Those explorers from Europe who “discovered” what became America ended up becoming the conquerors of American Indians, so accomplished by those European settlers for a lot of reasons. To wit, the European numbers that began small with a few settlers made it their point to also bring with them their corresponding firepower, which served their purpose well. So too, those immigrating to America came here in wave after relentless wave, so that the sheer numbers coming to these shores became, at a certain point to be overwhelming and thus superior in number to the American Indians. So too, in any conflict, the side that has the best armaments, along with knowledge as well as strategic planning, is going to be in the driver’s seat to get the desired result that they want, by any means so necessary, and the settlers, along with the militia that came to America, had superior firepower, which they used accordingly. Additionally, in battles and warlike disputes, many a person is felled not necessarily by enemy fire, but rather from diseases of all sorts, in which American Indians did not have immunity to smallpox, measles, typhus, and other diseases, which became absolutely devastating to American Indians. Finally, in the tools of the trade when it comes to disputes and thereby achieving power over the other, there is the very familiar tactic which has worked again and again throughout history, which is to divide and thereby to conquer. Indeed, while the settlers may have had their differences with one another, they were to a large extent on the same page; whereas American Indians had developed some noted animosity from one particular tribe to another, which was cleverly exploited by Europeans to the overall decline, destruction, and final defeat of the American Indians.
When it comes to battles between foes, it has to be acknowledged that where there are areas of weakness in a given foe, that the opposing side has an obligation to exploit that weakness or else they aren’t doing all that they can to achieve battle success, and therefore the biggest flaw with American Indians was the fact that certain tribes hated one another, and were willing to do battle with one another, and thereby it could be said, that American Indians from within, defeated themselves. This type of tragedy is as applicable today as it was back then, because those in power know that dividing those that should or could unite in opposition to that power, can often be manipulated so that rather than warring with the powers that be, they war amongst themselves, thereby essentially serving well the driving purpose of the power elite and their desires, and thus losing the battle, despite the fact that the numbers they had were overwhelmingly in their favor.
Indeed, life is full of lessons, and in order to learn those lessons, the people that make up societies need to not only think, but also to strategize, because the opposing side in any battle does not want to cede anything of worth, which means only in unity of purpose and cause can those that deserve better effect meaningful change.