Iroquois Finger Lakes region, and upstate New York along the St. Lawrence River area downstream to today's Montreal. French, Dutch and British colonists in both New France (Canada) and the what became the Thirteen Colonies recognized a need to gain favor with the Iroquois people, who occupied a significant portion of lands west of colonial settlements. Their first relations with them were for fur trading, which was favorable and became lucrative to both sides. The colonists also sought to establish positive relations to secure their settlement borders. For nearly 200 years the Iroquois were a powerful factor in North American colonial
Country can refer both to sovereign states and to other political entities, while other times it can refer only to states. For example, the "CIA World Factbook" uses the word in its "Country name" field to refer to "a wide variety of dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, uninhabited islands, and other entities in addition to the traditional countries or independent states". The word "country" comes from Old French "contrée", which derives from Vulgar Latin ("terra") "contrata" ("(land) lying opposite"; "(land) spread before"), derived from "contra" ("against, opposite"). It most likely entered the English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th