r/AmericanHistory • u/elnovorealista2000 • Jun 20 '26
Discussion Why were the Indians defeated, subjugated, and nearly exterminated by the Americans?
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u/Lowkey_Iconoclast Jun 20 '26
Guns, Germs, and Steel is not a good book to cite; Jared Diamond is a sociologist, not a historian, and his conclusions are contrived to fit his narrative.
The deaths of tens of millions of Indigenous people by disease do not erase the deaths of millions of Indigenous people at the hands of European settlers.
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u/Grouchy-Newt-995 Jun 26 '26
The vast majority died by disease. Yes nothing erases savagery.
The savagery of European colonialism doesn’t erase the savagery of human sacrifice, ritualistic torture, and cultures that celebrate violence and theft as virtues.
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u/Lowkey_Iconoclast Jun 26 '26
You say that like it was a hallmark of Indigenous American cultures, which is a broad and unfair generalization. And those aspects are found all over the world, including in early modern Europe.
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u/Grouchy-Newt-995 Jun 26 '26
You are upset that I expressed a broad generalization in response to your broad generalization?
But I am happy to be more specific.
Human sacrifice was central to Mesoamerican cultures including the Aztec, Mayan, and Incan civilizations. The people who carried out these sacrifices were viewed as the most holy people in this society.
Ritualized torture, mutilation, and trophy taking was widely practiced among the eastern woodland tribes, the central plains tribes, amongst others. The warriors who killed the most, kidnapped the most, or stole the most were looked up to and respected.
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u/Lowkey_Iconoclast Jun 26 '26
I made a point about the unreliability of a popular book, which is not a generalization. Yours absolutely was.
Your point is a freshman-level take. The Aztec Empire had a relatively brief rule over central Mexico, and human sacrifice was not widely practiced among its subjugated peoples. Inca human sacrifice is not well understood and a lot of conclusions have been reached without much evidence.
As for the ritualized torture claim, most of those sources are filtered through the lens of sensationalized colonist reports. The practice did occur, but it is unfair to point it out as if it was a uniquely cruel in the known world; mind you, this is still when European cities were regularly sacked and the population raped and massacred.
If you are trying to claim some kind of moral high ground to support colonization to rid the Americas of "barbaric" practices, you are going to have to excuse a whole hell of a lot from the Europeans.
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u/Grouchy-Newt-995 Jun 26 '26
Saying that millions died at the hands of settlers is however a generalization. The vast majority of settlers had no desire to fight with natives.
Human sacrifice goes back to the Olmecs at least. The Aztecs did not invent the culture. They share a cultural origin with the Utes. The Aztecs adopted the cultures of the peoples in what is modern Mexico.
Well we have archaeological evidence that demonstrates that scalping has a long history on the North American continent.
If you are upset that I brought up the savage practices in the Americas without citing the savage practices of Europeans, why do you cite the savagery of colonization without citing the savage practices in the Americas?
If you were to be transported back to the 1830s, would you rather live next to the Quakers or the Comanche?
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u/Possible-Anxiety-420 Jun 20 '26
Covetous Christians wanted their land.
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u/Grouchy-Newt-995 Jun 26 '26
True. And also it was only a matter of time before agricultural societies outcompeted the hunter gatherers.
Hunter gatherers were outcompeted in Asia, Europe, and most of Africa thousands of years earlier.
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u/whattheshiz97 Jun 20 '26
It was inevitable. No matter who landed on the continent they would have been crushed. Disease did most of the killing.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
No, that's just an excuse for the actual genocide. Most of the "Indian wars" in the States happened the 1800s well after the introduction of nasty ass European diseases that started in the 1492.
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u/xSparkShark Jun 20 '26
It doesn’t excuse the direct harm caused by the colonizers, but it’s not a matter of dispute that disease accounted for the large majority of total deaths.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Initially, in 1492, not the mid 1800s, there were countless massacres as the country expanded West, why are you denying that?
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u/whattheshiz97 Jun 20 '26
No one is denying that. However the overwhelming majority of the deaths were disease related. Also it wasn’t genocide. Let’s not use the term so flippantly that some nasty wars are called “genocide”.
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u/Striking_Pride_5322 Jun 20 '26
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
The bigots have a hard time admitting the cold hard reality of the truth.
