Page 202 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

warfare—post-columbian north america 1979

Continuing Intertribal goods and alliances. As a result French influence spread
Warfare in North America far into the heart of the American continent with both the
Although the European arrival, settlement, and advance voyager de bois and French Jesuit missionaries active as
caused the most intensive conflict in the post-Columbian far west as the trans-Mississippi region. They partici-
New World, it would be a mistake to assume that conflict pated with their allies in intertribal warfare, often having
between Native Americans tribes died out. Instead, in a decisive impact despite their small numbers because of
some ways the presence and effect of the Europeans the technological advantages they possessed and brought
intensified this intertribal warfare. to their allies.
One major source of conflict among the Native Amer- The European arrival also set in motion intertribal war-
icans was the rise of the Iroquois Confederacy, the dom- fare far from their actual zones of conflict as the effects of
inant native power and a nascent empire on the rise in European arrival set in motion two powerful factors. As
the northeastern part of what would become the United Eurasian diseases made their way across the continent,epi-
States.The case of the Iroquois is unusual in that initially demics devastated some tribes,upsetting local balances of
five tribes, later six, banded together in pursuit of com- power, generating wars as the lesser-affected tribes ex-
mon goals in a power-sharing arrangement.The member panded their territories into territories of the more severely
tribes of the Iroquois Confederation agreed not to wage affected tribes. The European arrival also set tribes in
war on one another and combined their power to subdue motion as they were displaced from east to west; this dis-
their neighbors and to dominate trade in the region.The placement also caused wars between tribes as the refugees
power of the Iroquois Confederation was felt north into pushed west. One result of these displacements was the
New France and south as far as the Cherokee lands in the arrival of such tribal groupings as the Lakota on the Great
Carolinas,Tennessee, and Georgia.Though the Iroquois Plains in the 1700s,having been pushed out of the woods
rise predates European settlement in North America, the of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota by the Ojibwa (the
confederation continued to expand its area of influence, Chippewa).The Lakota then pushed the Crow tribe off its
often playing one colonial power off against another to territory and the ripples moved west.
maintain its position. Finally, the distant arrival of the Europeans did not stop
Tribal warfare also continued along the edges of colo- the continuation of traditional patterns of warfare among
nial areas as the various tribes fought over trading rights the more distant tribes who continued to fight over terri-
with the newcomers. European trade goods had a tory in the same way they had done for generations.
tremendous draw for the Native Americans, everything
from firearms and steel axe heads to cloth and iron cook- Wars of Conquest: Europeans
ing pots, to say nothing of European or American dis- against the Native Americans
tilled liquor.These trade goods fundamentally altered the With the beginnings of colonial activity and expansion of
traditional relationships between tribes. In order to gain European powers into North America, each European
control of the highly desired trade goods, the tribes country extended its power in service of its own interests.
needed access to both the Europeans and to the furs and Thus the indigenous people faced encounters ranging
other native products the Europeans desired in return. from violent conquest and displacement to alliance and
Thus, wars broke out between tribes for control of this trade.
trade in addition to the ancient fights over hunting and
agricultural territory and for slaves and honor. The Spaniards
Among the Europeans, the French were perhaps the The European campaigns against Native American tribes
most influential of the newcomers with their fur-trade- began with the earliest landings in the Caribbean by the
driven economy.The French courted the tribes with trade Spanish. Small groups of Europeans were incredibly