By 1640, European settlers had established the New England colonies of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Providence Plantations, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In the early years, the Native tribes welcomed the settlers to their lands because of the opportunities for trade and commerce. Guns, knives and livestock, for example, helped the Indians tremendously while the settlers received much-needed food supplies and furs.
This relationship, however, quickly turned sour. The Natives did not want to be converted to Christianity by the settlers nor did they appreciate the arrival of many contagious diseases that were brought to their lands from Europe, like typhus and measles. There were constant disputes over land, too.
In 1637, the Pequot War broke out as the Indians sought to stop further settlement in Connecticut. This uprising failed and many Indians were forced into slavery. The situation was even worse in the Plymouth Colony: an uprising led by King Philip, Chief of the Wampanoag, led to the displacement of Indians into reservations, with the settlers free to take their lands.
These uprisings were so serious that, by the 1680s, the natives numbered fewer than 20,000 in New England. This was a serious decline in their population and left them outnumbered to European settlers by 2-1.
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