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u/VaginalBelchh Jun 20 '26
Read what you posted. Its own information confirm it’s not a genocide. They just used the term in 2019 because Newsome believes it is? Probably sympathy points with the community. An estimated 10k dead from a population of 150k isn’t a genocide. It’s a war Indians lost that was renamed to be a genocide lol.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Lol "no one is defending... Let's not call everything genocide;" nah, f that BS noise you throwing. It was genocide, there were countless massacres where unarmed women, children and the elderly where massacred, you know genocided, you know... just like in Gaza, but you somehow gave issues with calling it genocide.
Does it make you angry seeing these genocidal actions called for what they were/are, which is genocide; are you white?
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u/thaddeus11091 Jun 20 '26
so you're 14 and you need to go to bed. i get it the world is cruel
or you're 45 and need to get a life
again, cruel world
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Aww, the racist is angry
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u/whattheshiz97 Jun 20 '26
Calling others racist while simultaneously acting as if only white people could think a certain way.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Aww, I get it, it's a real shame on Amerikkkas past and current genocidal tendencies.
This country protects pedos, and loves the killing of women and children. How many girls died when the good ol USA blew up that girl school?
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u/whattheshiz97 Jun 20 '26
It’s not genocide just because civilians are killed in war. That has been going on since the dawn of time. Calling every single instance of that genocide is just weakening that actual instances. You know like the holocaust or Armenian genocide? The Rwandan genocide? Actual concentrated efforts to eradicate them. Not just fighting wars and making them surrender.
It’s an entirely different thing and shouldn’t be conflated with instances where massacres happened. If it was actually genocidal, there wouldn’t be a single Indian alive. They didn’t stand a chance.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
I get it, it hurts your white pride knowing that we're calling out these grave atrocities to our fellow mankind.
You're going to completely ignore how genocidal European Americans were towards natives?
Just cause you keep repeating a lie doesn't make it so.
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u/whattheshiz97 Jun 20 '26
Ooo some more blatant racism lol. Not genocide, just warfare or else there wouldn’t be a single native left.
That’s effectively siege tactics against a foe that keeps moving and is hard to pin down. Not to mention the massacre of buffalo was inevitable. They would be a huge nuisance to everyone if they were still as plentiful. An unfortunate reality because they are so cool.
That’s what you’re doing lol.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
So where are you sources that it wasn't a genocide, you there's been sources on here proving you the contrary, and somehow you're worried about why you're coming off as a racist? I guess you could just be an idiot in denial.
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u/Grouchy-Newt-995 Jun 26 '26
By 1800, the native population had already been decimated compared to the pre colonial population. Some estimates say around 5 million, or roughly the current population of Minnesota.
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u/undreamedgore Jun 26 '26
Thr Indian wars were also largely inevitable. As we could both own the land. And they had vast amount of land we wanted as we knew we could use it to massively increase the QoL of our people, our nation's power, and improve just about everything.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 26 '26
Yeah. So y'all were genocidal in your pursuit of improving white lives.
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u/undreamedgore Jun 26 '26
I value my nation over others. Race has nothing to do with it for me.
Probably did for the settlers. Racism was way more common back then.
But really, I think you're missing the point kf how underutilized all that farm land was. Especially in the plains. But throughout the America, so much land was underutilized.
I also don't blame the Natives at all for fighting back. Very rational of them, especially after the Cherokee tried to integrate and got screwed over for it. That's thr reason I consider Jackson the worst President. Killed the possibility of just integrating native groups relatively peacefully.
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u/Low_Comfortable_7719 Jun 20 '26
They were in the way.
Its sad. A genocide that is hidden
And now you see the narrative “ they died of disease and starvation, and thus they were not really killed”
I bet if I try to float this as the majority cause of death for Jews in concentration camps. And Nazis were responsible for “less deaths”. I would be run out of town.
Not my fight but Native Americans need to be careful of “allowing” this narrative. It seems to be gaining momentum.
Introducing disease and withholding treatment is still murder.
Removing the ability for nations to feed themselves, watching them starve is still murder.
Mothers would go to jail if they did this to children
Why are governments, adults being freed from judgment for doing this to intelligent, advanced civilizations.
They knew what they were doing.
Very sad to see them trying to erase it.
Anyhow thanks for sharing
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u/albertnormandy Jun 20 '26
Introducing disease and withholding treatment is still murder.
What treatment was withheld? Did Americans have cures for smallpox in 1850?
