2.5: Interactions Between Native Americans and Europeans
2.5: Explain how and why interactions between various European nations and American Indians changed over time.
In the last set of notes, we talked about the Triangular Trade and now, we’re fully moving on to the interactions between Native Americans and the Europeans during this time period.
So how did interactions between natives and Europeans change over time? Well, starting with Spain, they fundamentally altered the society and social hierarchy of the Americas by introducing the Casta System and they saw the Native Americans as people that were only good for their labor and to be converted to Christianity. Reaching back to the previous period, the Spanish established Santa Fe as the capital of New Mexico in 1610 and they employed brutal measures to convert the Pueblo people to Christianity which led to the Pueblo Revolt where the Pueblo succeeded in removing the Spanish from their territory and destroying churches until the Spanish returned 12 years later and unconquered it.
English and Metacom’s War
The English treatment of the natives was very different from the Spanish treatment. Whenever the Spanish encountered large empires such as the Aztec and Incan Empires, they enslaved or killed the natives. However, the British arrived in less populated areas and did not have a large labor force to enslave. The British also did not intermarry with the natives either, unlike the French. Instead, they coexisted peacefully with the natives at first and traded goods, tools, and farming techniques. However, as their population grew, they needed more land and began taking it from the natives. This led to conflicts such as Metacom's War, also known as King Philip’s War, in 1675. Metacom, the chief of the Wampanoag people, allied with other Indian groups and attacked the colonies. But he was eventually killed by the Mohawk people, allies of the British. Compared to the population at the time, this was the bloodiest war in American history.
French
The French saw the natives as potential allies and trade partners, resulting in them building many trading posts across North America to gain access to the native fur trade. They often intermarried with the natives to gain access to their trade. Additionally, the French formed alliances with certain groups, such as the Huron, to combat other groups, such as the Iroquois.
In The Colonies
In New England, many New England towns were destroyed during Metacom’s War. But after his defeat, this was the last major threat to the colonists in America.
In the Connecticut Valley, the English & Pequot had similar violent conflicts. As a result, the English torched Pequot villages and killed most of their population.
In the Middle Colonies, the Iroquois Confederacy was one of the largest native nations on the continent. They allied themselves with the British against the French and their native allies, the Huron. In the Beaver Wars of the 1640s, the Iroquois fought the French and Hurons over beaver pelts and hunting land rights in the Ohio Valley and chased numerous tribes out of their lands.
In Pennsylvania, relations between colonists and natives were more friendlier and peaceful thanks to the founder, William Penn. But later, many Europeans expanded westward and created conflict with natives, leading to many tribes being destroyed by 1740.
In the Southern colonies, many wars broke out between the colonists and local tribes such as the Powhatans. For example, the Governor of Virginia, Lord De La Warr, torched cornfields and houses to eliminate the Powhatans by 1646. Similar events would occur involving the Tuscaroras in North Carolina and the Yamasee in South Carolina in the early 1700s. The Cherokee and Creeks, on the other hand, would remain safe for the next 50 years in Georgia and were left mostly untouched during this time.
As a result of trade, tribes such as the Iroquois became heavily armed and had an advantage over tribes that didn’t trade. But trade also led to the spread of disease, killing millions of natives from smallpox, a disease that they had never encountered before and had no immunity to.
Despite trading relations, none of the Europeans ever saw the natives as equals. Because the natives lived in diverse and sometimes warring groups, the Europeans rarely had to worry about a unified resistance from them. Once it became clear that the Europeans were here to stay permanently, natives tried adapting to this in many different ways. Some allied with the Europeans in hopes that this would help them survive. Others migrated away toward the west. But within the coming centuries, neither of these strategies would work.
