What I mean by this question is, were forts like Detroit manned by soldiers sent from France to man it for a certain period before being relieved by another company from France, or where they manned by French colonial Militia? I understand the situation might be different for the British as they had far more colonists in their colonies than the French, and so am I right to assume they relied more on Colonial Militia?
How were these Forts resupplied? Was there an annual or biannual resupply convoy that came to the fort from the mother country on a fixed basis, or did the soldiers need to send a squad by ship to their country to request supplies?
Regarding Natives, why did some prefer the British and others French or Spanish, what did each power do for certain tribes to make them like them whereas other tribes did not?
You do know before Europeans ever showed up in North America there were no forts. Some ships carrying clergy would convince the locals into joining their religion, usually by the pressure of damnation, and built many religious buildings, missions you might say. As more and more Europeans infiltrated this other land, the locals would help out those who wanted help and when the Europeans decided they had some right to land, people, or food, they would jail or kill the locals. In retaliation the locals would fight back, and now the Europeans claimed they were victims and built large structures- I’m sorry, they used locals to build these structures to defend against natives who struck back. I don’t get the reference to Detroit. Are you asking about French forts in particular?
Tribes didn’t get to pick and choose. If a French Garrison showed up, they were going to covert the locals. Same with Spanish, English, etc. Now in replacing the personnel, that’s based on how profitable the fort was. The area around St Augustine was discovered by Spanish way before the English outcasts founded the area around Plymouth Rock in 1620. Once discovery of gold, spices, or slaves were acquired, then a ship heading back to Europe was sent, requesting replacements. If word didn’t get back for a while, replacements didn’t show up.