King Philip's War was fought from 1675 to 1678 between the New England colonies and an alliance of Native American nations led by the Wampanoag sachem Metacomet, known to the English as King Philip, and remains proportionally one of the deadliest wars in American history relative to population. Rising tensions over land encroachment, livestock damage to native lands and colonial legal authority over Native communities erupted into open war after the execution of three Wampanoag men for the killing of a Christianized Native informant. Fighting spread across New England as the Narragansett, Nipmuc and other nations joined Metacomet's alliance, and colonial towns across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut were burned before colonial forces, aided by allied Native groups such as the Mohegan, gained the upper hand. Metacomet's death in August 1676 effectively ended organized resistance in the war's core theater, though fighting continued in Maine into 1678. The war devastated New England's Native population and permanently broke the region's remaining independent Native political power.
Facts
CombatantsNew England Confederation colonists, with Mohegan, Pequot and Mohawk allies, versus a Native American coalition of Wampanoag, Nipmuc and Narragansett peoples 2 OutcomeNew England Confederation victory in southern New England; the Native coalition was devastated by the war 2 Classification
Conflict TypeColonial or Anti-Colonial War 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: King Philip's War
WikipediaConflict-type attribute (king-philips-war)Quote, Conflict-type attribute (king-philips-war)
King Philip's War (1675-1678) was a colonial war in which a coalition of Algonquian tribes of the Northeastern Woodlands-the Wampanoags, the Pocomtucs, the Nipmucs, and the Narragansetts-fought against the Puritan settlers of the New England Colonies and their Indian allies-the Mohegans, the Pequots, and Christian Indians.
2. Wikipedia: King Philip's War
WikipediaLead section (start year)
The war was the greatest calamity in seventeenth-century New England and is considered by many to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history.
Lead section (end year)
The war was the greatest calamity in seventeenth-century New England and is considered by many to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history.
Lead section (combatants)
The war was the greatest calamity in seventeenth-century New England and is considered by many to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history.
Lead section (outcome)
The war was the greatest calamity in seventeenth-century New England and is considered by many to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history.
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