Contenders in the New World

In the Earliest days of the European explorations and incursions into the territories of the First Nations, just about every European country had contact with the western Hemisphere. It began with Portugal and then quickly spread to Spain. The French, British, Dutch and any other country interested in trade got involved in quick succession. Initially it was difficult to get interest in exploring to the west as in the opinion of the church and monarchy, the world was flat. Consider that Europe fell into a dark age that lasted almost a thousand years. Barely a few decades before, the Europeans had just gotten the printing press and movable type. Radical ideas emerged and one of the people influenced by them was the Portuguese Christopher Columbus. He made requests beginning in 1485, but it took him some time to convince King John II and then Queen Isabella of the possibility of reaching the Orient via the west instead of traditional routes and being too poor to afford his own ships and crew, had to seek funding. This was eventually, but reluctantly approved in 1491 after he argued persuasively that the trip was possible due to the earth being round and not flat as was popularly believed, despite the facts of Greek Findings nearly two millennium earlier.

Columbus set off in 1492 in three small ships and made landfall in the Caribbean later that year. He immediately encountered First Nations people living on what we now call the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and smaller islands in the region. It was not until 1498 that landfall was made in what we now call South America during his third voyage. The fourth and final Voyage landed in Maya territory. All the while, he was searching for India and so the term Indian came to be misapplied to the First Nations as a whole. The idea was to find a direct route to trade with India for spices and fine cloth, that India was noted for. Gold was not the initial objective, but was to develop once the mainland was reached. It would take centuries more to ply the Pacific Ocean to get their via that route. In the mean time, the southern route via the horn of Africa was the preferred route, while a new region lay ahead for exploration.

Spain being next door to Portugal was the next to make incursions into the First World once contact had been made around the Gulf of Mexico in various regions. We are familiar with the contacts of Cortez, Pizarro and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado with the Aztecs, Maya, Inca and the predecessors to the Apache. The discovery of gold in Central and South America was the trigger that fuelled intensive exploration. We know of the later incursions started at Plymouth Rock and Roanoke by the English near the end of the 16^th century and via the Hudson Bay Co, from the north while seeking a north west passage. The Spanish being early and vigorous explorers managed to get around Terra-Del-Fuego first and began an intensive program of establishing beach heads along the west coast all the way to Alaska, but concentrating on south America to what is now California. Even Russia eventually got involved, claiming Alaska from the west by exploring east. The Dutch, though making some incursions, were not a main player, preferring to trade closer to home with the other contenders due to their central location. They functioned primarily as bankers and got wealthy doing so. France and England got involved with England claiming the east coastal regions of north America and France claiming the central regions from Quebec, Ontario and the Mississippi corridor.

Coupled with increasingly sophisticated ships, rivalry, firearms and horses, the Europeans had superiority of technology. Sail was virtually unknown by any First Nations peoples; if they knew about it, they didn’t use it as it was impractical for their needs. Horses had once existed in the western hemisphere until driven extinct in the great catastrophe of 12,600 years ago. They were reintroduced beginning in 1518 under the Spanish. In the war against fire arms versus hand held armament like spears, knives and bow and arrow, the winner was the blunderbuss, the flint lock and cannon. Incredibly, these innovations were only recent inventions in Europe. Had these not existed, there would have been a poor chance at best to conquer the First Nations. But the use of these was decisive in the end, though initially projected from half a world away. First Nations got hold of some of these, specifically the flint lock and horse and were transformed virtually overnight, particularly in California and the central plains. Due to competitive war interests, the First Nations were recruited and armed to participate in the expansionist colonial conflicts. By the time these innovations reached the plains, the lives of these First Nations were completely transformed with the advent of horse mounted hunting and warfare. But the horse and fire arm was to be their demise as well as the “Indian Wars” began in earnest. The wars were fuelled by European expansionism and colonialism and the lust for gold and land. The wars were many and varied and turned into one of the longest running wars in history, exceeded only by wars such as the Christian-Muslim war.

From 1540 on, the invasion and destruction of the first nations began in earnest. After the destruction of the Inca empire based on a rivalry at the time of the Spanish invasion, the Spaniards won out and established their order for the Monarch of Spain that exists from then to the present day. Now of course, instead of obeisance to a Monarch in a foreign land, there is instead, that of the local president who is the figurehead of the capitalist elite of the region.

Even today we see the remnants of the Indian wars when various first nations set up blockades to slow the pace of monarchist colonialism and then capitalist civilization that originated from Europe. If various nations were not turned into slaves, then they were set one against another in order to gain more territory for one European colony or another. The conquest after the destruction of two of the highest civilizations in the Americas was brutal, employing every conceivable means to accomplish it. First Nation was turned against other nations. Destruction of the food supply was used. Superior technology and surprise did in many. Finally germ warfare was used to such effect as to completely exterminate some tribes into extinction and so severely reducing others, that resistance to the oncoming hoards of settlers and conquerors proved futile. Though there were wins, such as the First Nations driving out the Spanish in California, the Spanish came back and got vengeance.

