America was founded by Christians. The Puritans and Pilgrims brought us a theologically sound, Biblically based, full orbed Christian Gospel. For the first several decades the settlers and the Indians were at peace but as settlers began to arrive in larger and larger numbers the aboriginal population who had prior claim to the land were put under constant pressure.
In spite of the fact that the New World was already sparsely occupied, Christian European settlers, some infected with a Promised Land syndrome, began to feel justified in raping and settling the land.
War was an American companion before its national founding. Birthed in aggressive war and revolution, imbued with a sense of Godly superiority and supported by His promise to fight on the side of His chosen people, American citizens with a sense of Divine entitlement have often cheered an aggressive government.
As the life of an individual can be used to assess overall character, history allows a look at the character of a nation. The legal mandates contained in Scripture are often used to measure the character of individuals but measurement of the character of nations has never been assigned a particular yardstick. Victorious nations write history and often many years go by before their behavior is accurately depicted – if ever!
From 1689 to 1697 a conflict known as King William’s War raged as the Indians joined the French in attacking hated English settlements. From 1702 to 1713 Queen Anne’s War was the second of four wars fought between France and Great Britain for control of the North American continent. King George’s war followed from 1744 to 1748 and the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763. All four of these wars were spawned in Europe but spilled over into the New World.
The British with the largest colonies dominated these battles When it was all over the Treaty of Paris was convened in 1763 and a peaceful settlement allowed the British to acquire Canada and Florida. France and the American Indians were big losers.
Resentment over previous defeats made Benjamin Franklin’s job in France much easier as France, Spain, and the Netherlands sided with the Colonists against the British during the Revolutionary War, 1775 to 1783.
Though it is not widely acknowledged, France was instrumental in the final victory of American forces over the British. On September 5, 1781 in its only defeat in two full centuries the British fleet was defeated near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay by a French contingent led by Rear Admiral Comte de Grasse. This victory not only cut the supply line of British General Cornwallis’ Virginia Army at Yorktown leading to an ultimate surrender but also provided a safe maritime supply route for George Washington’s army in New York. It was a major benefit to the Colonial forces who prevailed against the British allowing the formation of a new, loosely-knit nation.
From 1798 to 1800, a decade and a half after gaining their independence, the new nation fought a short undeclared Naval war called the Quasi-War with France over the terms of a treaty with England. Conflicts were off the Southeastern coast and in the Caribbean. The United States captured 80 French vessels. Twenty sailors were killed and 42 wounded. American and British naval pressure stemmed the French shipping attacks and on September 30, 1800 the conflict was ended in France by the Treaty of Mortefontaine.
In 1785 Algiers seized two United States ships and held the crews hostage. A $60,000 payment secured their release. Soon the new nation was making yearly protection payments of up to a million dollars to the pirates of the states of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. These rogue states loosely connected to the Ottoman Empire were known as the Barbary States As shipping increased the payments grew in size. At one time they amounted to 20 percent of the total United States budget.
The success American naval forces had against the French in the Quasi-War gave the fledgling government confidence to begin the first conflict outside the national region by confronting this long standing piracy out of North Africa. Following several indecisive naval battles beginning in1800, in April and May of 1805 a small contingent of Marines and mercenaries led by American Consul William Eaton marched 500 miles across the Libyan desert and captured the Tripoli port city of Derma. Easton’s victory over this city inspired the phrase in the Marine Hymn “to the shores of Tripoli” and ended the First Barbary War in 1805.
Following the Revolutionary War the British began harassing American interests. The bully tactics involved American shipping, resistance to colonial expansion, and the perception they were instigating the Indians against the colonists. In 1812 United States declared war against England. The War of 1812 was fought on several fronts. Initial United States victories were followed by the dominance of the British Navy. An unsuccessful invasion of Canada was mounted resulting in Detroit falling to the British. Washington D. C. was burned. The United States won major battles at Thames, Horseshoe Bend, and ultimately at Baltimore (Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner) and Plattsburgh, N. Y. In the South, General Andrew Jackson became famous by winning the battle for New Orleans. On December 24, 1814 the war was ended with the Treaty of Ghent (Belgium) which returned all properties to pre-war ownership (status quo ante bellum).
While United States was occupied with the war, Barbary pirates again began taking United States ships and holding the crews hostage. Unable to confront this robbery, congress again began paying yearly ransom. In 1815 when the English war was over another foray was made against Algiers which continued to be a problem until the British Fleet finally stopped it.
The numerous wars fought among European nations on the American Continent invariably involved the indigenous Indians who were used as pawns. Many times Indians fought on both sides of a conflict. Victory, however, always evaded the Indians whose overall interests inexorably waned.
In 1819, in the First Seminole War, General Andrew Jackson invaded the Northern portion of the Spanish Colony of Florida. The government defended its action by claiming Spain was not properly controlling the Indians. Although the territory was still counted as Spanish, Jackson captured large areas of Northern Florida.
At the time Florida was being invaded, the Adams-Onis Treaty was being negotiated and in 1821 control of Florida was finally ceded to the United States in return for forgiving a Spanish debt. This marked the beginning of the Second Seminole War fought against Spanish guerrillas and Seminole warriors financed by Spain. Suffering many casualties, Colonel Zachary Taylor won a decisive battle at Lake Okeechobee. The war continued for at least two decades until government forces burned the Indian villages and their crops. Faced with starvation many of the Indians were moved west of the Mississippi but some retreated to the Everglades.
