During the colonial menstruation, Native Americans had a complicated relationship with European settlers. They resisted the efforts of the Europeans to gain more of their land and control through both warfare and diplomacy. But issues arose for the Native Americans, which held them dorsum from their goal, including new diseases, the slave trade, and the ever-growing European population in N America.

In the 17th century, as European nations scrambled to claim the already occupied land in the "New World," some leaders formed alliances with Native American nations to fight foreign powers. Some famous alliances were formed during the French and Indian War of 1754–1763. The English language allied with the Iroquois Confederacy, while the Algonquian-speaking tribes joined forces with the French and the Spanish. The English won the war, and claimed all of the land e of the Mississippi River. The English language-allied Native Americans were given part of that country, which they hoped would end European expansion—but unfortunately only delayed it. Europeans continued to enter the country post-obit the French and Indian State of war, and they connected their aggression against Native Americans. Another result of allying with Europeans was that Native Americans were often fighting neighboring tribes. This acquired rifts that kept some Native American tribes from working together to cease European takeover.

Native Americans were as well vulnerable during the colonial era because they had never been exposed to European diseases, similar smallpox, then they didn't have any immunity to the disease, as some Europeans did. European settlers brought these new diseases with them when they settled, and the illnesses decimated the Native Americans—by some estimates killing as much as 90 per centum of their population. Though many epidemics happened prior to the colonial era in the 1500s, several large epidemics occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries amid various Native American populations. With the population ill and decreasing, it became more and more hard to mountain an opposition to European expansion.

Another attribute of the colonial era that made the Native Americans vulnerable was the slave trade. As a outcome of the wars between the European nations, Native Americans allied with the losing side were often indentured or enslaved. There were even Native Americans shipped out of colonies like South Carolina into slavery in other places, like Canada.

These problems that arose for the Native Americans would only get worse in the 19th century, leading to greater confinement and the extermination of native people. Unfortunately, the colonial era was neither the kickoff nor the terminate of the long, night history of treatment of Native Americans by Europeans and their decedent'southward throughout in the United States.

Native Americans in Colonial America

Whether through diplomacy, state of war, or even alliances, Native American efforts to resist European encroachment further into their lands were often unsuccessful in the colonial era. This woodcut shows members of the Cheyenne nation conducting diplomacy with settlers of European descent in the 1800s.

alliance

Noun

people or groups united for a specific purpose.

colonial expansion

Noun

spread of a foreign say-so over other territories, usually through the establishment of settlement communities.

colonialism

Noun

type of government where a geographic area is ruled past a foreign power.

confine

Substantive

boundary or limit.

consequence

Noun

result or upshot of an action or situation.

Substantive

art and science of maintaining peaceful relationships between nations, groups, or individuals.

Noun

outbreak of an infectious disease able to spread rapidly.

expansion

Noun

procedure of enlarging.

extermination

Noun

targeted killing of a group of things.

indentured servant

Noun

person under contract to work for some other over a period of time.

slave trade

Substantive

traffic in slaves.

smallpox

Noun

very contagious, often fatal disease wiped out with vaccination programs.

tribe

Noun

community made of one or several family unit groups sharing a common culture.

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    National Geographic Society

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    Margot Willis, National Geographic Lodge

    Producer

    Clint Parks

    Final Updated

    March 23, 2020

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