By DuVal, Kathleen (NHC Fellow, 2008–09)

Early European colonies in the New World succeeded only if local Indians allowed them to and if they were lucky. When European settlers arrived in the New World, they often placed their colonies among people who had established complex webs of political relationships that included both alliances and rivalries. If Indians tolerated settlements they could easily have wiped out, they may have done so not because they were afraid of the settlers or kindly disposed to them or militarily weak but rather because they saw them as useful adjuncts in their own internal power struggles.

Subjects

History / Education Studies / Jamestown Colony / Cultural Relations / Indigenous Americans / Colonialism / Primary Sources /