Trade & the American Indians

[Brad De Long]

>Tom,
>
>Even more than what you say here is the notion that the Native Americans
>were very open to peaceful co-existence. In almost all cases, it was the
>Europeans who pushed violence and aggressive acquisition of property and
>resources. In many instances, the natives tribes sought peace with the
>Europeans. There was a tradition among many tribes of living in a
>"multi-cultural" environment. Even with very war-like tribes like the Hurons
>and Iroquois, you had rather low-scale war parties bent on retaliation and
>not extermination like the Europeans attempted. Even the great Iroquois and
>Huron were played off against each other by the Europeans.

Still a relatively high rate of death among those engaged in combat (or
taken from captured villages), no?
>
>There are at least two instances when Natives posed a real threat to
>European hegemony of the continent: Tecumseh and the Ghost Dance.

Pontiac?
King Philip (Metacom)?

And had Powhatan and Massasoit acted swiftly and ruthlessly, they could
surely have left the Europeans with enough unpleasant memories that they
would have delayed colonization for 50-100 years.

Consider the difference between the European colonization of the
Americas--where relatively small groups settled and then began to expand
into the interior--and European colonialism in Asia or Africa in the same
period--where the typical pattern of activity was to huddle on the coast in
your fort, trade, and leave...

Brad DeLong