U.S. Wars Pre-1900: A Historical Overview
War has always been part of the American experience. The military history of the United States dates back more than 300 years, if you include colonial times.
From the time the first colonists set foot upon North America’s shores, they were in conflict with the Native inhabitants. One hundred years later the colonies suddenly found themselves an extension of the conflicts in Europe. Less than a century later, the Revolutionary War freed the fledgling United States from its British overlords and European entanglements.
During that time, the United States evolved from civilian frontiersmen, armed for hunting and basic survival in the wilderness, to a new nation fighting the British Empire for independence, through a Civil War that pited brother against brother, to a world superpower in the late 20th century and early 21st century.
There was many early conflicts dating from the times of the first colonist. Almost all of those conflicts were with the British, the French, the Spanish, or the Native Americans.
Colonial Wars (1607-1785)
The sheer number of wars that occurred in the period should highlight how important conflict was to the development of America. There was either a declared war or a conflict for 79 of the 179 years from just before the founding of Jamestown until 1785, the end of the Revolution.
In effect, American colonial society was in an almost constant state of conflict. These conflicts can be broken down into three types.
- Indian or Settlement Wars – As soon as the English colonists arrived in 1607, they either attacked or were attacked by Native Americans.
- Imperial Wars – most often between France and England in the eighteenth century, but also between other European powers with interests in colonial America.
- Revolutionary Wars, or more properly the War for American Independence.
Indian Wars
The first Indian Wars, included conflicts like the Anglo-Powhatan (Tidewater) Wars in Virginia or the Pequot War in New England, were basically cultural clashes resulting from misunderstandings, language problems, or general hostility toward each other.
The Native Americans involved in these wars almost always outnumbered the colonists. The first group of settlers that came to Jamestown, numbering only 104 settlers, was quite literally surrounded by the 15,000-20,000 strong Powhatan confederacy, including upwards of 4,000-6,000 trained warriors.
While the Natives had the numbers, at Jamestown as well as other earlier settlements, the Europeans had the technological advantage.
These early contact wars were not strictly racial in composition (Europeans vs. Natives), as even in the earliest conflicts, some Native American groups allied themselves to the English against traditional native enemies.
A second series of Settlement or Indian Wars were perhaps the most deadly of all the colonial wars.
These included King Philip’s War in New England from 1675-76 and, in the Carolinas in the early 18th century, the Tuscarora and the Yamasee wars. These later indian wars had more to do disputes over land and trade than earlier conflicts.
Indians no longer had a numeric advantage, given their decimation by disease and continued European immigration. The European technological advantage had also evaporated by this period because Native Americans had not only acquired European weaponry, but also excelled in its use.
Both King Philip’s War and the Yamasee War were extremely deadly. During King Philip’s War in New England, the fighting reached within eight miles of Boston.
In proportion to the populations involved, more people died in that war than any other war in all of American history. The New England frontier was ultimately pushed back almost to its 1640s level.
In the Yamasee War, North and South Carolina were in such distress that they have to ask for help from England and even Virginia, despite the fact that the Carolinian’s had very little use for the Virginians otherwise.
The last series of these indian wars stretched into the 18th century and included two conflicts. Lord Dunmore’s War (1774) in the Virginia back country and Pontiac’s Rebellion at the end of the French and Indian War (1763) are in many ways indian wars, as Europeans moved westward into the trans-Appalachian region and were opposed by newly exposed Native American groups.
Imperial Wars
The next major type of colonial war fought in North America was imperial warfare between European colonizing powers. The colonies of these powers were thrown into the conflicts as well, and European wars came to America.
Most of these wars have two names, a European moniker and an American one (e.g., the American “Queens Anne’s War” was in Europe the “War of the Spanish Succession”). One of the most important of these is the 17th-century series of Anglo-Dutch Wars.
In 1664, the English took the colony of New Amsterdam (New York) away from the Dutch, making the conflict very important to the future history of America.
The better known imperial wars are the conflicts between the French and English through the late 17th and early 18th centuries: King William’s War, Queen Anne’s War, and King George’s War. All of these were basically contests to see who would control the largest empire and its colonies, not only in America but throughout the world.
These imperial wars were fought not only in North America, but also in Europe, India, Asia, and at sea. In these earliest imperial wars, colonial Americans took on most of the fighting chores in the region. There were very few British regulars involved in the American theaters of these wars, and according to some historians, the Americans formed their sense of pride in their association with the British Empire through their war service in these conflicts.
However, these wars also created hardships, both economic and social, for colonial Americans.
The best known of the imperial wars is the 1754-63 French and Indian War, the final showdown between these two powers in America. It was the first time massive European–at least English–armies entered the American scene.
Americans were relegated to the sidelines as auxiliary troops, which had important consequences later on. As we know, the French and Indian War ultimately led to the American War for Independence.
Indian Wars East of the Mississippi (post-1775)
British merchants and government agents began supplying weapons to Indians living in the United States following the Revolution (1783-1812) in the hope that, if a war broke out, they would fight on the British side. The British further planned to set up an Indian nation in the Ohio-Wisconsin area to block further American expansion.
The US protested and went to war in 1812. Most Indian tribes supported the British, especially those allied with Tecumseh, but they were ultimately defeated by General William Henry Harrison. The War of 1812 spread to Indian rivalries, as well.
Many refugees from defeated tribes went over the border to Canada; those in the South went to Florida while it was under Spanish control.
During the early 19th century, the federal government was under pressure by settlers in many regions to expel Indians from their areas. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 offered Indians the choices of assimilating and giving up tribal membership, relocation to an Indian reservation with an exchange or payment for lands, or moving west.
Some resisted fiercely, most notably the Seminoles in a series of wars in Florida. They were never defeated, although some Seminoles did remove to Indian Territory. The United States gave up on the remainder, by then living defensively deep in the swamps and Everglades.
Others were moved to reservations west of the Mississippi River, most famously the Cherokee whose relocation was called the “Trail of Tears.”