Inter-nation rivalry was exploited in the wars that existed between the three principle antagonists of Europe, Spain, France and England. Though other nations from Europe such as Portugal, Holland and Germany were involved, their role was minor compared to the big three. The Americas were carved up into three big regions with Spain and France in the lead. This is why everything today south of the US boarder to Mexico is basically Latin and Spanish speaking. The rest is English with pockets of French in Quebec and Louisiana. The First nations were recruited and pressed into the service of the conquerors who had extended European based wars into the new world. Britain under Queen Elizabeth I actually created the privateers to loot Spanish ships on the high seas of First Nations ill gotten wealth. Privateer eventually became shortened to “Pirate”. Many a First Nation who got meshed into European wars met their end this way without much in the way of European inference. Part of the object of involving the First nations into wars that originated outside of their influence, was to reduce their populations so that moving into their lands would be easier. They were never told of this intent. Instead they were given false promises, myths and lies. They were not told they were being selectively exterminated. To them, Armageddon was not announced. The one exception is the Aztecs who foresaw their own end in a prophecy of their own. The conquistadors told them nothing except by direct action.

"Indian Wars” is the name generally used in the fledgling United States to describe a series of conflicts between the colonial or federal government and the First Nations people. Although the earliest English settlers in what would become the United States often enjoyed peaceful relations with nearby tribes, as early as the Pequot War of 1637, the colonists were taking sides in military rivalries between Indian nations in order to assure colonial security and open further land for settlement. More and more people were flooding in from England for one reason or another and they needed to be placed somewhere. Over the years, there were inducements like the free land give away to potential settlers. The wars, which ranged from the 17^th century such as the King Philip's War, King William's War, and Queen Anne's War at the opening of the 18^th century to the Wounded Knee massacre and the "closing" of the American frontier in 1890, generally resulted in the opening of First Nations lands to the lebensraum of further colonization, the conquest of American Indians and their assimilation, or forced relocation to Indian reservations. Modern scholars take different positions in the ongoing genocide debate. Various statistics have been developed concerning the devastation of these wars on both the American and Indian nations. But in all of this, there was a clear winner as there are in all wars, and that was the armaments tycoons. The most reliable figures are derived from collated records of strictly military engagements such as by Gregory Michno, which reveal 21,586 dead, wounded, and captured civilians and soldiers for the period of 1850 to 1890 alone. Figures for the first nations are unknown even now. Other figures are derived from extrapolations of rather cursory and unrelated government accounts such as that by Russell Thornton who calculated that some 45,000 Indians and 19,000 whites were killed. This later rough estimate includes women and children on both sides, since noncombatants were often killed in frontier massacres. We do know that the bison were slaughtered almost to extinction and this resulted in incalculable suffering, diseases and death by starvation among the First Nations in the great plains.

In his book “The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee”, amateur historian William M. Osborn sought to tally every recorded atrocity in the area that would eventually become the continental United States, from first contact in 1511 to the closing of the frontier of 1890, and determined that 9,156 people died from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans, and 7,193 people died from those perpetrated by Europeans. Osborn defines an atrocity as the murder, torture, or mutilation of civilians, the wounded, and prisoners.

In actuality, the atrocities were much higher when tactics like food destruction and germ warfare are calculated into the history. This has been by and large ignored, but the slaughter of the bison alone was a huge event, comparing to some modern campaigns of the 20^th century carpet bombing in Germany and agent orange chemtrail war in Vietnam. Like these two, this was effected in a short time span and spelled the demise of many plains First Nations in two forming countries; the US and Canada.

What is not disputed is that the savagery from both sides of the war, as war is an exercise in utter brutality. The Indians' own methods of brutal warfare and the Americans destructive campaigns were such as to be noted in every year in newspapers of the day along the lines of combat. Historical archives, diplomatic reports and America’s own Declaration of Independence also record these events. The use of germ warfare by distributing smallpox infected blankets and tuberculosis spared no one in its results. In some cases, whole tribes disappeared from the face of the earth in a complete genocide. No man, woman or child was spared the ravages of this type of war. We like to talk about total war and bringing the front line right into the home of the enemy or the terrorist, but this type of thing has been going on for centuries. Though the First Nations had methods that they used, the theory of the permanent revolution tells us that the introduction of the rifle, pistol and methods like brainwashing and scalping were tools and ideas first adopted from the whites who taught the "savages" their use in the wars of the French and English. Scalps fetched a bounty in cash or useful goods, so it was encouraged, just as bringing in a pair of wolf ears later got one the reward of a bounty. It was a kind of proof that the job had actually been done. The First Nations did not have to re-invent the rifle in order to use one already made and handed over to them as a recruit of a wider war. War, being a profitable enterprise, virtually guaranteed that the Indians would receive such tools because it was profitable to do so for the distributors of arms. Inter nation rivalry between the First Nations was promoted to help clear the land for the settlers and the introduction of the rifle and pistol was the means to do it. The fact that this sometimes reflected back on the settlers was then seen as “acceptable losses” just as in a later era, 150 million dead from a thermonuclear exchange was deemed “acceptable losses”. This was one part of the program to promote easy expansion by the settlers with First Nations doing some of the work for them. Of course, this tactic didn't always work. Where this failed, germ warfare and the destruction of the food base was used.

