Quote:
Originally Posted by Pointman
I guess, it is loosely similar to conquest of North America. It wasn't really as simple, as First Nations defending their land against invading Europeans. In reality, various indigenous tribes formed alliances with various European factions and frequently fought alongside Europeans against othe tribes, allied with other Europeans.
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Your characterization of Indigenous and European relations in a colonial setting is not based historical research.
For one until the 19th century Europeans, and later colonial governments had very little interest in land based colonial development. This is with exception to a variety of agricultural settlements used for the mass production of Tobacco and Cotton. Where this land based colonialism occurred there were seldom alliances with local Indigenous peoples. Instead there was outright genocide and ecological destruction.
Though you're right there were many, some times competing alliances, but these were never focused on land based conquests. In fact, most corporate ( and therefore government) actors were interested almost exclusively in peace. trade was not as prosperous in times of war. Europeans, at least in an official capacity were never involved directly in Indigenous warfare. Though at times they did work with Indigenous peoples to war among fellow Europeans.
With that in mind, in the 19th century when land based conquest became the national( and colonial priority) there was once again no collaboration, and instead there was genocide. This is characteristic of settler colonialism because these colonial land acquisitions often necessitate the assumption of cultural superiority as a means to displace populations, and to sever genealogical attachments to the land though physical and discursive violence. Indeed Canadians didn't just remove Indigenous peoples from the land, but they also changed the entire ecological system. Just the Same Isreal isn't only removing Palestinian peoples, but they are bombing Gaza into a nearly unrecognizable environment.