AP® United States History · Unit 2 · Topic 2.5
Alliance and War with American Indians
Native nations fought colonization on their own terms, sometimes allying with one European power against another, sometimes rising up directly against colonizers, as in Metacom's War and the Pueblo Revolt.
Native nations were never one bloc facing a single enemy called Europe. Each nation weighed its own rivals, trade needs, and territory, and that meant alliance choices varied enormously. A nation surrounded by hostile neighbors might arm itself with French muskets precisely to gain leverage over those neighbors, not out of loyalty to France. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy mastered this: sitting between French Canada and English New York, they traded furs to both sides, played rivals against each other, and used the Grand Settlement of 1701 to stay neutral and keep leverage over both empires.
Sometimes alliance gave way to open war. Metacom's War, 1675-1676, began when Wampanoag leader Metacom, pushed by decades of land loss and colonial encroachment on Plymouth Colony, led an alliance of New England nations in raids that burned a dozen towns and killed a large share of the English settler population before colonial forces and allied Native scouts crushed the uprising. In New Mexico, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 took a different shape: Pope coordinated dozens of Pueblo communities, united by forced labor under the encomienda system and suppression of their religion, in a single uprising that killed hundreds of Spaniards and drove survivors out for twelve years. When Spain returned in 1692, it ruled with more tolerance for Pueblo religious practice.
Both wars show resistance working through radically different paths: one a doomed alliance war against expansion, the other a successful, if temporary, revolt against religious and labor oppression. Neither looked like the other, which is the point.
Key terms
- Metacom's War
- The 1675-1676 war in which Wampanoag leader Metacom led allied New England nations against English colonists; also called King Philip's War.
- Pueblo Revolt
- The 1680 uprising led by Pope that expelled Spanish colonizers from New Mexico for twelve years.
- Haudenosaunee Confederacy
- An alliance of six Iroquois-speaking nations that used its position between French and English territory to trade with and play off both empires.
- Grand Settlement of 1701
- An agreement in which the Haudenosaunee committed to neutrality between the French and English, preserving trade with both.
- encomienda
- A Spanish colonial system forcing Indigenous labor and tribute on colonizers, a key grievance behind the Pueblo Revolt.
Watch it explained
- How it worksWalk me through Metacom's War from the first raid to a dozen burned New England towns.
- How it worksHow does the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 push Spain out of New Mexico and reshape the return?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't Native resistance to colonization one unified front across the continent?
- Going furtherWhat changes for the Haudenosaunee once they sit between French and English trade routes?
Check yourself
End of topic.