How Did European Trade Affect Indians

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European trade had a damaging effect on Indians’ war and diplomacy. The integration of new European goods created many changes in the way Indians fought, including the use of newly introduced weaponry: firearms. These new goods created a dependence on the Europeans for more supplies and ultimately lead to Beaver wars. The presence of disease that was brought over from Europe into Indian country also changed the way Indians fought in their Mourning wars. European settlement and trade caused a devastating change in the way the Indians’ took part in wars, affecting their mourning war practices through disease, new goods creating deadlier wars amongst Indians, along with a dependence on the Europeans to replenish their goods, which lead to Beaver wars. …show more content…

They believed that war was a way of replenishing lost tribe members and a way to practice social mournings. Losing members of a tribe was very serious and not taken lightly; a loss would affect the entire community and war was a way to grieve. Their goal was to take captives back to their village, haze and humiliate, and often kill them in order to relieve them from their grief. Others were taken in in order to replace the lost members and fill in their role. Once the European settlers showed up, the way of war changed drastically. The settlers brought with them deadly diseases which wiped out thousands of Indians. This caused the tradition of Mourning Wars to shift from sporadic ones, to instead become a constant battle to regain lost lives. This caused a large strain on Indian society, now relying on war to regain population and creating a more violent