The King Philips War - Article Example

King Philip’s War Walter Zapotoczny (2007) says, throughout the history, war has been the primary impetus behind growth and development. In fact, warhas been the source of American nationalism to encourage political and social change, he adds. Among the many wars that America has gone through to encourage social and political change, King Philip’s War, which took place in 1675, was a legacy of America’s forgotten conflict (Michael & Shultz). King Philip was actually a nickname given by the British settlers to Metacom, the leader of Pokanokers, which was Wampanoag Indian Federation, because of his welcoming manners toward the settlers. During fifty-five years after the arrival of Mayflower, with her first settlers from England, history reveals that the settlers were becoming prospered and multiply while the natives were decreasing due to diseases contracted by the settlers of which they had no cure. With growing population and the need for economic expansion and survival, land ownership and rights often became the source of conflict between the settlers and the natives. Not only the Indians were declining in numbers due to death but also, according to global security, they were sold by the settlers as slaves into the Carribean. Agriculture was the main source of economic production of the native and the settlers’ was livestock. While the Indian grew corn, the settlers bred cattle and too often the cattle damaged the corn and this incident became the cause of daily dispute between the two groups. This conflict lingered without solution and it became a war after the Wampanoag killed some of the cattle of the British farmers in protest to the damage of their corn caused by the cattle near the headquarters of the Wampanoag in what is now called Bristol, Rhode Island (Tougias, 1997). In retaliation, the farmer killed an Indian even threatened to kill the entire Indians in Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Bay Colonies. Yet, this threat added fuel to the conflict. “The Nipmuck Indians, who lived in what is now central Massachusetts, joined forces with Philip’s Wampanoag’s” (Tougias, 1997). And together they attack and took over Brookfield. According to Tougias, this attack was dramatic because the entire British soldiers led by Captain Hutchinson and Wheeler was paralyzed. Eight soldiers were killed in the trap and the rest of the soldiers barely made it back to the garrison at Brookfield. Back at Brookfield, they were surrounded by the Indians who burned all the buildings and set the garrison on fire. Together with the settlers, the surviving soldiers tried to extinguish the flames with their last source of drinking water but to no avail. At such a crisis moment, at the time they had to make a choice whether to let themselves be burned alive or getting out of the fire and be scalped by the Indians who were chanting their triumph, heavy rained shower fell and quenched the flames. By then the news of the attacked had reached another garrisons who sent a rescue team to help the surviving soldiers and settlers. The town of Brookfield was abandoned and left without inhabitants. Successful with their first attack, the Nippmuck and Wampanoag warriors continued their attack to the settlers along the Connecticut River Valley, the fertile land plenteous of grain products. Forming allies had also become one strategy of the Americans to face their enemy, starting with the Wampanoag and the Nipmuck. By 1675, they formed allies with the Pocumtucks, Squakheags, and Norwottocks and together they attacked the area known as Pioneer Valley and the town of Deerfield. The Pioneer Valley and the town of Deerfield were easily defeated. Soldiers fled the area to Hardley. When they were sent back to retrieve the grain, it was a sacrifice Captain Lothorp could never forget. The soldiers were trapped at the “Bloody Brook” and the entire 71 soldiers died in this brook. Though Captain Moseley and his men were sent to help Captain Lorthorp’s soldiers in the “Bloody Brook,” they too were forced to leave the battlefield. Some blame this incident had some religious interpretation or“karma” to the Puritans who persecuted the Quakers and the Christians or Christian Indians. But it could also be a vengeance for the treatment of the settlers toward the Indians who had welcomed them with their open arms to settle in their land. As other towns were being attacked, settlers from other towns such as in Aquinnah, European settlers armed their Indian neighbors to protect them from possible attack from the Indian allies. In other areas, the settlers even abandoned the land, gave them back to the Indians, and left the area without a fight. In the towns of Hatfield, Northampton, and Springfield, children were taken