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The Failure of Roanoke

 

Although, the colonists established a trading relationship with the Indians, they soon realized that, with winter on its way, providing for themselves would not be easy. Many materials necessary for survival had been lost when one of the ships ran aground, and since they cultivated little land, their dependence on the Indians grew stronger. Eventually, as winter deepened, the Indians had less food to spare. In the end, disillusionment set in, especially after measles and small pox brought by the settlers began to kill the Indians. .
             The reason why things went so wrong for this colony was because they were ignorant to the fact of how to start a colony. England's selfishness conquered their ability to see their lack of preparations. All they wanted was to have an advantage in the New World so they could claim property and inherit profitable resources. The preparation, knowledge, and planning about the area was dominated by their eagerness and excitement, which resulted in a failure.
             Poor affiliation with the Natives was another huge factor to why the colonization at Roanoke failed. It all started in 1586 when Ralph Lane's relations with chief Wingina deteriorated when it became clear that the colonists wouldn't feed themselves and insisted on staying in his country. As a soldier, Lane was more likely to fall back on force instead of seek negotiation, which proved to be a biased way of dealing with Wingina. Lane started to become suspicious that Wingina was spreading rumors with other Native American leaders in order to brew an attack on the English. In June 1586 Lane killed Wingina, "the king himself being shot by the Colonel pistol. " Lane quickly determined it was in his best interest to depart from the settlement. .
             In 1587, Raleigh organized a second colonizing effort for families and later decided that setting forth for Chesapeake Bay would be a smart idea because of the excellent soil for growing crops.


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