Essay 2

While the Indians of eastern North America possessed a tactical advantage over the
European, and later American, colonists, the logistical and technological superiority of the
colonists allowed them to prevail. When the Europeans first landed in North America, they
brought with them diseases that eradicated large portions of the Indian population. This left the
Indians significantly more vulnerable and less able to defend themselves against these European
interlopers.1
The Indians were not combative to begin with and were content to share the land with the
European colonists and engage in trade with them. The Europeans wanted more and more land
and resorted to chicanery and force to take it from the Indians. During the Pequot War, the
English resorted to total war tactics, including the razing of villages and killing all within.2 The
English had superior technology and other Indian allies to help wage their war against the
Pequot.
Later in the 17th century and into the 18th, Indians were more immune to the Europeans diseases
and were just as well armed as they were.3 In this time period, Indians made alliances with the
major colonial powers of France and Britain. In the following years of Anglo-French wars, the
colonists did not develop woodland warfare tactics, but imported European standard tactics.4
1 Steele, 84.

2 Ibid, 92.

3 Ibid, 131.

4 Ibid, 136.

This led to Indians learning more tactics and gaining firearms. Eventually this intercolonial
warfare would come to an end with the expulsion of France from North America at the
conclusion of the Seven Years war.
Now that they were no longer fighting the French, the English turned toward westward
expansion, specifically the Ohio River Valley. The Seven Years War had brought many of the
Indian nations in the Ohio Valley into contact with one another, and they formed alliances to oust
the British.5 An Indian chief, Pontiac, tried to siege Detroit and several other British forts in the
Ohio Valley. While Detroit was not taken, several other forts were. In addition to attacking
British forts, the Indians also attacked American colonists. Eventually these hostilities ended
with peace treaty defining a clear line between colonial and Indian territories.
With the advent of the American Revolution, many Indian nations sided with the British because
the British offered them land that the Americans would claim for their own. After the Revolution
the British bribed the Indians into harrying Americans in the Ohio Valley.6 This would eventually
be one of the contributing factors that led to the War of 1812. The sheer numbers of troops could
martial, especially including angry, frontier militiamen, would allow them to win against the
Indians. The Indians were then either tricked or forced to sign treaties relocating them onto less
favorable lands west of the Mississippi River.

5 Ibid, 236.

6 Wooster, 35.

Works Cited
Steele, Ian. 1994. Warpaths. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wooster, Robert. 2009. The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army in the West,
1783-1900. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.