Warpaths: Invasions of North America

by Ian K. Steele

In 1513, only a few years before Cortes conquered the Aztec empire, Juan Ponce de Leon and three shiploads of conquistadores landed just south of what is now St. Augustine, Florida. The Spanish adventurers, however, were quickly driven away by the Timucua people; further landings were similarly defeated by the extraordinary archers of the Calusa, who ultimately took the lives of Hernandez de Cordoba and Ponce de Leon himself. Clearly, the European experience in North America would be a far cry from their swift victories over the Aztecs and Incas.
A panoramic history of the numerous European invasions of North America, this book paints a dramatic new portrait of the centuries of warfare that shook the continent. From the defeat of Ponce de Leon in 1513 to a negotiated peace with the British in 1765, Steele's fascinating account destroys the old image of technologically advanced Europeans overrunning primitive savages, and reveals how Amerindians rose to the challenge of each successive invasion with martial and diplomatic skill. In war after war, the Amerindians and Europeans battled in a precarious balance, adapting each other's technology and tactics and seeking each other out as allies and supply sources for food and weapons. Steele follows the experience of the Spanish at San Agustín, the English at Jamestown and Plymouth, the French at Québec, and the Dutch at Albany, revealing the vast range of Amerindian strategies for coping with the invaders.
The conflicts that erupted with the European arrival have long been distorted by myth and self-congratulatory folklore. Warpaths offers students of American history and Native American studies a startling new look at this pivotal era, combining social, cultural, and military history to provide a more nuanced portrait of the violence that gave birth to modern North America.

Genres: History, Military History, American History, Nonfiction, Native American, Native Americans

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Ian K. Steele is professor emeritus and adjunct research professor of history at Western University.

Reviews

[Todd Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read this as part of my graduate studies 8 or 9 years ago, but I decided to revisit it recently. Professor Steele is a wonderful expert on Native American-Euro-American relations during the colonial period of North America. As with the “new wave” of academic studies on Native American history, he rightfully and effectively portrays Native American peoples as both diverse and complex, rather than “simple savages” of many older historical works of the 1970’s and before. I do truly appreciate his use of the term “Amerindian” to refer to North American aboriginal inhabitants. He traces the history of interaction and conflict essentially from Columbus’s first encounters in the Caribbean at the beginning of the 16th Century, all the way through the end of the French and Indian War and Pontiac’s War(or as Steele identifies it the Amerindian War of 1763-1765) up to the dawn of the American Revolution. Steele does an excellent job highlighting and demonstrating the differences in policies and strategies employed by the Spanish, French, Dutch, English, and specific English colonies such as Plymouth Bay and Virginia in their diplomacy and military conflicts with Native Americans. At times, and really out of necessity, it can seem an endless list of minor regional wars and conflicts, but he does an admirable job of differentiating the attitudes and cultural peculiarities of each unique linguistic and cultural group of tribal peoples. “Warpaths” should really be considered a key work in understanding the developments of Euro-American settlement of North America in the 16th, 17th, and 18th Century for academic studies, yet is also excellent for amateur historians, or anyone interested in Native American or early colonial history.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

A reasonable attempt to collect and compare episodes of the initial European settlement attempts in North America; particularly, it tried to present the view from the inhabitants’ point of view. Some of the events are little-known and the data therefore useful. However, the presentation became tedious before the book ended.

[Kenghis Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book considerable kudos for the solid scholarship, its even-handed treatment of Colonial North America, and its fascinating discussion of the conflicts between and within French, British and Spanish colonists and the natives.

However, I found the writing rather tedious, and it was a struggle to finish many chapters. No doubt the author had to excise quite a bit to shrink down such a strong piece of scholarship.

As a firm believer in the doctrine that textbooks need to be accessible to the general audience as well as patient students, I found this book's writing style to be its downfall. It is surely a book that needs to be read over the course of a few months, rather than in a few weeks. As such, its accessibility to the curious general public is extremely limited. Which is a pity, because there are a lot of very insightful points Steele raises throughout.

[Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

REad for History 556, Pre-revolution America. The book is a cut-and-dry account of historic battles, wars, spats, invasions, etc etc in North America up to the revolution. I've read much better history books that were not nearly so dull.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chronicles the conflicts between Native Americans and the white man, both English and Spanish. A good summary of several major conflicts.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for the course I am TAing. It is a dense, but good overview for the students about the nuances of colonial America and the disparities between European interaction with Amerindians.