as hostages by the whites who actually retaliated their attack and used them as shields to protect themselves from the Indians attack. But it caused the Indians to become more hostile. The Agawams joined in the battle. They attacked the three towns, burned 30 houses and Springfield was burned to the grown. Winter season subsided the war. The Indians did not attack but had managed to take over the areas around Boston as they moved their children and families along to a safer place. The Narragansett, who lived in now Rhode Island, had been leaving peacefully with the settlers and stayed neutral during the war. They meant little to the New England Colonists. But fear of this tribe might joined the Indians ally, the New England Colonists General Winslow and Indian fighter Benjamin Church led one thousand soldiers from Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut Colony, and Plymouth Bay marched to Narragansett territory and massacre its citizens. Known as the Great Swamp Massacre, Captain Winslow, Benjamin Church and their one thousand soldiers killed 500 people, mostly women and children. The surviving warriors of Narragansett took up their vengeance to no bound. They joined the battle along with King Philip. Medfield, Groton, Sudbury, Plymouth, Rehoboth, Providence, and Marlboro were raided and burned to the ground. Captain turner and Captain Holyoke joined the war in 1676. They paid an Indian boy to tip them the location of the camp of the Indian ally. Once received the tip, they made a surprise attack on the Indian ally camp at the end of the Connecticut River. At dawn and without warning, the Indians were slaughtered without mercy. Their headquarters were vanished. Many fled and others drown swift by the current and through the falls as they tried to swim across to the other side of the river. Captain Turner and Captain Holyoke were rejoiced for their triumph. But it did not last long. The Nipmuck and the Wampanoag surrounded them and killed the soldiers including Captain Turner. Some of their men managed to return to Hadley. Though their counter attack was successful, the Indian ally had lost many of its men and their headquarters was vanished. The federation of Indian alliance collapsed at this massacre. The surviving warriors fled and scattered. They became weak and their number became smaller. As they scattered, some tried to continue the fight only to lose. King Philip returned to his tribal headquarters near Swansea at Mount Hope, a place where he started the war, haunted by Benjamin Church, the Indian fighter who paid other Indians as his scouts. In summer 1677, King Philip and in the same place, he died at the bullet of Benjamin Church. His effort to survive a nation and a country failed and his legacy was forgotten. The Indians’ right to become a country and a nation ended with his death. His legacy ended with his death. Tougias says, King Philip’s death has proven what he said, “I determined not to live until I have no country.” One sad thing about King Philip that makes this war as forgettable war in American history was that he did not have the opportunity to be heralded as hero by his people because according to Libby Klekowski, his body was drawn and quartered, and his head was paraded by the triumphant soldiers of the Colonist in Plymouth. His son, the son of Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoag tribe, and the children of his tribes were sold as slaves to Bermuda. King Philip’s war, which was lasted from 1675-1677, was a war of survival for the Indians. It was their first and last war and had killed one third of the white population, said the Global Security. To the American military, King Philip’s war was the time that mark American military revolution in weaponry. American soldiers realized the advantage of the Indian soldier during this war was that they were equipped with flintlocks while American soldiers were equipped with matchlocks and pikes. In addition, the Indians were excellent marksmen. At the end of the war, American army went through a revolution. Their weaponry, war tactics, and strategies were modernized. They began to order new weaponry from Europe, developed new technology for the military, and learned new war tactics and strategies. King Philip’s war could have been avoided if one greed does not rule in one’s heart. The Bible said, “Thou shall not covet.” Sudisman, one of the prominent communist leaders of Indonesia said in his Uraian Tanggung Jawab (A quotation quoted by Sudisman, one of the Indonesia’s communist leaders in his “pledoi”): “Man is a fool, When it’s hot, he wants it cool When it’s cool, he wants its hot; He always wants what he has not King Philip’s War explains how war is started because of human’s greed. It should be a lesson learned