In 1845, when James K. Polk became president the trek west was in full swing and United States citizens were often occupying land the nation did not own. As this occupational theft progressed a theology of “Manifest Destiny” developed assuming a Divine right to conquer and colonize the continent. There was a perception of superiority, individually and culturally, and this pragmatic consideration distorted the true nature of the proceedings. It was not, however, an outright theft. In 1835, Mexico was offered $5 million for the California territory. In 1845, the offer was raised to $25 million. Both offers were refused.1
When Mexico gained independence from Spain in the early Nineteenth Century the northern portions of their nation were sparsely populated and they offered residency to European colonialists who were willing to become Mexicans and convert to the National Catholic Religion. Thousands of colonists accepted the offer and populated the Mexican territory of Texas. However, in a short period of time they were dissatisfied with the Mexico City government and revolted forcing Mexican President Santa Anna in 1835 to sign the Treaty of Velasco giving Texas independence.
The Velasco Treaty met with wide disapproval in Mexico and hostilities continued along the Southern Texas border. United States citizens were solidly against Mexico and when the “Texicans” decided they wanted to join the United States in 1845 Congress annexed Texas.
The Mexican-American War began in 1845 over contested borders. Superior United States forces secured a final victory with 13,780 military casualties and a cost of $100 million. When the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo was signed in February, 1848, half of Mexico was ceded to the United States in return for a payment of $15 million. The territory not only included Texas but what are now the States of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
In 1855, a third Seminole war broke out when settlers encroached on Southern Florida. The Seminoles led by Billy Bowlegs attacked a group of soldiers. This final conflict lasted three years and resulted in the death of all but about 200 Seminoles who then retreated deep into the Everglades.
During the mid-1850s when the State of Kansas was being brought into the Union, Southern politicians connived to make it a slave state. Reverend Henry Ward Beecher armed 1200 New England abolitionists and journeyed to Kansas. Fellow abolitionist John Brown got involved and when a group of pro-slave Missourians known as the Border Ruffians attacked abolitionist strongholds, Brown’s forces invaded the homes of several pro-slavery men and hacked them to death with swords. His men also captured Confederate Colonel Henry Pate and 22 other pro-slavery soldiers.2
Soon after the Kansas skirmish, in 1859, with financial help from several Northern abolitionists, John Brown conspired to capture the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia and free the surrounding slaves. He captured the Federal Armory but his initial success turned into a rout when a company of U. S. Marines under the command of Lt. Colonel Robert E. Lee approached under a white flag and offered to spare their lives if they would surrender. Brown refused and he and his men were quickly defeated. Two of Browns sons, Watson and Oliver, were killed. Brown was taken captive and later hanged.3
Initial conflicts between abolitionists and pro-slavers offered a prelude to the Civil War which began in 1861. Though slavery was an underlying issue it was not the main reason for this unfortunate war. Six hundred thousand American youngsters were sacrificed, the Constitution was decimated, the right of secession was lost and Federal precedents were set for future tyranny. Sherman’s pillaging, raping, and burning through the South was over with General Robert E. Lee’s surrender in 1865. Federalism, the basic reason for the war, won over states rights.
Wars, conflicts, terrorism, and numerous atrocities marked relations with the aboriginal population from the beginning. These execrations lasted nearly 300 years beginning in the early Seventeenth Century and finally culminating in the late Nineteenth Century. By the beginning of the1900s the original Indian population had been substantially slaughtered, deprived of their lands and lifestyles, and confined to reservations. The displacement of an entire population in an area the size of the United States is a feat with few historic precedents.
Most Americans consider themselves citizens of a peaceful, benevolent nation. They have maintained that fantasy because they do not know history. This synopsis has now covered many of the almost continual conflicts of the first two hundred years.
Present day United States is a product of genocide, victory in wars fought over property belonging to neither of the combatants, revolution, defense, and a failing attempt at maintaining freedom based on a populace restrained by the mandates of Christianity and governed by officials bound by a Constitution.
“History for Dummies II” will follow.
————————————————————
1. History has a startling tendency to repeat itself. One cannot study the history of the conquest of the American Continent without thinking of the current situation in the Middle East. The contemporary nation of Israel conducts it affairs with the same arrogance and the same veiled theological assumptions. Supporting their continued expansion is the conviction that the land belongs to them by divine right. They, too, would be willing to pay for the land but the Arab world believes the land belongs to the Palestinians and will settle for nothing less than the dissolution of Israel and Palestinian repatriation. So far, the Muslim world has been fighting superior forces with terrorist tactics comparable to those used by the American Indians.
2. In some ways the issue of slavery in the mid-Nineteenth Century was similar to the issue of abortion today. Slavery divided the nation; not only the North and the South but as a religious issue it divided the nation as a whole.
3. There are similarities between John Brown and Reverend Paul Hill. Brown was a militant abolitionist who was executed for his raid at Harpers Ferry and Hill was a militant Pro-Lifer who was executed for murdering abortionists. Both were Christians and avid Bible students.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”