War in North America
As England, Spain, and France struggled to obtain a foothold in the New World, they frequently fought wars with one another and with neighboring Native Americans. Warfare was an essential component of the competitive colonization process, and all of the European nations involved in the settlement of the New World recognized this reality. Native Americans quickly learned that they too were involved in the complex struggle for control of the continent, and as a result, several local disputes escalated into multinational conflicts that united Native American and European forces against alliances of other Native Americans and Europeans. Most colonial conflicts remained relatively confined to the colonial region in which they began. Similarly, tensions in the colonies rarely resulted in warfare in Europe. Wars in Europe, however, occasionally spilled over into the American continent. In a few notable instances, the colonies found themselves at war because of the 18th-century wars that dominated Europe. Although these wars were defined by distant disputes, the fighting that took place in the colonies usually had local roots as well.
No single European or Native American nation asserted dominance over North America during the colonial period. For most of this period, Spain, France, and England occupied parts of North America. Other European nations had smaller holdings but they controlled smaller territories and their presence of a shorter duration. For most of the colonial era, Spain controlled Florida, Mexico, and the southwest; France claimed Canada and the Louisiana Territory; and England governed what became the 13 colonies. Each of these nations also had colonies in the Caribbean. Despite the increasing European presence, Native Americans outnumbered the newcomers and controlled most of North America. Native Americans were as divided as the Europeans were in terms of their cultures, political ambitions, and government structures. As a result, Native Americans often viewed the European newcomers as potential assistance in their ongoing struggles against Indian enemies.
Local military conflicts with Native Americans began soon after the arrival of European settlers. Spanish conquistadors faced resistance almost immediately after their arrival in South America, the Caribbean, and Florida. English settlers also confronted opposition in the early settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts. The Anglo-Powhatan Wars in Virginia began in 1609 and intermittent fighting lasted until Bacon’s Rebellion ended in 1677. In Massachusetts and the rest of New England, the fighting with several Indian tribes in the region escalated into the Pequot War and culminated in King Philip’s War. The Tuscarora War and the Yamasee War broke out in the Carolinas between 1711 and 1713 and between 1715 and 1717, respectively. All of these wars, as well as several other Indian wars, were attempts by Native Americans to prevent the further spread of the colonists and assert their control over their lands and their future. The arrival of Europeans to North America also intensified the fighting among Native Americans, wars that were often caused by tensions that predated European conquest. The Indian wars also allowed Native Americans to pursue geopolitical ambitions of their own. During the Yamasee War, for example, neighboring Creek Indians took advantage of the chaos to conquer the Yamasees and otherwise secure their dominance in the lower south.
Participants in the Indian wars brought different technology and military strategies to battle. Although Native Americans increasingly relied on firearms, they were dependent on the Europeans to provide powder, ball, and the guns themselves. They usually fought in smaller units, capitalizing on surprise and mobility. On some occasions, they also initiated large-scale assaults such as the 1622 assault on Jamestown, which killed about one in three English settlers, and the “Bloody Brook Massacre” in 1675 in Massachusetts. Nevertheless, Native Americans tried to avoid pitched battles. The British, French, and Spanish marched in more regular formations, employed cannon, and relied almost exclusively on muskets. European military forces also engaged in guerilla-style campaigns, burning homesteads, taking captives, and bringing warfare to civilians.
Global Warfare
The second type of war in colonial America emerged from a global context. These wars saw Europeans fight other European nations, as part of larger European conflicts and as part of a larger struggle to improve their geopolitical position in North America. In addition to several small territorial wars, there were three large-scale European contests in the colonial era. King William’s War, which was known as the European War of the League of Augsburg, lasted from 1689 to 1697. Fought between England and France, it consisted primarily of Indian attacks on the frontier and a failed attempt by England to capture French Quebec. Queen Anne’s War, known as the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe, lasted from 1702 to 1713. This war involved action from Florida to Canada. England attacked and captured Spanish St. Augustine in 1702, while Native American attacks in the Carolinas and the northeast proved equally damaging. In 1704, Indians allies of France from Canada destroyed Deerfield, Massachusetts, and fighting escalated on the New England frontier. When the war ended, some French territories (Acadia, Newfoundland, and St. Kitts) became English terrain. King George’s War, which grew out of the War of Jenkins’ Ear and the War of the Austrian Succession against France, lasted from 1740 to 1748. This war had little effect in the colonies. Like its predecessors, this war involved Native Americans but was defined by English, French, and Spanish attempts to gain the upper hand in European affairs. Sometimes the fighting resulted from strategies designed to shape the overseas wars.
The most significant colonial war was the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe. This war combined the two types of wars that preceded it, and it was the culmination of the three earlier European wars. It had both local as well as European causes; it involved Native Americans as well as Europeans; and it involved nearly everyone on the eastern seaboard. Basically, the French and Indian War was a contest between France and England for supremacy in the Ohio River Valley and Acadia. Both nations had claims on the regions and they both had Native American allies within them. King George’s War failed to resolve this dispute, and in the following years, the French tried to secure the region by building and manning a series of forts. The British were unwilling to cede their claims to the territory, and war broke out in 1754. The fighting lasted until 1763, and it involved all of the colonial powers in the New World as well as several Native American nations. Soon after the fighting began, the war became part of a European war that allied France, Austria, Russia, and several other nations against England, Prussia, and Hanover. Like earlier Indian wars, issues of land speculation and trading disputes preceded the fighting. Most Iroquois allied themselves with the English, while the Algonquins, the Hurons, and most other Indian participants allied themselves with the French. Although the French participation in the war had local causes, its military strategy was shaped by overseas realities. The French Crown ordered its Canadian generals to occupy and tie down their British enemy in order to allow France to succeed in its fight in Germany.
Sources:
Frank, Andrew. North America.” United States at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 23 Feb. 2002
