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Cause Of The Pequot War

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The Pequot War The Pequot War was a very bloody war during the early colonial period of the Americas and had a great effect on the Americas. However, it is what happened before the Pequot War that truly gives light to why it happened. Before the war, the New England colonies were expanding greatly, and this thusly caused the colonists to come into conflict with the indigenous people of the Americas (Meuwese, 2011). Preparing for a battle with the indigenous peoples, John Winthrop had prepared the New Englanders for conflict by, according to Schultz (2010), "agreeing to train all male colonists to use fire arms, forbidding Indians' entering Puritan towns, and forbidding Puritans' selling firearms to Indians" (p. 41). There were minor…show more content…
This war demonstrated how the relations between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the colonizing Europeans during future interactions (Schultz, 2010). In addition to this war, which occurred in the 1630s, just 10 years prior, in the year 1622, similar conflicts with the indigenous peoples of the Americas had happened in Jamestown (Schultz, 2010). This was also due to the expansion of a colony, this time the colony of Jamestown, causing increased tensions with the indigenous peoples. The conflict between Jamestown and the native peoples truly started once their leadership changed with the death of Powhatan in the year 1618 and passed on to his successor, Opechancanough (Schultz, 2010). Opechancanough sought to eliminate the colonists, planning a formidable assault against the colonists that finally came to fruition in the year 1622 (Schultz, 2010). This intense attack against the colonists wiped out 357 of the English colonists of Jamestown, which was roughly one-fourth of their population at the time of the attack (Schultz, 2010). The colonists, furious of this attack, felt it gave them the right and reason to retaliate against Opechancanough and his tribe, as well as ever other indigenous person that they encountered along the way (Schultz, 2010). It is because of this that the colonists felt that the native peoples were capable of attacking them and slaughtering them at any given moment
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