The episodes that took place in New England during the 17th century were of crucial importance for the history of the United States. It was the beginning period of the relations between the Native Americans and the Anglo-Saxon civilization. When the Pilgrims came to the coasts of what was called New England, they did not enter an unoccupied land. The land had ben the country of origin of many groups of Native Americans, which for many years survived maintaining their culture and lifestyle.
The arrival of the Europeans was a serious change for the Native Americans, the English considered their culture better and superior and their attitudes were intolerant and hostile. On the other hand, the Native Americans, did not had the military strength and unity of the English and were also disposed to acquire some characteristics of the European culture into their own. The extended number of English settlers, with their constant desire for land, inevitably led to conflicts and to the quick expansion of the English settlements.
Something that started as an effort to achieve liberty and to build a prototype of society for the Cristian world, ended in the exploitation and conquest of the Native Americans of North America. For the English Puritans religion was probably the most insuperable barrier between the two cultures. When a religion was ban its people were inevitably bad and were consider also as enemies of God. This religion and cultural differences had crucial repercussions and a direct impact on other aspects of mutual interaction, from everyday contact to land tenure. This conflicts caused that the English attitudes regarding the Natives became more bellicose and aggressive.
What Europeans desire the most was the Indian land. European Monarchs had the privilege to own and control the land which was discovered in his name, only if its inhabitants were not Christians. Another way to obtain land was by conquest in an armed conflict. The Native Americans were losing their land and were getting under control of the colonists, meaning this that they were also losing the independence they once had, before the English arrived.
