1) June, 1675 - July, 1676: New England
Settlers from the Boston and Plymouth colonies were expanding west from the Atlantic
coast and encountering the Wampanoag people. Increased competition for resources (particularly
land for planting, hunting and fishing) caused friction between the two groups. Changes in the
regional economy, such as collapse in the fur trade, led many Native people to support
themselves by selling their land, but a continuing problem was the trampling of Native cornfields
by colonists' livestock. After a dispute over the death of a Wampanoag traitor in 1675, hostilities
broke out and King Phillip's War began. In the following year, over 600 colonists and 3,000
Indians were killed all over Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The colonists were
eventually victorious. Hundreds of Indians were sold into slavery in the Caribbean. The
Narragansett, Wampanoag, Podunk, and Nipmuck were virtually eliminated, while the Mohicans
were greatly weakened. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were now fully open to
European colonization.
Clearly an act of imperialism or clearly not? Why or why not?