The Colonial Wars in America 1607-1763
By Mary Rhinelander McCarl
Armed conflict in itself signifies the breakdown of negotiation and compromise. Yet, we retell accounts of this country’s early days because, on a deeper level, an understanding of these conflicts in the days before America became independent is crucial to understanding the very core of America as a nation. Our language, our civilization, and our boundaries within and without were all fixed by the outcome of those conflicts that we call collectively The Colonial Wars.
The results of these wars were to drive French authority out of North America and to break the military power of the Indians from the east coast to the eastern shore of the Mississippi River. The wars also shaped the American identity in ways that were not apparent then but became quite clear when the American Revolution broke out. The colonial soldiers had learned that they could not keep their identities within the formal British military system. The veterans taught that lesson on the simplest level in all the villages and towns they returned to. When a majority of the American public agreed with them, the British system was doomed.
This section aims to walk you through our history using a timeline of significant events, not only of battles but of the early settlement of North America. There will also be various general interest articles under the Resources section, such as the Militia. Our hope is that you will get a sense of the changing relationship between the British settlers, the Indians, the professional British army, and the French.
American colonists fought for the British in various colonial wars in the 17th and 18th centuries before the American Revolution, generally as part of an unpaid volunteer militia.
There is nothing glorious about armed conflict in itself. It signifies the breakdown of negotiation and compromise. Yet we have preserved tales of war ever since Homer sang of the siege of Troy. There is a fascination in retelling exemplary, because they are true, accounts of this country’s early days, when people arose to heights of extraordinary personal heroism; proved themselves, like George Washington, to have natural gifts for leadership; or failed like General Braddock, who paid for his mistakes with his life. On a deeper level, an understanding of the history of these conflicts in the days before America became independent is crucial to an understanding of the very core of America as a nation. Our language, our civilization, our boundaries within and without, were all fixed by the outcome of those conflicts that we call collectively The Colonial Wars.
Armed conflict in America existed from time immemorial. Wars among Indian nations predated European conflicts by centuries, and when the British, French, Spanish, and Dutch arrived in America, they brought with them the political, religious, and mercantile tensions of Europe, which would continue to echo the wars of the Old World within the New. In the Society of Colonial Wars,1892-1967: Seventy-fifth Anniversary, Nathaniel C. Hale, chronicled the conflicts of the Europeans with the Indians, the AngloDutch conflicts, the intra-colonial squabbles, as well as the grand campaigns between the British and the French.
The aim of this historical essay is more modest. It tells the stories of selected conflicts that are examples of the changing relationship between the British settlers, the Indians, the professional British army, and the French. It will begin with a glance of the seventeenth-century conflicts between settlers and Indians, particularly the Great Swamp Fight in King Philip’s War. These wars were fought by the colonials alone, without men or funding from the mother country. At that time the main problem for the Americans was to invent a strategy that would beat the Indians at their own game of lightning raids against defenseless settlements and of ambushing columns of men marching in European formations.
The eighteenth-century wars, in which the Americans played a vital but subordinate role, pitted professional European armies against each other. The British suffered occasional defeats in these campaigns when they violated the rules of wilderness warfare, but the final decisive battles were won by European armies in direct confrontation with each other. Here the focus is on the American colonial soldier as part of the great British military establishment. Were the Americans simply inept, argumentative, unreliable, pale shadows of the Redcoat ideal, or did they “march to a different drummer” and act in an honorable and reasonable way according to their own lights?
It is generally conceded that the British colonies of North America were founded for religious or commercial, not military purposes. Captain John Smith of Virginia and Captain Myles Standish of Plymouth Colony, professional soldiers, were exceptions among the farmers and traders. Yet the colonies were founded in areas with indigenous populations that quite naturally objected to being forced off their lands. How should they protect the farms with their houses full of food and manufactured goods, and their outbuildings and pastures full of cattle and horses? What was the most efficient method of defense on a moving frontier? In the earliest years of Virginia, the settlers huddled in fortified centers, and every settler was put under Draconian military discipline, but this promptly broke down and the militia system was substituted.
Every able-bodied male between the ages of sixteen and sixty served in the militia without pay. Training was minimal, but every soldier had to bring his own firearm to the annual training day, and to demonstrate that he was an accurate shot. The militia in its regular form was a purely defensive force, never asked to move outside the neighborhood of the members’ homes. In areas of particular danger the colonists developed a garrison system of fortified dwellings where inhabitants of a village might huddle until the threat of an Indian raid was past, but normally members of the militia guarded their own homes. The main use of the militia on the frontier was as a pool of men from which paid “rangers” were chosen to patrol the frontier line just in front of the settlements, and to go on occasional offensive raids against Indian villages. In the seventeenth century rangers were neither permanent nor professional soldiers.
