APUSH 2.5 Interactions Between Native Americans and Europeans

The Spanish

As you will recall, Spain established an Imperial Order built upon economic exploitation, religious conversion, and social hierarchy which included both enslavement and intermarriage
The Spanish name their their Western Hemispheric holdings, “New Spain,” shows how it was a replication of the Spanish social, cultural, religious, and commercial order
From the beginning, the Spanish sought alliances in order to divide the indigenous people against them and to consolidate their own position * Native American groups who chose to ally with the Spanish did so out of similar motivations/the perception of a common enemy

The Spanish Southwest

Spain’s North American colonies were largely a defensive buffer against British and French encroachment into their Central and South American holdings
As such, they had relatively low colonial populations and military resources deployed in North America
This allowed for more successful Native American resistence to Spanish colonization here than elsewhere * The Spanish were stretched too thin to full deal with outbreaks such as the Pueblo Revolt * This Revolt stopped Spanish colonization of New Mexico for nearly 20 years
Native groups of the Southwest also developed their interactions with one another in response to the Spanish threat * They would increase their trade, access to horses, and military strength

The French

The French prioritized commerce and trade, the fur trade specifically, over conquest * As a result, the French left a much smaller footprint in terms of population and subjugation * With regards to religious conversion, the sending of Catholic missionaries to colonies was a definite, if secondary, policy
With a smaller population, and fewer women among them, the French had to have Native cooperation and collaboration in order to sustain their colonial holdings * This led to a more equal relationship in diplomacy, social interaction, and cultural diffusion within French colonies

The Dutch

Dutch colonial holdings were even smaller than the French, and were almost exclusively driven by commerce * As such, trade relationships with Natives were a major priority of their colonies
Unlike the Spanish and French, the Dutch made virtually no attempt at religious conversion

The British

Colonial priorities centered on territorial acquisition, expansion, and redevelopment, even within the religious-based colonies of New England
Religious conversation of the Native people was less of a priority, as they were never to be incorporated into the English model for colonial society
Unlike the Spanish or French, there was very little place for Native Americans within the British model of colonization * The main policy of the British with regards to Natives was to expel or exterminate them from territory that was sought after for economic development or repopulation
This process would culminate itself in a series of wars between English colonists and Native Americans, in both Northern and Southern colonies
Although referred to as “wars,” such as Metacom’s War, these were often campaigns of extermination waged by colonists against entire populations * There was very little engagement between armies and the killing was incredibly one-sided * Disease depleted the Native’s abilities to resist
The driving force behind these conflicts was universally the same, irrespective of region * There was competition for food and resources, distrust of Native people’s intentions, and a continuous growth of colonial populations that required more land for settlement
Native alliances with the British were made rarely and for convenience, when one tribal group aimed to neutralize another * The result was a pattern of periods of relative peace, during which colonial population and resource use pressures gradually increased * This would then cause periods of conflict, as Native Americans were displaced of their land, eliminated, or pushed westward * This cycle then repeated itself