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War in the Pacific Northwest centred around the canoe, which could be up to 20 metres long. Flotillas of canoes would attack enemy villages, hoping to capture prisoners to keep as slaves. Coastal forts of cedar logs were to be found, used to help control and tax maritime trade.

The peoples of the Pacific coast were formidable fighters during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their warriors used bows and javelins, carried clubs and bone-bladed daggers, and could wear wooden armour. They preferred a mass assault, but treachery during 'friendly' meetings were not rare.

This page summarizes the national significance of Prince of Wales Fort according to the ministerially approved recommendations of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. Prince of Wales Fort was significant in terms of the French/English rivalry over resources in the Hudson's Bay.

The site at Coteau-du-Lac represented a major point of transit for British military logistics efforts. Between 1781 and 1814, the army developed large-scale infrastructures on the site, which testify to the importance the colonial authorities attached to improving and protecting transportation and communications along the route linking Montréal and Kingston.

With its obvious strategic location, Signal Hill became the site of harbour defences from the 18th century through the Second World War. The last battle of the Seven Years' War in North America was fought here in 1762.

The border region between Upper Canada and the United States became troubled during the early 1790s. British garrisons remained in several posts south of the Great Lakes, and American troops were fighting a campaign against an alliance of several Amerindian nations in 1790-1791.

The third fort on this site, construction began on Fort Chambly in 1709. It was made of stone and looked rather like a castle. This made it different from the low-lying, bastioned fortresses of Europe. The fort was built to be impressive and all but impregnable to Indian enemies and raiding American colonials. The fort wall facing the Richelieu River was pierced for artillery. During the War of 1812, Fort Chambly was the HQ for British and Canadian troops guarding the area south of Montreal against an advance by American armies. The complex fell into ruins during the 19th century. Its walls were stabilized in 1885 when it was made a Canadian government historic park. Recognized as a unique surviving example of military architecture, Fort Chambly was given a major restoration in the 1980s by Parks Canada. This returned the fort to its appearance of the mid-18th century.

These 24-pounder guns on garrison carriages are found in a bastion at Fort George National Historic Site, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. This solid carriage, with its small wheels and strong construction, was used to mount heavy guns in forts and field fortifications. The wheels were only intended to allow the gun to be pointed at its target. To move any great distance, a gun of this size would normally be dismounted and moved in a travelling carriage or heavy wagon drawn by a large team of horses. In North America during the early 19th century, movement by boat was preferred whenever possible because of the poor state of the roads.

These ruins encompass a massive fortification that commemorates the role of Prince of Wales Fort in the 18th-century French/English rivalry for control of the territory and resources around Hudson Bay.

Fort St Joseph was built in the late 1790s to ensure British access to lakes Huron and Superior. In 1812, it was the base for the successful attack on the American Fort Michilimackinac on Mackinac Island, Michigan. This capture led to the Anglo-Canadian control of much of the Northwest during the war. The large building in the centre of the fort is a blockhouse, built in 1797. Other structures included a guardhouse, kitchen, storehouse, powder magazine, bakehouse, and blacksmith shop. The whole complex was surrounded by a wooden palisade with four bastions.