Page 203 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1980 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

successful in the face of generally overwhelming numbers. first unified uprising against the Spanish in New Mexico.
The Spanish set the example for this both with their rel- It would be thirteen years before another expedition
atively easy conquest of the Caribbean Islands of His- would reconquer the province of New Mexico. By 1700
paniola and Cuba as well the smaller islands and their the Spanish had again occupied the Pueblo territory and
later conquests in Mexico and Peru.The keys to their suc- reestablished settlements, decimating the Pueblo popu-
cess were the differing approach to warfare between the lation in the process. After 1700 the Spanish continued
Europeans and the Native Americans, the superior tech- to expand the area under their direct control, and while
nology of the Europeans, intertribal differences, and the they met continued opposition from native groups, the
impact of disease. basic pattern remained the same, small numbers of
The initial Spanish forays into the North American Spaniards overawing larger numbers of natives. However,
continent were exploratory expeditions, which operated when the natives were incited and supplied as well as sup-
more as raids, searching for more wealth, as had been ported by other Europeans, the conflict took on the
found in Mexico and Peru, and when not finding it, mov- characteristics of an imperial border war.
ing on. Oftentimes, their meandering was more the result
of rumors spread by native leaders than deliberate routes The French
planned by the explorers and conquistadors. The Span- The French in New France and the Mississippi River
ish generated hostility by their incessant demands for Basin had a much different experience in that the French
food and gold that resulted in the local natives offering were not interested in large-scale settlement and agricul-
various levels of noncooperation or resistance. These ture or mining. Instead, they were interested in the fur
early expeditions, especially the efforts of Hernando de trade, which required the cooperation of the Native
Soto, beginning in Florida and wandering as far north Americans. Therefore, with few exceptions the French
perhaps as the Carolinas and then west to the Mississippi chose to establish very good relations with the natives
Valley, were unsuccessful in locating any vast new areas and in fact offered their active support against their
of riches. However, both de Soto’s expedition and Coro- friends’ traditional enemies, such as the Iroquois. Thus,
nado’s through the American Southwest as far north as very quickly the warfare on the French frontiers adopted
Kansas did provide valuable information on the native the characteristics of imperial border warfare, with both
peoples and basic weather and terrain conditions. Europeans and Native Americans on both sides of the
Subsequent Spanish expeditions established settle- conflict.
ments in Florida and Southwest, especially in New Mex-
ico. These settlements were a combination of military The Dutch
outposts and missionary churches.The Spanish were gen- The Dutch established settlements in what is today New
erally able to overawe the natives with firearms, steel, and York prior to the settlement of the English Pilgrims and
cavalry, to which the native tribes of the Southeast and Puritans in New England.The Dutch, while interested in
Southwest had no effective answer. The Spaniards were settlement and agriculture, were also very interested in the
very careful to prevent firearms and initially horses from fur trade, which resulted in a bifurcated policy, on one
falling into the hands of the Native Americans. hand displacing Native Americans in the Hudson River
The relatively easy, though at times violent and bloody, Valley, and on the other operating as suppliers and some-
conquest of the borderlands was tested in 1680 by a time allies to the Iroquois of the northern and western
widespread uprising of the Pueblo Indians. Drought and frontier areas. Dutch penetration into the Connecticut
high temperatures as well as increasing Spanish demands River valley in the 1630s helped to bring on the Pequot
on the Pueblos, combined with a series of successful raids War, which was primarily but not exclusively fought by
by Apaches, Navajos, and Plains Indians, resulted in the English settlers against the Pequot tribe.