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What was the role of Indians in the creation of European colonies?

The roles played by Native Americans in European colonization were wide and varied, depending on local circumstances. In some cases, Native peoples facilitated colonization, usually because they saw some strategic benefit in doing so. In Jamestown, for example, Powhatan sought a diplomatic relationship with the English colonists because he had recently conquered the region, and saw them as valuable (though subservient) allies. Similarly, Massasoit, the Wampanoag sachem, reached out to the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth because he thought they could be useful partners in his ongoing conflict against the powerful Narragansetts in the region. Throughout the colonies, Native peoples established complex trade relationships with Europeans, as in South Carolina, where they traded Indian slaves (and later deerskins) for guns, or in New France, where they gained power and prestige by trading beaver pelts for manufactured goods. Of course, these relationships usually soured over time, as European hunger for land and to dictate the terms of trade led to repeated conflicts. Even in South and Central America, Spanish conquistadores depended on Native peoples to conquer other peoples--the famed conquest of the Aztecs by Cortes was made possible because the Spanish cultivated alliances with surrounding Indian peoples who saw a benefit in the destruction of the Aztecs. So Indian peoples everywhere played pivotal roles in the development of colonies. They were not passive victims, nor were they the dupes of the Europeans. They reacted to the most profoundly important events in their history according to their interests at the time as they saw them.

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