Different Metacom's War with Mohawk, French swing factors

Read an article on Metacom's War in MIL HERITAGE on the wkend, which stated that Metacom wished to, after 1675, both secure French arms & get the Mohawks on side in his continuing war against the NE colonists. He attempted to facilitate the latter by arranging the ambush & murder of a small party of Mohawks then blaming it on the English, however some of the intended victims got away & informed the Mohawk chiefs, after which they never trusted the NE Algonquians & were eventually persuaded by Gov Andros to launch fullscale war on Metacom's hostile Indians, which was a decisive turning point for English victory. Without the Mohawks on side, French support from canada also failed to materialise.

Now, WI Metacom's plan to subvert the Mohawks for his own ends was successful ? how much worse for the NE colonists would the war have been had they also been attacked by hostile Mohawks as well as Metacom's Indians ? How bout French support too ?
 
Having the Mohawks, and thusly all the Iroquois on the side of the French would have devastated the English power along the Hudson Valley. Albany would have been lost or at least isolated. The travel links to Lake Champlain and Lake Erie would have been cut. And a significant amount of the fur trade would have gone to the French. On the other hand the English settlements would have survived and by making alliances with other tribes; Delaware, Shawnee, Huron and the many other tribes at war with the Iroquois the British could have off set some of this, but settlement of the Mid-Atlantic region would have been far more difficult.

Overall the sheer number of English settlers would have given them victory in the long term and may have led to an earlier devastation of Iroquois land. Which would than have further repercussions.

Benjamin
 
The war had already been going on for 5 month by the time Metacom tried to enlist the aid of the Mohawk. The Indians had already suffered some defeats (the Great Swamp Fight for example). The Mohawk killed the 500 men Metacom and sent up to ask for for help. So if the Mohawk decided to instead join Metacom not only would the Mohawks forces be added to the indians but the 500 slain in OTL would still be available.

It is wrong to think of the English as united in this conflict. Colonists from Connecticut had traveled north, not to help Massachusetts, but to see if they could gain any advantage from the conflict (the territory was still in dispute and Connecticut had many Dutch). I don't think the French would become directly involved, but they may sell more gunpowder to the Indians (the Indians were capable of making shot and repairing the guns they already possessed, but they depended on the French for powder).

The Puritans suffered great losses OTL and increased Indian pressure could easily see the Massachusetts colonies briefly fail. The fall of Massachusetts would cause more people to join in Beacon's Rebellion later that year. In the longer term, the English would still triumph, of course, but New England would have less of a Puritan cast.

A non-Puritan early America would be interesting.
 
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This has nothing to do with a potential French-Mohawk alliance. Indeed, the French managed at an amazingly early date to utterly alienate the Mohawks so that ties to one virtually ensured no ties(or even hostility!) from the other.

The French won't get carried away with arms sales for the simple fact that the Iroquis, Mohawk in particular, hate the French and the British response to the French arming Metacom is only too obvious...and French North America, with a much smaller population, is far too vulnerable.

Indeed, only a generation earlier the Iroquis came close, with Dutch arms from Nieu Amsterdam, to wiping out the French in North America so Montreal is going to look extremely warily at inspiring such ideas.


The subject is about whether Metacom could acquire either Iroquis support and/or French arms in New England. The Iroquis, besides having a hostility towards Metacom which Melvin already explained, have nothing to gain and perhaps much to lose by encouraging much of New England to be held by a new rival coalition of tribes.

If the French spread the war to New York then they also strengthen New England's position with allies and may provoke a response from Great Britain itself. Which would be catastrophic for Quebec.
 
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