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MODULE 2.5 Interactions between American Indians and Europeans 109

European Rivalry and
American Indian Alliances
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Developments in North America in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
were driven as much by events in Europe as by those in the colonies. From 1689 until
1713, Europe was in an almost constant state of war, with continental conflicts spill-
Copyright (c) 2024 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
ing over into colonial possessions in North America. The result was increased tensions
among colonists of different nationalities, American Indians and colonists, and colo-
Strictly for use with its products. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION.
nists and their home countries.
France was at the center of much of the European warfare of the period, as Louis
XIV hoped to expand France’s borders and gain supremacy in Europe. To this end, he
built a powerful professional army under state authority. Between 1689 and 1697,
France and England fought their first sustained war in North America, King William’s
War (see Module 2.3). The war began over conflicting French and English interests on
the European continent, but it soon spread to the American frontier when English and
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) forces attacked French and Huron settlements around Mon-
®
treal and northern New York. AP EXAM TIP
Although neither side had gained significant territory when peace was declared Be able to select an example
in 1697, the war had important consequences. Many colonists serving in the English of a Native American tribe,
army died of battle wounds, smallpox, and inadequate rations. Those who survived band, or confederacy resisting
resented their treatment and the unnecessary deaths of so many comrades. and accommodating British
The Haudenosaunee fared even worse. Their fur trade was devastated, and hun- North American colonists.
dreds of Mohawks and Oneidas were forced to flee from France’s American Indian Identifying specific historical
allies along the eastern Great Lakes. After a few more years of fighting against examples is a necessary
aspect of detailing broader
French- allied tribes, the Haudenosaunee agreed to remain neutral in all future concepts such as resistance
European conflicts. Weary of further European entanglements, Haudenosaunee and accommodation.
leaders focused on rebuilding their tattered confederacy.
A second lengthy conflict, known as the War of the Spanish Succession, or Queen Queen Anne’s War
Anne’s War (1702–1713), had even more devastating effects on North America. The A war from 1702 to 1713
conflict erupted in Europe when the Spanish monarch died without an heir, launch- over control of Spain and
ing a contest for the Spanish kingdom and its colonies. France and Spain squared off its colonies; also known
against England, the Netherlands, Austria, and Prussia. In North America, however, as the War of the Spanish
Succession.
England alone faced France and Spain, with each nation hoping to gain additional terri-
tory. Both sides recruited American Indian allies.

AP ® WORKING with EVIDENCE

Source: Thomas Oliver, writing on behalf of the colonial government of Massachu-
setts, Letter to Queen Anne, 1708

“[T]heir skill and dexterity for the making and Using of [canoes] is very
extraordinary, which renders our Tiresome marches after them Ineffectual.
These Rebels have no fixt Settlements, but are Ambulatory, & make frequent
removes. . . . [T]hey are supported and Encouraged by the french, who make
them yearly Presents . . . of Clothing, Armes and Ammunition, Besides the
Supply they Afford them for the Beaver and Furrs, which they take in hunting,
and Constantly keep their Priests & Emissaries among them, to steady them
in their Interests, and the bigotries . . . [which] they have Instilled into them.
[T]he most probable Method of doing Execution upon them & Reduceing them,
is by men of their own Colour, way & manner of living. And if yor Majesty

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