Early American History question.?

Question

The essay question is this:

"As long as the French controlled parts of North America, they accepted the Native American population as equal, whereas the British colonists viewed them as holtile." Evaluate this statement as it relates to the years 1608-1763.

All I would really like to know is how the French interacted with the Natives as opposed to how the British did.

Answer 1

the french took the time to learn the languages and culture of the native americans, whereas the british viewed them as their subordinates. the french did not try to take the land by force and understood that it belonged to the n.a. and should be paid/bartered/traded for and so the french then were considered friends by the native americans while the british were not.

Answer 2

The British liked the Indians in the begging. Cherokee and Creeks were some of their biggest allies. Other tribes just wanted their land back after the British took it. The french lived with the indians and they respected each other greatley

Answer 3

Brits and natives were competitors; French and natives were partners.

The Brits were competitors, in the sense that they intended large-scale settlement, and hence competed with the natives for land.  Natives did not quite know how to deal with this, as they weren't familiar with large-scale war.  Soon outnumbered by Brits, they responded with their version of war against them - hit and run attacks on isolated farms, which the Brits interpretted as 'massacres.'

The French were partners with the natives, in the fur trade.  They did not intend large-scale settlement, just enough to maintain trading posts.  (eg, only 6,000 French settled Quebec, at time of Am. Revolution, 70,000 in Quebec - 1% of today's population - vs.1.5 million people in the 13 colonies).

Intermarriage with natives was very common.  In warfare vs.

Brits, French and natives put together best of their tactics

(esp. Indian concepts of using camouflage, crawling low to avoid artillery), to mount a credible defence for a couple of centuries.