Independence, Imperialism and Immigrants

by Tom Turnipseed

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0625-20.htm

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European imperialism and genocide against the indigenous Native Americans allowed Europeans to take over what became the United States. European conquest of North America created an American Empire. Was it morally justifiable?

One of the principal causes of the American War for Independence fought by the Continental colonials against Britain was Britain's demand that the colonials pay taxes for the money spent in the French and Indian Wars to secure territory in what became the Eastern part of United States. A 21 year old Virginian named George Washington was an officer for the British colonials. The colonials greatly benefited from the struggles between imperial England and imperial France over control of the Eastern half of North America. Indigenous Native Americans had inhabited the land for at least 10 to 20 thousand years. The British colonials exploited Native Americans and pitted them against the vast majority of Native Americans who sided with the French. Europeans took North America from the indigenous peoples by force and deceit.

The British and French fought four imperial struggles called the French and Indian Wars for control of North America over a span of 75 years with the first three involving the Brits and their colonists who named them for their reigning monarch of the day. They were: King William's War (1689-1697); Queen Anne's War (1702-1713); and King George's War (1744-1748). The final war was called the French and Indian War in North America (1754-1763) and became known as the Seven Years War in Europe. All four conflicts were the North American front of even larger struggles occurring in Europe.

The culminating conflict heated up with British General Braddock’s death in an ambush while accompanied by young George Washington near Fort Duquesne and Fort Necessity where the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers form the Ohio River at present day Pittsburgh. Military forays and pillaging in what is now the United States were focused on attempts to capture the opponent's fortress positions on the frontier such as Fort Carillon, later known as Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York. The British finally decided to concentrate on the North American phase of the conflict and their investment of huge sums of money and new military talent helped provide the margin of victory...