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HIST 3080: US Military History
Indian Wars in the Colonial New
England, 1620-78, Pt I.
Questions?
• Did the British colonists carry on their European
military doctrines or adapt to the new
environment when they fought the Indians in the
Eastern woodlands during the first 17th century?
• Why did the colonists use a total war or counterinsurgency terrorism against the Indians?
• How did the early military encounters between
the British and Indians during the first half of the
17th century influence their ways of fighting
during the second half of the 17th century?
I. MILITARY COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
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Why New England?
Huron
Iroquois
• Colonial counterinsurgency terrorism
was most widely
applied in New England
Algonquin
A. Master Narrative: “European
Military Conventions”
• Most of military leaders
of the British colonies
participated in the
Dutch Wars for
Independence
• Military doctrines
Counter-insurgency Terrorism
• A series of brutal British
expeditions destroyed
Irish villages and
slaughtered the
inhabitants.
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B. Colonial Military Leaders
•
Early leaders of Jamestown and
Plymouth were veterans of wars
against Spain or Ireland.
– Miles Standish, John Mason, &
John Underhill (Plymouth): veteran
of the war against Spain in the
Netherlands
– John Smith & Christopher Newport
(Jamestown): veteran of the war
against Spain in the Netherlands
– Edward M. Wingfield (Jamestown):
veteran of the war against the Irish
•
Colonial wars against the Indians
during the first 17th century
demonstrated the adaptation of
the counter-insurgency terrorism.
C. Pequot War of 1637
• War between the
British colonists in New
England and Pequot
Indians
• Colonial rivalries
between Dutch (from
NY) and British (from
MA) in the Connecticut
frontier
Colonial and Indian Rivalries over Trade,
Alliance, and Land in the Frontier
• Initial conflicts btw the
Dutch and Pequots
• Punitive British parties
confiscated Indian
corns, killed their dogs,
burned their huts, and
destroyed properties.
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Battle of Saybrook
• Pequots retaliated by
attacking Fort Saybrook
Massacre of Mystic River (1637)
• Punitive parties under
John Mason
• Surprise, offensive
campaigns
• Only seven out of 600
villagers survived.
Withering Away of the Pequot
• After the Massacre,
many were captured
and sold as slaves to
Indian allies, colonists,
or to Bermuda
• 1638 treaty declared
the disappearance of
the Pequot as a nation
• Comeback
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D. Type of Warfare?
• Scorched earth tactics?
– Strategy to destroy anything that might be useful to
the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing
from an area
• Total wars?
– When every human resources for the war effort are
targeted and mobilized
• Counter-insurgency terrorism?
– Organized military activity designed to combat
insurgency
E. Military Columbian Exchange
• Columbian Exchange
• Military Columbian
Exchange for the British
and Indians in the
Eastern Woodlands
• Acculturation
II. WHY COUNTER-INSURGENCY
TERRORISM DURING THE COLONIAL
PERIOD?
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A. Dress rehearsal for an Invasion in
the New World: An Irish Model
• A series of brutal British expeditions destroyed
Irish villages and slaughtered the inhabitants
(mid/late 16th C).
– Desmond Rebellions (1569-83) in the South
– Tyrone Rebellions (1594-1603) in the North
Ideas about the Indigenous
• Irish as “savage others”
– Why?
• English
• Irish
Ideas about Colonial Settlements
• Privatized colonization
• Creation of British
plantations in occupied
lands
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B. Cultural Racism: Indians as
Treacherous Savages
• Dual images of the
Indians
• European explorers or
traders’ visits
• Anglo-Powhatan War of
1622 solidified the
treacherous savage
images of the Indians
C. Economic Racism: Ownership and
Development of the Wilderness
• Plymouth colonists
• Plymouth’s alliance with
the Wampanoags
Miscommunication about the
meaning of the treaty
• Both sides treated it
according to their
customs.
• The colonists believed
that they had the
exclusive right to own
and develop the lands.
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D. Religious Racism: Puritan
Conformity
• Religious Justifications
• Praying towns
• Both physical and
cultural subjugation and
elimination of
Indianness of local
Indians
E. Indians’ Hit and Run Warfare
17th C Huron warrior (NY)
• “Small-scale,
Ritualized, and Notparticularly Bloody”
16TH c Roanoke
Island warrior (NC)
Why not Bloody Warfare?
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Scalping
• Why?
Indian Captives
• Why?
Torture
• Why?
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F. Limits of Colonists’ Military
Strengths
• Fortification of
Settlements
– Plymouth Palisade
(1622)
– Plymouth blockhouse
(1622)
– House fences
Inexperienced Soldiers
• Mostly military novices
Counter-insurgency Terrorism
• Offensive tactics
• Surprise attacks
• Attacks on villages or
environments
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