The “Indian Wars” comprised a series of smaller wars blending one into another so as to make one long war. American First Nations, diverse peoples with their own distinct tribal histories, were no more a single people than the Europeans. Living in societies organized in a variety of ways, First Nation societies usually made decisions about war and peace at the local level without any European input; indeed, long before any European had arrived or thought that the world was anything other than flat. After the Europeans had become clear in their intention, they sometimes fought as part of formal alliances, such as the Iroquois Confederation, or in temporary confederacies inspired by leaders such as Tecumseh.

When a series of taxes from Britain triggered a revolution in the 13 colonies, a war broke out that was to carry on, off and on until the conclusion of the Civil War almost a hundred year later. Thus 1776 was born in blood as the new republic sought to break away from British imperialist exploitation and determine its own fate. But the new republic was caught between two wars, one from Britain on the far side of the Atlantic and their beach head to the north in Canada and from the south in the Gulf of Mexico. The other to the west toward the Mississippi regions was the “Indian War” that was to be a long hard struggle. The only advantage the fledgling US had over the British is that Britain had to project its power over the Atlantic and the colonies were fighting on “home turf”. As for the First Nations, there was substantially less advantage. To the west, still largely unexplored, the First Nations had the distinct advantage because they knew the place and often used guerrilla war, whereas the 13 colonies were still using battle formations in the open as was done in Europe. This often made them easy pickings for the guerrilla tactics of hide, strike and disappear while the stricken enemy licked its wounds and bury its dead. In addition, the First Nations were quick to agonized the alienation between the British and the newly formed republic and sided with the British. The British in turn supplied them with horses and modern weapons. Thus the going was slow and tough in the beginning for the expansionist vision colonies. Inasmuch as possible, the 13 colonies attempted to make treaties, but nations like the Iroquois and Apache would have none of it. Nor did any that sided with the British as long as siding with one invader against another had the potential of getting rid of both. This particular war was the most extensive and destructive in the sum of US history including the civil war.

Many First Nation communities were divided over which side to support in this war. For the Iroquois Confederacy, the American Revolution resulted in civil war, so they lent grudging support to the British: The Six Nation confederacy split with the Oneidas and Tuscaroras siding with the Americans and the other four nations fighting for the British. While the Iroquois tried to avoid fighting directly against one another within the confederacy, the American Revolution eventually forced Iroquois to Iroquois combat. The defeated groups as well as those who supported the Americans lost much of their land within the United States. The British Crown aided the landless Iroquois by rewarding them with a reservation at Grand River in Canada, as Canada was not a republic and was still mostly under British colonial control. Cherokees split into a neutral, or pro-American faction and the anti-American faction that the Americans referred to as the Chickamauga, led by Dragging Canoe. Many other communities were similarly divided. No doubt hopes ran high on all sides in this complex combat.

Warfare along the frontier was particularly brutal, with numerous atrocities committed on both sides. Both 13 Colonies and First Nations noncombatants suffered greatly during the war as villages and food supplies were frequently destroyed during military expeditions. The largest of these military raiding expeditions was the Sullivan Expedition of 1779. This one alone destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages in order to neutralize the Iroquois raids in upstate New York. The expedition failed to have the desired effect, resulting in the opposite of its intent as Iroquois and other First Nation activity became even more determined and intensified.

Then the First Nations got some stunning news. The fledgling US and Britain made peace with one another in the Treaty of Paris in 1785. And if this weren't enough, the French Revolution that was to break out 4 short years later was to have another impact on the First Nations. The British-US deal struck ceded vast amounts of First Nations territories to the US without even consulting the former British allies in war. Thus when the the US dealt with the former British allies, they were treated as a conquered foe under the articles of war and claimed that as conquered people, they had lost the right to their lands. To say this and to enforce it proved to be two different things. What was scrawled on paper proved to be difficult to enforce on the ground. The US then took another course through treaties, purchasing the land, so that settlers could then move in. Even this was futile when the settlers then had to engage in combat with the original inhabitants. This formed the basis for following wars. To the west, the Spanish were also engaged in nation building, expanding from the Pacific and succeeded in gaining considerable territory despite being completely driven out in one of the earliest battles. This western war was fought from 1846 to 1895. engaged from Mexico and from the Pacific coast against primarily the Pueblo peoples. The eastern wars were well underway and almost completed by the time of the western combat. This was a multifaceted war against several major contenders, but it was by no means the end; certainly not the end that was envisaged for nation building on someone else's territory.