Between 1664 and 1763, the Champlain Valley witnessed a continuous struggle between the French and British Empires for control of Lake Champlain and its tributaries. These water routes were strategic highways that provided access into the interior of the Northeast in a period when the only viable means of transportation in a rugged land was by water. Expeditions and forts were continually raised in defense of rival claims of the Champlain Valley and its waterways. Armies and war parties transported themselves on Lake Champlain in fleets of canoes, bateaux, radeaux, row galleys, schooners, and sloops. This period came to an end after the French and Indian War, when Britain assumed control of most of France's territorial claims in North America. Conflicts between the French and the British began to arise after 1664, when the British captured the colony of New Amsterdam from the Dutch. The Dutch struggled to regain control of New Amsterdam, but they were permanently driven from North America by 1675. British royal grants to Massachusetts in 1620 and to New York in 1664, confirmed by a treaty in 1665, also gave the British vague claims to the Champlain Valley. Taking note of French expansion south into the Champlain Valley, the British sent scouts to find out the extent of the French operations on Lake Champlain. The British managed to avoid direct conflict on Lake Champlain at this time, by cleverly playing upon the traditional ill will the Iroquois bore against the French and urged their Indian allies to actively oppose French expansion into Lake Champlain. Until 1690, the British minimized direct contact with the French; all conflicts appeared to be struggles between the French and the Iroquois.