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Causes Of The Pequot War

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The Pequot War started in 1636 and ended in 1637. The war consisted of the Pequot people and a coalition of English settlers from the Massachusetts Bay. It was a brutal war and was the first sustained conflict between Native Americans and Europeans in northeastern North America.

The primary cause of the Pequot War was the struggle to control trade. The Dutch brought on economic, political, and cultural changes when they arrived on Long Island and in the Connecticut River valley at the beginning of the 17th century and of English traders and settlers in the early 1630s. The world they entered into was dominated by the Pequot. The root of the Pequot War was the struggle for control of the fur and wampum trade in the Connecticut River valley. Before the arrival of the English in the early 1630s, the Dutch and Pequot controlled all the region’s trade. The situation was precarious because of the resentment held by the subservient Native American tribes for their Pequot overlords. So, when the English wanted to join in on the scene, those other tribes sought alliance with them, shifting the balance of regional power. This brought conflict as the competition for control of trade escalated quickly. As tensions grew between all parties, the murder of trader John Oldham by the Manisses Indians of Block Island in July, 1636 resulted in a military response by the English of Massachusetts Bay that led directly to the Pequot War. This was the beginning of the Pequot War.

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