The Revolutionary Struggle in the US Part 1
1492 and the Beginnings of Colonialism
The creation of what is known today as the United States of America is steeped in myth and legend. Those who are subject to schooling in the US are taught that the colonization of what would become ‘America’ began as an attempt by everyday Europeans to flee “religious persecution” or a quest to find opportunity. We are also told that these newcomers were welcomed with open arms, at least initially, by the peoples already inhabiting what would come to be known as New England. Decades on, it is said that the “Founding Fathers” shrugged off the oppressive British Crown in order to secure such noble principles as “freedom” and “liberty”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Columbus
Although there is evidence of contact between Europeans and the native inhabitants of what is now commonly known as “the Americas”, the era of European colonization of these continents is widely considered to have begun in earnest with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean. Columbus was a Genoese (Italy) mariner sponsored by the Spanish Crown to find a westward route to Asia in order to circumvent the historic eastward routes that were then dominated by the Ottoman and Chinese Empires. Although it is unclear which modern day island in The Bahamas on which Columbus and his crew first landed, it is well documented that the Lukku-Cairi people (anglicized Lucayan) who lived there knew the island as Guanahaní.
First-hand accounts of this landing tell us that one of Columbus's first actions upon encountering the island's native inhabitants was to order several Lukku-Cairi be taken as servants. Although Columbus did not return to Spain with the spices nor the route to Asia he originally sought, the gold and slaves that he did return with inspired a mad dash of new Spanish expeditions to the Caribbean. The invaders inflicted untold levels of violence on the native peoples, having dogs maul people to death for example, as well as despicable sexual violence. Columbus's own accounts provide clear evidence of these crimes:
“A hundred castellanoes [Spanish coin] are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm … there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls. Those from nine to ten [years old] are now in demand.”
The Europeans' lust for gold and slaves, along with the brutality and disease that they imposed on the Indigenous people, led to the islands that are now known as The Bahamas being completely depopulated within 50 years of Columbus’ first landing.
Jamestown
One hundred and fifteen years later and some 900 miles north, on the shores of what is now Virginia, another story will begin to unfold, that of Jamestown. Many are familiar with the names of a few of the significant historical players during this period of European colonization of Powhatan land (Virginia, ~1600 - 1620), namely: Pocahontas, Powhatan and John Smith. Powhatan and his daughter Pocahantas’ proper names were Wahunsenacawh and Matoaka, respectively, and Wahunsenacawh was the mamanatowick (paramount chief) of the Algonquian-speaking Powhatan Confederation, which at that time consisted of 30 tributary tribes.
John Smith and his compatriots made several critical errors in first establishing Jamestown. The first of these errors was the location selected for the settlement, which, while it was easily defendable, was located on land considered entirely unsuitable for agriculture by the Powhatan and only had immediate access to brackish, undrinkable water. The colonists also arrived too late in the year to begin growing most crops, even if the land had been able to sustain it. Worse still, newly discovered data obtained through archeological excavation and tree ring analysis conducted by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) strongly suggest that the region experienced its worst drought in 800 years between 1606 and 1612. This put extreme pressures on the Powhatans and settlers alike and the Powhatans drastically dialed back their trade of corn on which the settlers relied.
The relationship between the settlers and the Powhatans waxed and waned over the first several years, shifting between times of peaceful trade and ambushes, massacres, and kidnappings. The contradictions between the two groups, exacerbated by harsh drought, ultimately culminated in the “Starving Time”, in which the population of Jamestown dwindled from several hundred people to a mere several dozen due to starvation and disease. The settlement was nearly abandoned when a relief shipment of supplies and new settlers sent by the Virginia Company arrived. Soon after, in 1609, the First Anglo-Powhatan War began and lasted until 1614 when Matoaka was captured by Jamestown. Matoaka proposed to marry the colonist John Rolfe in order to broker a peace between Jamestown and the Powhatan, which was ultimately, albeit temporarily, successful.
Plymouth
Another potent creation myth of the US is that of the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving. The parable goes that a group of Pilgrims fled religious persecution in England by voyaging across the Atlantic Ocean to the “new”, American continent on a ship called the Mayflower. The colonists made landfall near the Mashpee Wampanoag village of Patuxet and renamed the location to Plymouth, on the coast of what is now known as Massachusetts. The neighboring Wampanoag helped the struggling settlers survive their first year on the continent and, to show their gratitude, the settlers invited the Wampanoag to join them in a celebratory feast the following November. This is the so-called “First Thanksgiving”.
Reality is not quite as simple. While the Pilgrims were indeed persecuted for splitting from the Church of England, it was still in the interest of the British Crown to create new English settlements in the Americas, Anglican or not. Additionally, Patuxet was only so readily colonized by the Pilgrims because its original Wampanoag population was devastated by disease (introduced by European settlers), resulting in the complete abandonment of the village during the 2 years prior to the Mayflower’s landing in 1620.
Finally, it was not the sheer goodwill of the Wampanoag that allowed the Pilgrims to settle at Patuxet in the first place. At the time of the Pilgrims’s arrival, the Mashpee Wampanoag were feuding with the neighboring Narragansett and were contending with losses from disease. Had they not been in a dire political situation and in need of allies, the Wampanoag likely would have never allowed the colonists to settle Patuxet in the first place. To further illustrate the fact that the settlers were not so much welcome as they were tolerated, the Wampanoag chief Ousamequin sent 90 warriors (all or mostly men) to the first Thanksgiving, vastly outnumbering the settlers. This first Thanksgiving may have been an occasion of peace and cooperation, but it was also a show of force.
Setting the Record
What the propaganda that passes for history and education in the US tells the world and what is truly historical, scientific fact is an ocean apart. The European invaders were successful in their efforts to colonize these western continents not because of their “superior” technology or culture, but because of their extreme cruelty and their willingness to view America’s true inhabitants as naive, child-like people at best, and demonic beasts at worst. While it is true that Indigenous Americans reciprocated and often initiated violence against the European settlers, their willingness to engage in trade and diplomacy prevented complete devastation for the colonists.
The fairytale of ‘America’ that we have been told is just that: a fantasy invented to stroke the egos of those who benefit most from the continuation of US imperialism and genocide. Empire's cheerleaders aim to obscure the economic and political motivations of the first European invaders and colonizers by laundering them through the ideals of "curiosity", "discovery" and "freedom". In actual fact, this "Age of Exploration and Discovery" was an age of unfathomable violence. The European powers left a trail of apocalyptic terror as they rampaged across the eastern shores of the Americas in their frenzied search for gold, slaves, and land. During this time, what Marx called ‘primitive accumulation’ was rampant — the initial acquisition of capital by the burgeoning capitalist class. This acquisition served as the material basis for the eventual overthrow of the European feudal nobility and the creation of the proletarian class.