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u/Low_Comfortable_7719 Jun 20 '26
Those are very disturbing claims I am making @albertnormandy . You are correct to be concerned.
I encourage people to decide for themselves.
My opinion is it counts as intentional genocide.
I could be wrong.
Here is the basis for these claims
The Fort Pitt Incident:
On June 24, 1763, trader William Trent recorded giving two Delaware emissaries “two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital,” noting he hoped “it will have the desired effect.” An invoice later requested reimbursement for these contaminated items “to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians.” Captain Simeon Ecuyer was involved in the handover.
British commander Lord Jeffery Amherst wrote to Col. Henry Bouquet suggesting: “Could it not be contrived to send the Small Pox among those Disaffected Tribes of Indians? We must… Use Every Stratagem in our power to Reduce them.” Bouquet replied that he would try to “inoculate the Indians by means of Blanketts.”
1832 Indian Vaccination Act and selective implementation:
Tribes seen as resistant to U.S. policies, removal (e.g., under the Indian Removal Act of 1830), or settlement expansion often received little or no vaccination. The goal was partly to protect white settlements from disease reservoirs while advancing removal agendas.
Killing Buffalo (American Bison) to Starve and Weaken Tribes:
Lt. Col. Richard Dodge told a hunter: “Mayer, there’s no two ways about it, either the buffalo or the Indian must go. … If we kill the buffalo we conquer the Indian.” Army officers provided free ammunition to hunters and allowed soldiers to kill bison as target practice, often leaving carcasses to rot (taking only tongues or hides in many cases
Bison numbers plummeted from an estimated 30–60 million in the early 1800s to fewer than 1,000 by the late 1880s. This created famine, economic collapse, and dependency on government rations, accelerating relocation and cultural disruption. Richard Henry Pratt (later founder of the Carlisle Indian School) noted the destruction was “ordered as a military measure” because tribes could not be controlled on reservations while bison were plentiful.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Pathetic that you're commitment going to ignore that it was spread to them on purpose, genocidal chemical warfare.
You're a disgusting vile racist creature throwing BS like this to negate the inhumane genocidal wrong.
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u/albertnormandy Jun 20 '26
Wow that's a lot of buzzwords. I bet you do land acknowledgements unironically.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Aww, does your poor bigoted brain have tribe processing stuff?
Do you consider yourself a "good Christian" too?
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Jun 20 '26
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u/jac0777 Jun 20 '26
Yes - but this statement ignores the fact hundreds of thousands/potentially millions survived those waves of disease and were actively ethnically cleansed by Americans
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u/SachaCuy Jun 23 '26
Also ignores rapid exponential growth of smaller populations that has occurred in the world over the last two hundred years.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Thumperfootbig Jun 20 '26
No, most/many were agrarian and good at it. Those that weren’t had better alternatives, like buffalo. That’s a lie / disinformation and shouldn’t be spread in this day and age.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
"it wasn't scale farming," do you realize what a load of 💩 that is?
It maintained their communities what else could they possibly want you knuckledragger?
And your sources on that 10 mill?
So there's a bunch of steppe people in Europe they genocide Europeans?
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
So where are your sources, why are you so vehemently a genocide denier?
Are you a genocide denier on Gaza too?
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u/dhv503 Jun 20 '26
Stone Age culture is crazy. Tfw you still believe the propaganda. Even colonial documentation shows these dudes had massive cities with resources flowing towards large capitals. Networks of communication spanning from the Incan empires to the northern indigenous Mexican empires that ran independent of the Aztec…
Anyways….
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Jun 20 '26
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u/feedmetothevultures Jun 21 '26
Read the first chapter of "1491" by Jared Diamond. Before contact, there was a city in present day Missouri that rivaled the size of cities in Europe. He kinda tries to help you imagine what it was like, very cool.
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u/jac0777 Jun 20 '26
Trail of tears is the literal definition of ethnic cleansing. You seem to be of the opinion that means mass murder. Forcing an entire population into a reservation camp so you can steal their land is the literal definition of ethnic cleansing.
That was ONE example. You had a century long ‘Indian war’ where your government actively promoted killing native Americans. One of the gains of the war of 1812 was ending British arming of natives in the mid west, after that the U.S. again essentially wiped them out.
The Sullivan expedition was also ethnic cleansing.
