Iroquois League Essay
At the time the first European explorers and conquerors were following in the wake of Columbus's voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, some 200,000 indigenous people were living in North America east of the Mississippi River. One loose confederation of tribes, the Algonquins, controlled a large region stretching from Canada southward into the Ohio Valley. The Iroquois League dominated the middle Atlantic region and contended with tribes of the Algonquin nation for domination in parts of the Ohio Valley. In the southern region three primary groups prevailed: the Cherokee, Tuscarora and Muskhogean. All of these tribes were eventually overwhelmed by the in-migration Europeans (and their descendants), the diseases brought with them and the wars of
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Lawrence Valley, the Iroquois League. Manpower assistance was one thing, but what the tribes sought most from the French were the firearms and powder that would give them the decisive advantage in these territorial struggles. In response to the northern threat, the Iroquois of the Mohawk Valley turned first to the Dutch and eventually the English to balance the scales. As time would show, however, reliance on assistance from the Europeans carried a heavy price for the tribes. The Europeans were inconsistent allies and far more opportunistic than the indigenous tribes in the conduct of warfare. Treaties were to the Europeans and the European-Americans neither solemn nor permanent; any change in government or shift in perceived self-interest among the European powers threatened whatever treaties were made between their agents in the Americas and the indigenous peoples. Moreover, a system of land tenure that permitted small numbers of colonists to monopolize large tracts of fertile land exerted a near-ending pressure on the indigenous people to relinquish territory. Even had the European governments or their colonial counterparts proclaimed these treaties as solemn and final, they possessed neither the force of law nor the power of arms to restrain the frontiersmen or
Lawrence Valley, the Iroquois League. Manpower assistance was one thing, but what the tribes sought most from the French were the firearms and powder that would give them the decisive advantage in these territorial struggles. In response to the northern threat, the Iroquois of the Mohawk Valley turned first to the Dutch and eventually the English to balance the scales. As time would show, however, reliance on assistance from the Europeans carried a heavy price for the tribes. The Europeans were inconsistent allies and far more opportunistic than the indigenous tribes in the conduct of warfare. Treaties were to the Europeans and the European-Americans neither solemn nor permanent; any change in government or shift in perceived self-interest among the European powers threatened whatever treaties were made between their agents in the Americas and the indigenous peoples. Moreover, a system of land tenure that permitted small numbers of colonists to monopolize large tracts of fertile land exerted a near-ending pressure on the indigenous people to relinquish territory. Even had the European governments or their colonial counterparts proclaimed these treaties as solemn and final, they possessed neither the force of law nor the power of arms to restrain the frontiersmen or