From the moment English settlers arrived in the New World, they
encountered the native population, principally due to disputes over land
ownership. To assert their rights to the country, which the English had
been granted by their king without the consent of the local tribes, the
English relied on their more modern weaponry. However, the settlers soon
found that bows and arrows along with superior tactics and marksmanship
by the Amerindians (once they had obtained muskets), made the fighting
far more balanced than the settlers anticipated.
In the first war fought in Virginia (made famous by several
interventions of the Powhatan princess Pocahontas), the English were
almost driven out of America. They only survived thanks to
reinforcements that met the fleeing settlers just before sailing back to
England. Besieged behind the wooden walls of Jamestown, the English lost
far many more people to disease and starvation than were killed in
Amerindian attacks.
By 1635, several of the new rival colonies including the Dutch, cast
covetous eyes over the broad reaches of the Connecticut River. Rather
than negotiate a deal with the Pequot (the dominant native tribe), the
English used a pretext to march upon the unsuspecting major Pequot
settlement at Mystic where they massacred the men, women and children.
They continued to pursue and slay any survivors they chanced upon.
In 1675, threatened by land grabs, the Wampanoag leader, King Philip,
rose up against the colonists and destroyed several villages. The
English in turn, marched against their one-time allies, the much larger
Narragansett tribe and once again, massacred them in their secluded
swampland fort.
With most outlying settlements razed to the ground, the English were
forced to adopt Amerindian tactics and in Benjamin Church they found a
man who adapted and adopted native fieldcraft to become the founder of
'The Rangers'. Church managed to track down and kill Philip and his
death brought the war in most of New England, to an end. However, in
Maine, the Abenaki continued to fight and to win, driving most of the
settlers out of their coast-hugging townships. Many of the Abenaki were
tricked into surrender and sold into slavery but by 1678, a treaty was
signed that returned land to the Abenaki and the English agreed to pay
tribute to the Amerindians. The failure to honor these arrangements led
to six more wars between the two sides.
In the end, the seemingly endless supply of new settlers and replacement
weaponry meant the English were destined to win over the land and
exterminate the tribes. But while the numbers were more evenly matched,
the outcome of these wars was very much in doubt.
