Indian alliances were said to be expensive and time consuming to be preserved. The French lacked many of the advantages of the British. To improve their diplomacy, they would live in Indian territory, learn Indian languages, and adopt Indian cultures. The French even married Indian wives. This allowed the French to enter into a kinship with the Indians, making the fur trade very successful.
The French colonists came to the New World to trade with the natives in order to gain profit back in France. The French desired furs which would bring in a 1500% profit. The French ambitiously relied on giving the natives desirable products for the furs they yearned for. This proved to be more successful than exploiting the natives to physical labor. They would give them items such as alcohol, guns, textiles, metal tools, and pots in return for the elite furs.
Some Native communities became dependent of trade and began to live near European settlements, and their resettlement made them expose to the epidemics which killed many Aboriginal people who had no natural immunity. Moreover, alliances between Aboriginal people and Europeans often led to economic competition and sometimes caused wars. (e.g., Iroquois fought against Huron people to displace them in the trade with French). In addition, the custom of trading brandy for furs was a destructive aspect. Alcohol abuse contributed to violence in Aboriginal communities, to society disharmony and to the deterioration of an originally healthy Aboriginal population.
Back in 1742; Canassatego, a chief of the Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy expresses his anger to the representatives of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, “Your People daily settle on these Lands, and spoil our Hunting. We must insist on your Removing them, as you know they have no Right to settle” (Document B). Like Canassatego, many other natives were angered by the white people moving onto their land. In 1763, land borders shifted and natives were ever more so angry. Pontiac was one of the most famous native who expressed his anger violently.
Many tribes shared similar one. With the increasing influence of European cultures, native cultures of American Indians were replaced and a new value system dominated the region. This new culture was introduced from the outside and was able to explore more quickly the environment that Indians were used to. The new residents had no great concern to maintain the resources because they moved to other places when they were exhausted. Land were extremely important to European settlers, because in most countries of Europe land meant
The Indians had been persecuted, harmed, and removed from their land by whites ever since the very first years of colonization in America, and Western movement caused the final blow to these people. The Cherokees of Georgia made efforts to learn the ways of the whites by opening schools, adopting a written constitution, and even turning to slaveholding. For these efforts the Cherokees, along with the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, they were named the “Five Civilized Tribes.” But, these efforts were not good enough for the whites. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, providing for the transplanting of all Indian tribes then resident east of the Mississippi. In 1838, the US army forced the Cherokees from their homelands in the Trail of Tears into Indian Territory.
Just like any other colonial emperor, the French established alliance with Huron native tribe who were considered to be the strongest tribe amongst Natives tribes. Reasons behind this friendship was to make the Hurons middle mans of the trade between the French and other native tribes , since the French did not know much about the geographical mapping and navigation to the locations of the inland trappers , in the process the French got suitable profits in return. In the long run competition became of a threat when European merchants tried to gain access to control the fur trade and in response to that threat, officials from both France and New France imposed sanctions on private companies that attempted to take part in fur trade. In 1649, the French took over the role of Hurons after the Iroquois attacked Hurons. Given that there was no longer a middle man’s role and nature of the trade changed, as a result the French had an upper hand to explore and expand their presence and influence.
Also demographically, the start of sugar plantations and silver mines was another major effect on the Native Americans. The population was starting to decrease even more as the labor systems began to increase its brutal and harsh working conditions. With the Europeans causing such a loss in the Native’s population slaves were being imported from West Africa. Agriculture within the Columbian Exchange introduced both regions to new crops and animals. New goods were being brought to each region, with the Americans introducing Europe to tobacco, corn and potatoes.
Trade with the Indians, especially fur trade, was profitable. War was costly” (DiLorenzo, 2010). In the latter half of the nineteenth century the prospect of advancing the railroads to the west altered the attitude towards the Indians. The U.S. Government no longer wanted to make deals with the Indians for land; they wanted to take it with force. The conclusion of the Civil War gave the U.S. Government a standing army, as opposed to the militia.
The Columbian Exchange The term Columbian Exchange refers to the transfer of peoples, animals, plants, and diseases between the New and Old Worlds. Old World diseases that entered the Americas with the European immigrants and African slaves devastated indigenous populations. These dramatic population changes weakened native peoples’ capacity for resistance and facilitated the transfer of plants, animals, and related technologies. I. Demographic Changes o Because of their long isolation from other continents, the peoples of the New World lacked immunity to diseases introduced from the Old World. As a result, death rates among Amerindian peoples during the epidemics of the early colonial period were very high.