Saturday, June 21, 2008
Indo-european relations
An interesting part of the discussion this week i thought was the details about all of the different conflicts between not only whites and indians, but also between indians and other tribes. I especially liked discussing the mini wars that were fought during the 18th century. King Phillips war was very interesting. It showed to me just how much influence some indian leaders had. I think this influence came from the fact that whether colonists liked it or not, they were pretty much in a foriegn land and they had to develop some sort of relations with the Indians in order to ensure thier survival. A good example of this can be in the article that i read about french settlers in the lower mississippi valley. Since they found themselves for the most part isolated from thier country, they had to cooperate with the indians to ensure thier survival. This proves that though conflicts were numerous, sometimes indians and europeans had a mutually helpful relationship. For a little while at least.
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4 comments:
We always hear about how the Europeans showed up on American soil and killed everyone. We very seldom hear about how the Natives of the time dealt and fought back and how alliances with Europeans often led to inter-tribal war.
We also do not usually hear about the conflict that existed between the various tribes themselves.
COverstreet,
You bring up a very interesting point. In a "what if" type of game, I wonder if the Indians would have been better off if from the begining they completely resisted any European contact? (I realize this sounds bad!)How long could Indians have resisted European settlement? You mentioned in your post that a lot of times, European settlers depended on Indians for survival until they could establish themselves.
European countries had invested a lot in exploring "The New World" and I wonder how hard they would have fought to establish a footing in North America? Obviously no one wants bloodshed and war, but for me, it is an interesting "what if" scenario.
One reason (among many) that I like this class is that we delve into information that usually isn't covered in history classes. I think it's important to understand that Indian tribes were incredibly powerful people and they fought the Europeans for their land. There's sort of an assumption in our culture that the Indians were too "weak" in comparison to the Europeans' new technology and weaponry, when in fact the native tribes were a force to be reckoned with.
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