Champlain Tech: Naval and Military Technology of the 1609 Lake Champlain Expedition

Samuel de Champlain's voyage to Lake Champlain with sixty Indigenous companions in July, 1609, stood at a decisive corner in technological history. When Champlain confronted the Iroquois that summer 400 years ago, he bore body armor and sword at the culmination of nine hundred years of European technological development. He also carried the primitive gun that ended it all. His Native allies, with their highly developed rod and slat body armor, sophisticated composite articulated shields, and massed frontal battle formations, were also at the twilight of technical development, about to be swept aside in the "cover and concealment" strategy of the Colonial Wars. In the final analysis, the multifaceted knowledge- and skills-based material system that went to Lake Champlain is as important to our understanding of how Lake Champlain was discovered as is the understanding of Champlain's character or French policy.