It was signed on August 4, 1701, by Louis-Hector de Callière, governor of New France, and 1300 representatives of 39 Indigenous nations.

[1] The French, allied to the Hurons and the Algonquins, provided 16 years of peaceful relations and trade before war started again.

Control over the fur trade became a high-stakes game among the Native American tribes, as all of them wanted to be the European's chosen intermediary.

In the first half of the 17th century, the Dutch-allied Iroquois made substantial territorial gains against the French-allied First Nations, often threatening French settlements at Montreal and Trois-Rivières.

In the 1680s the French became actively involved in the conflict again, and they and their allied Indians made significant gains against the Iroquois, including incursions deep into the heartland of Iroquoia (present-day Upstate New York).

After a devastating raid by the Iroquois against the settlement of Lachine in 1689, and the entry the same year of England into the Nine Years' War (known in the English colonies as King William's War), Governor Frontenac organized raiding expeditions against English communities all along the frontier with New France.

French and English colonists, and their Indian allies, then engaged in a protracted border war that was formally ended when the Treaty of Ryswick was signed in 1697.

The treaty of La Grande Paix de Montreal of July 21 to August 7 of 1701[4] was signed as a symbol of peace between the French and the First Nations.

The ratification of the treaty was not agreed to immediately due to the discussions between the First Nations representatives and Governor Callière's dragging on, both sides being eager to negotiate as much as possible.

A square in Old Montreal was renamed Place de la Grande-Paix-de-Montréal to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the peace.