Interactive Question - Assignment Example

How the Native Americans Manipulate the ‘Middle Ground’ How the Native Americans Manipulate the ‘Middle Ground’ As history has it,the conquering of America by the European imperialists brought more harm than good to the Native American populations. After fully establishing control of their new territory, the imperialists stated destabilizing the soc-political and economic structure of the natives. One such method was a divide and rule tactic that was used to fuel enmity amongst the indigenous tribes to resemble the antagonism amongst the colonialists themselves.

On realizing this, the natives began to manipulate the ‘middle ground’ on their favor. As scholars argue, ‘middle ground’ refers to a cultural and geographical linkage between the native and colonial groups. For them to survive, the natives decided to take advantage of the rivalry between the British, Dutch, French and Spain. This was a necessary tactic because these colonial masters were engaged in constant wars. To solidify its political and economic prowess, Iroquois had to take advantage of Anglo-Dutch War which, in 1664, resulted into the loss of control of New York by the Dutch.

After this defeat, the Iroquois signed a treaty with the British. A similar mode of manipulation was evidenced when they played the French against the British, but remained loyal to the British who managed to drive away the French out of North America in 1763 during the Indian War. This is how the Native Americans managed to manipulate the ‘middle ground’ in their own favor. May be if it were not for this, they would have succumbed to the pressure from the powerful European colonialists.