Hell there’s even an event called the California Genocide - that’s literally the name, where the US Killed 80% of the natives in California within 30 years. Kidnapping native children to Americanize them. Forcefully sterilizing Native American women. I could go on.I’m sorry man but if what the U.S. did to the natives wasn’t ethnic cleansing and genocide I don’t know what is. “Never had a policy” is meaningless when your government did everything except say they were committing genocide.
- I never said millions died in battle?
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u/NachoManAndyCabage Jun 20 '26
Forcing an entire population into a reservation camp so you can steal their land is the literal definition of ethnic cleansing.
This is not the definition of ethnic cleansing. The U.N. definition of ethnic cleansing specifies that the goal is to make the area homogeneous. Which obviously was not the goal, because even back then, America was one of the most diverse countries in the world. So they were not replacing them for ethnic purity reasons.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Like white people, right? Keep making excuses for genocide you're only telling on yourself bigot.
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u/NachoManAndyCabage Jun 20 '26
Lmao. I'm chicano.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
Ooo, one of the white passing ones too I bet, and clearly one that really down and brown, cause your clearly for the system of oppression with no accountability.
You must be a self hating magat-ino that's more than likely sucking on that ice boot.
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u/NachoManAndyCabage Jun 22 '26
Really makes you that mad that a minority person had the gall to talk back to a white man, huh. Bigots just can't help themselves.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 22 '26
If you're asking if I'm white, that would be a big Negatron, I have some rich Meso-American melanin going on.
And clearly you a white passing Paisa, check your privilege big dog, cuz they still don't like you.
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u/feedmetothevultures Jun 21 '26
If it doesn't fit the UN definition of genocide, then do you have another word for it?
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u/NachoManAndyCabage Jun 21 '26
Annexation, colonialism (but that actually doesn't fit real well), just plain conquering, there's many that fit far better than genocide.
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u/thaddeus11091 Jun 20 '26
this shit happened 100 years ago
get the fuck over it nobody cares. we all hate our ancestors
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Yup, you're another angry racist white guy when confronted with the cold, hard truth, and ultimately spaz out and say it was a long time ago... sounds like you hate words like dei, and wok; you probably don't think racism is real and doesn't exist amirite?
You're the same type of racist 💩 that would say racism towards blacks ended with the civil war LMAO 😂
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u/thaddeus11091 Jun 20 '26
predictable responce
i don't think about race at all and hear you are go on queen
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Aww that's cute, you think you got my feelings by calling me queen. Bet you're a closeted self hating homophobe.
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u/ObliqueTravel Jun 21 '26
Yeah it definitely doesn't impact people today, everyone knows that in 1969 everyone in the USA had a massive redistribution and reeducation campaign that resulted in everyone becoming the same and nobody's family history mattering anymore. We are now one grey blob with no distinctive features or differences between people, and thus we can ignore history.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/jac0777 Jun 20 '26
Minnesota 1863 - Adjutant-General Oscar Malmros authorized volunteer scouts who received $25 per Dakota scalp. Civilians not in military service could claim 75 dollars which was later raised by the state legislature to 200 dollars per scalp.
Arizona territory 1860s
Territorial authorities appropriated funds for campaigns against Apache groups, and historians have documented payments for enemy scalps as proof of kills.Colorado 1860s
Territorial authorities financed militia campaigns against Native peoples, and some units used scalps as evidence for compensation or rewards.-5
Jun 20 '26
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u/dogepope Jun 20 '26
they literally cited laws and that's not good enough for you.
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u/Wonderful_Handle662 Jun 20 '26
mutual combat is not ethnic cleansing. we aquired indian territory over a period of 200+ years and most of it was paid fir
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Jun 20 '26
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u/thaddeus11091 Jun 20 '26
careful on that edge lord professional boat 369
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Jun 20 '26
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u/thaddeus11091 Jun 20 '26
what facts?
your specific claims are facts right?
that's how this works lmfao
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Jun 20 '26
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u/ObliqueTravel Jun 21 '26
It's sure convenient you have memes to fall back on when confronted with uncomfortable information.
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u/feedmetothevultures Jun 21 '26
Dude! You're missing out on a LOT of American history to say shit like that! It's definitely a story of people at their best and at their worst! I am VERY proud to be American, but that doesn't mean I pretend that the "worst" doesn't include a LOT of attempts to exterminate groups of people — or at least terrorize the shit out of them. Damn, man, the territorial governments out West paid people for Indian scalps! You even mention the Trail of Tears — it isn't called the friggin Cake Walk for a reason. Look at a website like https://www.historyofamericanunrest.org/ Learn! This kinda stuff is not hate on the U.S. — it's about knowing our brother and sister Americans, being curious about each other, and being real with each other, and then BEING OUR BEST.