Colonial Period Foundational Reading List
1
Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford.
Written in the 1650s (but not published until 1856), this surprisingly readable account of the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony was one of the first books written in British North America. The author was the longtime Governor of the colony, and it provides a thorough and engaging first-hand account of the colony from 1620 to 1647. Available in multiple modern editions.
2
Mourt’s Relation, Edward Winslow and possibly others.
Written c. 1622 and first published in London but not America, this booklet provides a firsthand account of the Pilgrims’ interactions with the Native Americans and the first Thanksgiving. Available in multiple modern editions.
3
New England’s Memorial, Nathaniel Morton.
This book was written in the 1660s by William Bradford’s nephew, Thomas Morton, who was longtime Secretary of Plymouth Colony. It was the first history book published in British North America (in 1669 at Cambridge, MA). It provides a broader and lengthier history of Plymouth Colony by extending beyond Bradford’s 1647 end date and is instrumental to understanding Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and their progeny. Available in multiple modern editions.
4
1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy, James Horn.
Written by the winner of the 2019 SCW Distinguished Book Award, this recent (2018) book is probably the best account of the founding of Jamestown and its implications for British North America (and indeed the United States).
5
The Barbarous Years, Bernard Bailyn.
A broader account of 17th-century British North America, focusing on multiple regions and historical figures. Written in 2012 by the then-dean of US academic historians, it nonetheless reads well and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Essential to understanding the founding of British North America in a rather unhappy and difficult century.
6
Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in North America, David Hackett Fischer.
Brilliantly conceived and executed by one of the foremost living U.S. academic historians, this enlightening 1989 book traces the impact on four American regions of emigration during the 17th and 18th centuries from distinct parts of the British Isles. Although lengthy and detailed, it reads well and is vastly informative and instrumental to understanding who we are and why.
7
Montcalm and Wolfe, Francis Parkman.
This riveting and highly readable 1884 classic by historian Francis Parkman tells the story of the British-French struggle for North America by focusing on the heroes of the French & Indian War, Generals Montcalm, and Wolfe, culminating in the world-changing seizure of Quebec in 1759. Highly recommended as a romantic and engaging but also historically important introduction to the French & Indian War.
8
Crucible of War, Fred Anderson.
This broader, more modern (2001) history by a living and important academic historian of the French & Indian/Seven Years War offers the best overall narrative of that world war, focusing on North America. It is lengthy but readable and is the “go-to” book for understanding that struggle. For those intimidated by a 917-page tome, a shortened version of this book was subsequently published by Anderson titled The War that Made America: A Short History of the French & Indian War. But the original book is better.
9
An Empire on the Edge, Nick Bunker.
Moving closer to the lead-up to the American Revolution, this 2014 book by British independent scholar Nick Bunker lucidly analyzes America’s place within the British Empire and the forces, both economic and political, that were tearing that Empire apart. A highly informative and readable analysis of Anglo-American relations during the late Colonial period and of why the Revolution became inevitable. 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Other Suggested Colonial Reading
In addition to the above nine “foundational” books, there are a handful of other books which, while not in our judgment necessarily meeting all the criteria to be considered “foundational,” nonetheless provide worthwhile reading and valuable treatment of specific geographic places, people, or events. These include:
The Island at the Center of the World – Russell Shorto, (2004). New York
God, War and Providence – James A. Warren, (2018). Rhode Island.
The Transformation of Virginia 1740-1790 – Rhys Isaac, (1982). Winner of Pulitzer Prize in History. Virginia
King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England – James David Drake, (2000). King Philip’s War
The Last King of America – Andrew Roberts, (2022). Winner of the 2022 GSCW Distinguished Book Award. Eye-opening portrayal of King George III and of his approaches to handling the American colonies.
New England’s Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century – Virginia DeJohn Anderson, (Cambridge University Press 1991). A highly readable and informative look at daily life during the Great Migration to Massachusetts Bay Colony c. 1630-40.
A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire – Adrian Chastain Weimer, (University of Pennsylvania Press 2023). Recent original scholarship on the roots of American independence in late 17th century Massachusetts.