for today. Greed breed corruption and corruption breed immorality. The Kantian Theory emphasizes on morality, which is internal. The morality is about doing good, respects the rights and ownership of the others, and appreciates what you have given. The settlers could have learned to avoid such a simple dispute by setting the boundaries, keeping their cattle in places in places where they should graze, or have the Indians to exchange their corn with the cows, develop the land together and learn to share the benefit together. Learn to appreciate and satisfied with what you have given. It is morally right to do something good in return and morality is internal (Poff & Waluchow, 1999). The golden rule is “Do unto others what you want others do to you.” The dispute would not end up in killing and retaliation if the matter could have been taken according to the law. A preacher said, “When we are too focused, we are blinded by what happens to our surroundings. We are blinded by the suffering of the people around us.” The colonial soldiers were too focused while the settlers do not appreciate the Indians, which may be caused by race differences. It is the beauty of our Creator to create human beings differently, just like he creates flowers, trees, animals, and other living things in this planet. King Philip’s war could have been avoided if there were good communication because communication is a key to a relationship. Retaliation stirs up anger and one anger beget another anger and vengeance. Learn to appreciate people’s rights, ownership, norms, culture, and traditions because it determines the success of the society (Boyte, 2004). Shafritz & Russell (2000) stated that the job of the military is to build the nation and to provide to improve the welfare of the people. Let the people learn to solve their own problem in their own way. Military men tend to believe that war is their best solution (Zapotoczny, 2007; Koistine, 2004) because they are too focused. Like the story of The American Dreams or The European Dreams, Jeremy Rifkin describes Americans and Europeans want things to be solved as quickly as possible. They want to patch rather than learning how to prevent a bleeding wall. However, quick decision and quick action tend to do more damage (Russell & Harshbarger, 2003) than it help. War such as this could have been avoided without military interference. In fact, attacking the Narragansett, which is at peace is totally against the law. In his Americas Paradoxical Trinity: WWII and Vietnam, Zapotoczny states that in his book On War, Chlausewitz says that war is always comprised of a paradoxical trinity because it is driven by primordial violence, hatred, and hostility. The tendencies toward war is due mainly to the people or individual’s ambition, the government, and the commander of the army, said Zapotoczny. The army commander is a leader and as a good leader, one requires wisdom. Let those who lack wisdom may ask from God. The most important thing for a leader to do is “knowing when to lead,” say Chief Bevan during his farewell party. Wise leader would not act based on assumption, rumor, or intuition but based on thorough research, facts, and a good balance, reasonable, and equitable decision, said Professor Steven Morreale of Walden University. Work Cited Boyte, Harry. Everyday Politics. Phyladelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 2004 Klekowski, Libby. King Philip’s War. 12 June 2007. http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/philip.html McNall Burns, Edward; Lerner, Robert E. & Meachan, Standish. Western Civilizations. Tenth Edition, Volume 2. New York: W. W. Norton & Norton Company, 1984. Military Organization. King Philips War. 12 June 2007 from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/king_philip.htm Poff, Deborah C. & Waluchow, Wilfrid. Business Ethics. Scarborough, ON: Prentice Hall, 1999 Russell, Diane & Harshbarger, Camilla. Groundwork for Community-Based Conservation. San Francisco: Altamira, 2003 Shafritz & Russell. Introducing Public Administration. New York: Addison Wesley-Longman, 2000. Sudisman. Uraian Tanggung Jawab. Djakarta, 21 July 1967. June 11, 2007. http://www.marxists.org/indonesia/indones/sudisman.htm Tougias, Michael. King Philips War in New England (Americas First Major Indian War) 1997. 12 June 2007. http://www.historyplace.com/specials/kingphilip.htm Tougias, Michael and Schultz, Eric B. King Philips War : The History and Legacy of Americas Forgotten Conflict. 12 June 2007. http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/philip.html Zapotoczny, Walter. S. Americas Paradoxical Trinity: WWII and Vietnam. 02/10/2007. 11 June, 2007. http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/general/articles/paradoxicaltrinity.aspx. Read More