English Dictionary

Despite these and other strengths, however, the Iroquois became weakened throughout the seventeenth and into the early eighteenth centuries as they faced several ordeals: “first came massive depopulation from imperial diseases; next, a slide into economic dependence on trade with Europeans; then ensnarement in the imperial struggles of powerful French and English colonial neighbors; finally, direct incursions on Iroquois territory and sovereignty” (p. 2).