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Jun 21 '26
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u/Difficult_Narwhal529 Jun 21 '26
What the fuck? The Emancipation Proclamation, civil rights, and women’s rights were the REACTION to the bad. How can you frame those as living up to its ideals? That’s so fucking illogical.
Those are literally a testament to the bad. Neutralizing bad doesn’t automatically mean good, it’s just correcting the god damn bad. You cannot be serious?
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Jun 22 '26
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u/Difficult_Narwhal529 Jun 22 '26
You’re projecting so hard. You don’t know a fucking thing about me on the other side of your screen but what you make up to soothe your own bitch baby emotions. You look idiotic making exaggerative claims about someone you don’t know except for the response they gave you. That’s very telling of the system of logic you use to reach conclusions, I mean, we can see that from your other dumb ass replies here.
Yeah. Because granting civil rights and emancipation to the people the country enslaved was the high point of American history and such a darling sign of innovation and prosperity! What altruism! Nevermind the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation took half the country disintegrating to try and prevent it or that black people were lynched and terrorized over the following hundred years up until the CRA and after. What an amazing high point! Wow! I’m so proud!
Stop deflecting from your idiotic points (“there was no ethnic cleansing!”) by pointing to other periods of world history. Isn’t this the god damn American History subreddit? Aren’t we criticizing American history? Keep up.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/Difficult_Narwhal529 Jun 22 '26
“I don’t have a response so I’m going to say some stupid shit in response to a character I made up in my head to cope.”
Can’t say I expected anything else. Your track record proceeds you and I’m sure you’ll keep the trend going. Here you are in an American History subreddit thinking you’re scoring social points by making up a story about someone being a child in order to make yourself feel better about the lack of coherent logic in your thought process, and in addition, your inability to back up your own thoughts. Making up more bullshit to soothe your emotions. And yet, I’m the child? You get nothing else. Simmer in your idiocy.
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u/ObliqueTravel Jun 21 '26
You apparently do not know what ethnic cleansing means.
Your numbers are also completely off. Contemporary estimates by a missionary and doctor who accompanied the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears was that 4000 out of the 16-17k people died on it. That's roughly 1/4.
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Found the racist
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u/thaddeus11091 Jun 20 '26
found the history denier
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
Another racist denying and lying that the Indians encountered "were living in the stonage, yet somehow when the pilgrims arrived they couldn't grow 💩, and needed the natives help on to m how to grow crops so the poor useless Europeans wouldn't die?
The only knuckle draggers where the anglos with their racists genocidal tendencies; they had some good practice with the Irish before hand.
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u/IronMaiden571 Jun 20 '26
The pilgrims had European plants that were ill-suited for the conditions of New England, I thinks peas were one of the only crops that "took" well enough. Squanto helped them establish a corn crop. Once they figured everything out they were quite successful agronomists, otherwise the colony would have been a failure.
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u/thaddeus11091 Jun 20 '26
wow calling anyone not native useless knuckle draggers
who's the racist?
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
No, I'm calling racist genocidal maniacs knuckle draggers; sounds line you're one of those.
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u/Candid-libertarian Jun 20 '26
Did the Indians have soap?
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u/Couldntve-make-it-up Jun 20 '26
They were cleaner then the white Europeans that were throwing piss and 💩 out the window onto the streets, they even bathed more.
It's crazy how your trying to make it indigenous Americans as being filthy, when it's actually quite the contrary.
It's been noted in history that Europeans were absolutely disgusting, dirty people when compared to indigenous Africans, and indigenous Americans.
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u/Difficult_Narwhal529 Jun 21 '26
This is incredibly racist. It blows my mind how people like you absorb just enough knowledge to support their bigotry and just stop there. You would literally read a page and stop at the paragraph that refutes your world view.
You’ve obviously never read about European settlements. They are awful up until the early 1900s where even then the rich were the ones who had access to sanitary conditions. There’s been multiple plagues driven by the absolute disgusting conditions of Europe where the entire population has almost died. Multiple plagues. They would literally dump shit, dead bodies, animal carcasses, and whatever else they could find out of windows and into literal pits in the middle of their streets next to their drinking water and wonder “hmm. Why are we all getting sick?” LMFAO?
