Violent Warfare In The 16th Century

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How does one begin to understand the reasons behind the devastating catastrophe of the violent warfare dating back in the 16th century? The truth is we will never be able to go back in history and determine the exact reasons that led up to the ultimate destruction of societies. Historians date back in 1492, the population of Aboriginals in North American being roughly 1.89 million to 18 million, and by 1890 the number dropped to almost 546,000 Aboriginal individuals (Warrick, 358). There are many interpretations conducted by archaeologists/historians explaining a variety of reasons and some of those reasons prove to be more influential in value compared to others. Many argue however, these interpretations are all essentially multi-faceted and perhaps even correlated with one another. From what we can understand through archaeological information and recorded data, warfare always sought for a means …show more content…
Conflict reached a fundamental turmoil between A.D. 1525 to 1650 (Jones, 390). It proves challenging to determine what specific factors led Iroquoians towards conflict prior to European contact or the extent to which contact reformed their intentions, ambitions, traditional process to warfare, and general ways of living (Brandao, 31). The traditional warfare process was essentially amidst the hands of the council. The council were the elders in the community, which also sought advice from the female clan leaders, and discussed the wrongdoings committed against Iroquoians by another group (Brandao, 32). The key aspect of Iroquoian warfare was surprise and ambush in which during small raids, they would sneak themselves and surprise the other nation with their presence (Brandao, 33). The warriors would kill and scalp some of the captured victims, and the ones they captured, would return back as