King Philip War Analysis

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King Philip's war differs from the other various Indian wars throughout American history as a terribly violent and destructive conflict. Fueled by the native Americans strong desire to maintain and preserve their pre-colonial lifestyle and power. Looking to keep their social and religious norms within their respective culture the consistent and overwhelming colonialist influence on their ability to grow crops and sustain a healthy population. We can see two distinct groups in contention over the same basic issue, their own survival and success. Both groups seeing themselves as righteous and justified and fueled by religous, poilitical and social conflicts that created one of most tragic wars to occur on American soil. Early Americans, both…show more content…
Tensions arose between the English puritans and the Indians as “The Massachusetts government having made a law that every Indian being drunk should pay ten shillings or be whipped, according to the discretion of the magistrate, many of these poor people willingly offered their backs to the lash, to save their money.” Showing a lack of regard for the Indians societal and religious beliefs or goals. Indian leaders grew continually distrustful and frustrated with the effects the colonialists practices had on the general populations of their society. This cultural and societal shift could not have been seen as a positive for the leaders of the indian tribes as their culture began to become disenfranchised. “The English were so eager to sell the Indians lickers [liquor], that most of the Indians spent all in drunkenness, and then ravened upon the sober Indians, and often believe they did hurt the English Cattel, and their King could not prevent it.” Having abused the trust of the drunk Indians, the colonists furnished themselves with mass plots of lands the drunken Indians believed would be free from the English…show more content…
Undoubtedly this could have created an environment in which the Indian population was prepared to attack the colonists with sinister ferociousness. Few things can motivate a society towards war and or violence, such as a food deficit. The lack of respect for the Indians lifestyles made a formerly self-reliant people dependent on the English for supplies and food. Making what once a equal trade partnership, much less fair. An unequal partnership with the colonists, heavily influenced by alcohol abuse by the Indians and in fact abuse of the Indians on alcohol by the colonists only furthered the tensions. The former abundance of food in the early days of colonial interactions allowed the Indians to trade excess resources for the machined goods, rifles, and other products with the colonialist without detriment to the tribe

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