The Beaver Wars occurred in which century?

• A. 16th century
• B. 17th century
• C. 18th century
• D. 19th century

Answer: (B)

Beaver Wars are best understood through the timeline of a key period in northeastern North American colonial history, when the Iroquois Confederacy expanded to control the fur trade and faced opponents allied with French and Dutch interests. The fighting centers on roughly the mid-1600s through the late-1600s, with the most intense campaigns occurring in the 1660s–1670s. Although a peace was established in 1701, ending the conflicts in the early eighteenth century, the bulk of the war’s activity happened in the seventeenth century. That’s why the seventeenth century is the right framing for when these wars occurred.