Page 204 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

warfare—post-columbian north america 1981

Nothing in this world is to be feared... only
understood. • Marie Curie (1867–1934)

The English (British after 1701) It was however between the French and the English
The British were almost exclusively interested in acquir- that the longest, most costly, and in the end most signif-
ing land for agricultural use, which entailed the dis- icant of these imperial wars was waged. Between 1689
placement of the local native tribes and much resultant and 1763, the English and the French faced off in a series
warfare. The English settlers brought from England the of four separate yet interrelated conflicts.These conflicts
tradition of the militia, all military-age males were were characterized by a blending of frontier-type warfare,
required to provide their own weapons and train a spe- reminiscent of native warfare with numerous bloody but
cific number of days a year and were liable for service brief ambushes and raids along the frontier, and the more
within the colony.The English settlements relied on this traditional European-style confrontation of siege and set-
militia force for both its defensive capability and its piece battle, though the numbers involved in these battles
offensive capability against Native Americans and other were generally very small compared with their European
threats to the security of the colony. counterparts.
The most significant problem the English settlements These wars grew in scope and intensity throughout the
faced was their dispersal on farms and in small villages period. By 1763 the British had committed a significant
along the frontier. As the frontier advanced inland, the portion of their regular army to the colonial struggle in
Native Americans had a ready and vulnerable set of tar- North America, but not before they generated increasing
gets to strike at with their traditional raid and ambush colonial resentment for what were perceived as disap-
tactics.The English responded by fortifying houses in the pointments, broken promises, and outright betrayals of
villages, launching periodic punitive campaigns against the colonial cause. Early on, the British colonists had
the Native Americans, and conducting active militia determined that their security would never be insured
patrols and ambushes along likely Indian approaches and their ability to expand into the interior would be con-
during times of trouble.The English faced repeated upris- strained until the French had been driven from both
ings and minor wars with native tribes from 1622 in Vir- Canada and the Ohio and Mississippi river basins. For
ginia until 1675, in both King Philip’s War in New the colonists this was not a case of a series of imperial
England and Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia, as well as border wars between the mother countries, their col-
many other conflicts along their expanding frontiers. onists, and their native allies. It was instead a war of sur-
vival, and in order to survive the French and Indian threat
Imperial Warfare had to be destroyed at its source, the French settlements
in North America along the St. Lawrence and the fur trading posts along
Various forms of conflict between European powers in the lakes and rivers of the interior. It was not until 1758
North America and the waters along its coasts and in the that the British government under William Pitt the Elder
Caribbean began in the middle portion of the 1500s as adopted the same view.
the Dutch rebelled against Hapsburg Spanish rule.Their It was during the fourth and final war, the SevenYears
naval and privateer forces, later joined by English priva- War in Europe or the French and Indian War in North
teers, attacked Spanish settlements and treasure ships. America, that all the components of warfare in North
About a century later, the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the America came together: extended large-scale border
1650s and early 1660s also slipped over into North ambushes and raids conducted by Native Americans allied
America, with the English gaining control of the Dutch with local militia or European regulars,the largest of these
settlements along the Hudson River from Albany in the being Braddock’s defeat on the Monongahela River in
north to New Amsterdam in the south. The English 1755; large-scale European-style sieges of Fort William
renamed the colony and the major port city at the mouth Henry, Louisburg, and Quebec (though Louisburg had
of the Hudson New York. been besieged several times before); and,finally, the single