Indian Wars: Magazine Report

Over the course of the 17th century, the relationship between the English colonies and the Native Americans changed drastically. At first, there was a peaceful relationship and the two groups even helped each other out; but, as time passed, the relationship began to deteriorate and the two groups became hostile towards each other.

Anglos continued to encroach upon the Natives’ lands and settle there. This caused conflict between Anglos and Natives, which usually did not end well for the latter. Natives would often, “ ... fall under the assault of our [American] troops” (Pratt 1). American troops would often kill the Native people whenever there was a conflict. America showed its power and dominance over Natives by bullying and hurting them. Anglos did not respect the Native people and continued to assert their dominance. Many people of the time thought that, “... the only good Indian is [was] a dead one...” (Pratt 1). Anglos did not believe that Natives deserved to live here; Anglos thought they were of the past and did not belong in America. The oppression of the Natives caused them to lose the will to fight

During 1607,1608,1609,and 1610 there were lots of indian attacks. Throughout those years 173 colonist died from Indian attacks. The relationship between the indians and the colonist got worse. In the biginnig the indians trusted the colonist but they would kill the indians and take their food. The colonist died from the indians because they would fight each other for food,water,and other resources.

In exchange, the encomendero could force the Native Americans to pay tribute in forms of bullion and labor. Eventually, the native people began to die off from the harsh labor and foreign diseases that the Spanish brought from Spain. The Native Americans rejected Spanish control and returned to their customs. Angered by this, the Spanish captured 46 Pueblo leaders, which started the Pueblo Revolt. After years of fighting, the Spanish regained control. In New England, relationships with local Native Americans started out peaceful. The Native Americans and settlers of New England began to trade with each other. Native Americans, who were used to their elementary weapons, acquired better weapons from the Europeans. This once beneficiary exchange between the two cultures eventually grew tense. As years went on and more settlers came to America, conflicts arose. An agreement formed between Dutch settlers of New York and the English settlers of New England about the division of the Pequot lands. When no immediate decisions were reached of who would gain the land, New Englanders started to settle in the area without notice. The Pequot took this unplanned invasion as a form of attack, and fought back. After a series of attacks, New England called for reinforcements from allies. By joining forces with Plymouth and the Narragansett people, the English gained control

The tribal peoples now referred to as Native Americans are a community that was brought to the brink of destruction by the combination of treatments by the Europeans who colonized what is now called the United States of America. England and France are countries that engaged in wars in North America. Both countries are important to the history of America. They differed in their objectives in America and they differed in their treatment of the Native Americans. The objectives of each respective country as well as the social, political, economic, and cultural tensions of the time served as a backdrop and a contributing factor to the variations in the relationships with the Native Americans as well as in the treatment of the people.

The Seven Years’ War, also known as the French and Indian War in the colonies, was the beginning of outward conflict between the British and French over North American colonies. Most Europeans viewed the Indians as a means to get something they wanted; they were pawns during this struggle in North America. During the 18th century, there were many alliances and discord among the Indians and the Europeans. The demise of many alliances was the lack of trust and suspicions of betrayal. The Europeans were a dominating force in the French and Indian War affecting aspects of territory, trade, and government in North America.

From the very moment that the Europeans stepped on American soil, they displayed their extraordinary military power and savage outlook towards the native peoples. Their experience with civilized society with access to plenty of firepower gives them an advantage when it comes to military attacks, and when they use this against the Native Americans, it is almost unfair. They attack the Native Americans immediately when they step foot on US soil, and kill them as if they are trophy hunting. Barry Lopez, in The Rediscovery of North America, states about the barbaric Spanish attacks on Native Americans, “The Spanish cut off the legs of children who ran from them. They poured people full of boiling soap. They made bets as to who, with one sweep of his sword, could cut a person in half” (5). This quote shows how much power the colonists held over the Native American and how their doom was essentially inevitable. Killing the Native Americans was practically a hobby for the colonists at this point. The countless battles and land that they gained from the Native Americans also symbolized their power, such as when the Spaniards invaded the town of Acoma. They

