USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -By the early decades of the nineteenth century, the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Northwest Company, and the American Fur Company had, combined, a system of trading posts across North America, including posts in Oregon and British Columbia and on the Mackenzie River.

Detailed explanation-2: -The fur trade started because of a fashion craze in Europe during the 17th century. Europeans wanted to wear felt hats made of beaver fur. The most important players in the early fur trade were Indigenous peoples and the French. The French gave European goods to Indigenous people in exchange for beaver pelts.

Detailed explanation-3: -The major trade goods were woollen blankets, cotton and linen cloth, metal goods, firearms and fishing gear. Tobacco, alcohol, trade jewellery and other luxury items accounted for only ten percent of the goods traded. The fur traders received far more than furs from Native people.

Detailed explanation-4: -Who were the mountain men? They were the pathfinders of yore, lovers of nature, and fiercely independent. They lived and roamed the mountains and back-country of America from the 1800s to about the 1860’s. They were America’s original survivalists; trapping beaver, muskrat, and otter, and living off the land.