Fall of the Huron

 Making enemies with the Iroquois wasn’t the only major problem with  Samuel de Champlain's native alliance. As their alliance with the Huron got stronger, Champlain was invited to Huronia in 1615, where he learned even more about his Huron allies beliefs and culture, and grew closer to them. He decided that he wanted to help his new friends be accepted by god, so he brought in missionaries to bring the 25000 Huron the word of god, and convert them to Catholicism. Some of the natives willingly converted, but many didn’t. Although this was good intentioned, it was the start of cultural assimilation to the Huron people’s, because many of them didn’t want to lose their culture and religion that they'd lived with for years. On top of that, these incoming French brought diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis, which killed off many Huron people, and greatly weakened Huronia. Years after Champlain was gone, in 1643, the Iroquois noticed Huronia’s weakness and attacked, killing many of them, and causing many others to flee into exile. By the year 1649, the Huron people only had numbers of 10,000 and it steadily continued to decrease. Champlain’s earlier actions marked the end of Huronia and the Huron people.

Mistaken Intentions

Champlain did these things in good intentions. He wanted his new allies to be accepted into heaven because he truly did start to care for them, and thought that converting them was the best way to help. He was unaware of the diseases that could be brought in. He had no intention of harming the Huron people, but his inability to recognize that the Huron had their own legitimate religion was what lead to the end of their people.