Peter Silver’s thesis in Our Savage Neighbors explains that The French and Indian War was the primary cause of the change in social and political standings in the Mid-Atlantic colonies. Silver argues that Europe’s disunity in times of war further influenced the split within the American people and the American natives both culturally and politically. Silver claims that the shift in competitive governmental and economic attitude between the French and the British forced the existing native peoples to become casualties in Europe’s battle for territory. Since the Native American people were not considered a say in their land being taken out from under them, they retaliated from a place of self-defense and fear of their conquerors; consequently,

To better understand the conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans, one must closely examine the state of Europe’s economy at the time. Europe struggled with difficult conditions. This included poverty, violence and diseases like typhus, smallpox, influenza and measles. There were widespread famines which caused the prices of products to vary and made life very difficult in Europe. Street crimes and violence were prevalent in cities: “Other eruption of bizarre torture, murder, and ritual cannibalism were not uncommon”.2 Europeans

So, the Native American’s played an important role in the long stretch of imperial conflicts between the English and the French, as the Natives consistently pitted them against each other, resulting in the wars continuing for several

During the early seventeenth century, Europeans were hungry to explore the Americas. By the time Jamestown, Virginia was founded in 1607, many colonies were claimed, mainly by England. By the year, 1640, the main Chesapeake colonies and New England colonies were established and settled. This close period of discovering colonies allowed them to interact with one another by trade or even politically. This proved to be beneficial to the British because their main settlements would be able to communicate and collaborate with one another to support the British kingdom. Another similarity between the Chesapeake and New England colonies was the relationship they had with the Native American tribes. Though pleasant in the beginning for both sets of colonies, the Native Americans proved to be a struggle in both the north and the south. In New England, the Pequot War annihilated the entire Pequot tribe after the English set fire to the Natives’ living area. In the south, cultural clashes started the First and Second Anglo-Powhatan War. These conflicts with the natives created an instability in the south and north that would never fully dissipate. Though in very different settings, the Chesapeake and New England Colonies shared some

In 1675, the Algonquian Indians rose up in fury against the Puritan Colonists, sparking a violent conflict that engulfed all of Southern New England. From this conflict ensued the most merciless and blood stricken war in American history, tearing flesh from the Puritan doctrine, revealing deep down the bright and incisive fact that anger and violence brings man to a Godless level when faced with the threat of pain and total destruction. In the summer of 1676, as the violence dispersed and a clearing between the hatred and torment was visible, thousands were dead.(Lepore xxi) Indian and English men, women, and children, along with many of the young villages of New England were no more; casualties of a conflict that

Built by the british in 1758 while the french and indian war on the only dry and flat ground in the area. The fort had fell into unrepairable when the war widened in 1776. Resuming on 1777 general leger tried to intimadate the forts occupants by parading his troops in front of the fort. When this didnt work he sent a truce flag bearing a proclamation authored by general burgoyn. Gansevoort refused to respond. After that he began to siege all operations. encamping the regulars and artillery on a low rise north of the fort and most of the Indins and Loyalists to its south with a picket line of Indian encampments along the Mohawk River.St. Leger's artillery was held up by a tactic that was also used to slow down Burgoyne's army after the

As far as warfare was concerned, the Native Americans suffered great losses upon the first conflicts with the Europeans. Many Indians were armed with bows, arrows, and spears, and clad themselves in a type of leather armor. This proved ineffective against the heavy artillery of the Europeans who had thick metal armor along with guns that easily penetrated the Native Americans. Because of the disadvantages that the Native Americans held in warfare, they had to change the way that they had been fighting for centuries. The Native Americans adopted a new strategy for war that consisted of guerilla style attacks. This way, the element of surprise brought them on a somewhat more level playing field due to their technologically inferior weapons. However, over time the Indians began trading with the Europeans to get guns. This completely revolutionized warfare for the Native Americans. Never before had they been in possession of such powerful arms. This made the Native Americans much more lethal during warfare.

Beginning in the summer of 1675 the King Philip 's War started and never stopped, as Native American resisted colonial expansion. These Europeans had eliminated approximately forty percent of the Native American population in New England. This war later led to the Natives struggling in their own communities. Colonists had succeeded and the Native American population declined drastically in New England. Much of the Native American population died to new mysterious diseases, including smallpox, typhus, cholera, and measles. These diseases were brought by the colonists and in fact the population of Native Americans in New England fell in 1675, from 10,000 to 125,000. The Europeans also took over land through trade and by expanding their land claims.