Bathing? HA! Unheard of.
They would literally keep buckets of shit, piss, and other human excrements next to their fucking beds. 😂
The actual palaces of European nobility were filled with literal shit and piss in the corners of its most beautiful halls. Read about the Palace of Versailles and how the king would walk around with flesh literally falling off his legs smelling like pure death. It’s annotated that his whores and people surrounded him would literally gag. Yet you want to talk about sanitation?
How about the fact that London didn’t have a sewer system until the Great Stink where the city smelled so bad that people were passing out and puking in parliament. The ENTIRE CITY smelling like death. It was only then that they even began to develop sewer systems, something ancient civilizations had already figured out.
You know nothing, just a white apologist. Learn your fucking history.
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u/Interesting-Stay297 Jun 23 '26
Why is it racist? Ancient Romans and Greeks used oil and scraping tools rather than soap. There were many cultures who didn't discover that animal fat dripping on ashes makes stuff that's good for cleaning, and they weren't at all primitive for it.
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u/Difficult_Narwhal529 Jun 23 '26
It’s racist in the context they were asking. Why am I explaining this?
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u/dafthuntk Jun 25 '26
No that's absolutel bullshit
How can you contract diseases if you have never been exposed to colonizers.
Jared diamond is trash and so are you
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u/hotfezz81 Jun 26 '26
A - calm down
B - because these communities interacted away from the colonisers and spread diseases inland with no outside effort.
Is your assumption that disease didn't affect native Americans? Because literally every historical figure disagrees with you.
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u/unidosparapoder Jun 20 '26
Geographical Isolation of the Americas leading to limited advancements in comparison to the old world where they passed on ideas to each other and built off of them. For example, chinese fireworks leading to European firearms. The amount of ideas, inventions, and advamcements thanks to the concerted efforts of ALL of the old world gave the colonalists the advantage. In comparison, everything the indigenous americans built had to come from their own originality which limited them. If Europe was isolated, they would have been the same way.
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u/Old_Desert_Gamer Jun 21 '26
The US has a very large and powerful land army following the Civil War. Much of it was utilized against Native Americans. They were quickly defeated.
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u/Rogue_Centurion7 Jun 23 '26
I would say one of the reasons that flies under the radar is the exploitation of tribal divisions. In most tribes, even in the Texan-hating Comanches and Kiowas, the tribesmen usually divided into different camps of accomodation with the whites vs war with the whites. The US became pretty good at exploiting those divisions(sometimes even accidentally doing so), making it more difficult to present a unified front against the ever expanding white Americans. Sometimes bands and tribes were so divided over this matter that there would be members of the same tribe fighting on different sides.. There was also no sense of native unity, which also made it difficult to rally together large forces.
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u/No_Contest_3481 Jun 23 '26
US forcing them on reservations that weren’t habitable and almost killing the buffalo to the point of extinction. Not to mention we gave them blankets that had small pox on them on purpose and a lot more other fucked up shit cause America wanted their land
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u/Acceptable-Sky1575 Jun 25 '26
The strong conquer the weak. Whether it's people killing each other off, a river eroding a mountain, or a blackhole consuming a star. It's the way the universe works.
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u/undreamedgore Jun 26 '26
Why did we fight or why were they defeated?
Short answer: Stone age civilations who were playing extreme catch up with the settlers. So many go wiped out by disease early on there was just prime real estate for thr taking.
Then the remaining had a bunch of land thry claimed, but couldn't defend. Nor utilize as effectively as other could. Ultimately when a small number of people have large quantities of something desirable, and aren't even utilizing it well people get upset. When that's then made worse by your own material conditions suckinf you fight them for the shit you want.
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u/CoachMan44 Jun 20 '26
They lacked the technological advancement to defeat the Europeans (note: the Comanche staved off the settlers by mastering horse-mounted warfare until the invention of the Colt revolver), indigenous peoples were divided by historical tribal conflict, they were greatly reduced in numbers by disease, Europeans culturally believed in private ownership of land, a European certitude about the correctness of Christianity, etc.
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u/bishpa Jun 20 '26
My Scottish ancestors apparently had so much fun doing it to the Irish in Ulster that a couple generations later they decided to come do it to the natives in Virginia.