Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 56, King Phillips War.

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This is an important moment in the show's history, and is something I've been teasing for about 40 episodes at this point.

Way back when we covered Virginia, I said there were two key military events in the 16 to 70s that

mark the first real break in the narrative.

The first of these that we dealt with was Bacon's Rebellion.

But this cannot be taken in isolation.

Just as the southern colonies dealt with a potential independence movement,

the North was dealing with the crisis of its own, King Phillips War. It may have taken 40 episodes

for us to catch the North up with Virginia, but here we are. So, how did all of this begin?

Well, pressure between the Indian tribes and the English began as soon as the English started their westward push.

The first townships were set up along the coast of Massachusetts Bay in the 1620s, and as more and more people arrived, they worked

their way across the region. This initially caused no problems. You'll recall that in the years

before the arrival of the pilgrim fathers, a devastating play could struck the region. There were

empty sites for the pilgrims to settle at,

but as more and more people arrived, problems began to happen. Before long, the English dominated

eastern Massachusetts, going about 25 miles inland and were pushing into the Connecticut Valley. This was going to cause

problems. And due to the haphazard nature of expansion, with each town acting quite independently,

there was no grand plan, no systematic defence. The Kineskot villages in particular were quite

isolated from those on Massachusetts Bay. Communities were not that interested in defence in

constructing stockades or refuges. The frontiersmen neglected military matters completely. This too was going to cause

...