jan 1, 1543 - English Policy (WOR, MIG)

Description:

English policy concerning the Native American peoples was one generally composed of hostility and conflict. The cultures and customs of many Native Americans clashed with the cultures and customs of the English (property, use of nature and land, etc.) and thus the English lacked an understanding of their culture, but also a willingness to understand and accept their ways of life, instead favoring a less extreme, but still racially biased hierarchal European perspective on the Natives as savage. The tensions and conflict between the two groups was further compounded due to the progressively evident intent of the English to colonize and stay in the Americas permanently as a home and enforce their ideals as the norms. Because of the larger and more gender-diverse populations of English present in the Americas, marriage between peoples was far rarer, and thus assimilation and mixture was far less, and no sort of caste system (as with Spain) was developed. Instead, the English did not favor to keep the Natives as slaves (they would come to utilize West African slaves instead) but did favor driving them away from land deemed necessary to own, and if needed, kill them instead. This was also generally possible due to the smaller, less technologically advanced societies the English encountered, with often with limited populations to reasonably fight back with, and a lack of competitive military technology, leading to further and further expulsion of Natives from their homes, in order to accommodate the growing power and needs of England. The English did at times create peaceful and profitable relationships with the Natives, particularly upon arrival, and eventually hostile relationships which would continue with further western expansion.

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