony on the northeast coast of North America. As one of the Middle Colonies, New York achieved independence and worked with the others to found the Uni ...

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...

, and

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to W ...

. Also known as the Treaty of Albany, it was made to create a boundary and keep the peace between English settlers and the Iroquois nations. The Governor of Virginia,

Alexander Spotswood Alexander Spotswood (12 December 1676 – 7 June 1740) was a British Army officer, explorer and lieutenant governor of Colonial Virginia; he is regarded as one of the most significant historical figures in British North American colonial h ...

used this treaty as a way to bring more settlers to North America and expand the British Empire.

Details

Following the

Beaver Wars The Beaver Wars ( moh, Tsianì kayonkwere), also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars (french: Guerres franco-iroquoises) were a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America throughout t ...

of the 17th century, the Iroquois confederacy had amassed a great deal of influence in North America. The

British colonies in North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestown, ...

were still relatively small, but growing in influence- especially following the 1664 acquisition of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

. The Iroquois re-iterated their dominance over other Native Nations, specifically naming the Tuscaroras, Conestoga, and

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

. They agreed to use their influence to protect the British colonies from attacks from Native Americans. The negotiations included a grievance reconciliation process, which promoted restorative justice rather than the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. It was based on the February 1722 murder of Sawantaeny, a

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

hunter, by brothers John and Edmund Cartlidge. One of the two brothers had struck Sawantaeny in the head when he refused to accept rum as payment for furs. The principle negotiator for the British colonies was William Burnet. A principle spokesman for the Iroquois was a man referred to as "Captain Civility," a

Susquehannock The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern p ...

man who spoke multiple native languages.

References

Sources

* * * * * <“Excerpts from the Treaty of Albany (1722).” Excerpts from the Treaty of Albany (1722) , World History Commons, worldhistorycommons.org/excerpts-treaty-albany-1722#doc_transcription./> British North America Iroquois Treaties of indigenous peoples of North America 1722 treaties {{US-hist-stub