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Location: Southwest Florida 17th century engraving of Ponce de León (unauthenticated) And lastly, as violence between the white people grew, so too did the revolutionary fervor of the African slaves in their quest for freedom through armed insurrection. Thirdly, the mounting tensions and armed conflicts between the settlers and their rulers in Europe. Secondly, the rival conflicts between the European states over control of the Americas. Firstly, the conflicts between the European colonists and the Native American tribes.
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Slaves, for their part, had little to depend upon but themselves." Īs such, four distinctive lines of conflict can be identified weaving through the colonial and early national period. As historian Ira Berlin points out slavery, by its very definition, poses a profound asymmetry of power: "For three centuries, slave masters mobilized enormous resources that stretched across continents and oceans and employed them with great ferocity in an effort to subdue their human property. Ī further concern highlighted by historians, relating to the history of slavery and colonialism in particular, is the inherent unevenness of the terrain in which conflicts erupt, and often tremendous disproportionality of means by which they are fought and settled.
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However, due to the scarcity of written sources, not least resulting from the Spanish colonizers destroying a sizable amount of original Maya writings, deeming them to be heretical, historians typically make the early European settlements as their initial point of departure, of which sources are more plentiful. The lines of conflict demarcating the wars, rebellions, and revolutions in the North American colonial and national period can be traced far back into early pre-Columbian times. See also: Colonial history of the United States and Slavery in the United States
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