On May 14th 1607 the first English settlers in America landed on Jamestown Island, in the James River in Virginia. There they founded a settlement, Jamestown. Life was hard in the new continent and starvation and deceases soon became problems. Jamestown was in the land of the Powhatan Indian tribe, but relations were peacefull and the two groups rearly met. This changed in December 1607 when one of the settlers, Captain John Smith, was captured by Powhatan warriors and brought before the paramount chief. According to John Smith he was to be executed, but was saved by the doughter of the paramount chief, Pocahontas, who trew herself before him. Smith was then released and the groups started to encounter each other more. 

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The Powhatans were at first happy to trade food for tools with the Europeans. However conflicts started soon, and in 1610 the first Anglo-Powhatan War started. The conflict ended in 1614 with the Peace of Pocahontas, but the year before the Englishmen had captured Pocahontas, the daughter of the parampunt chief. After the capture of Pocahontas, peace treaty was made which was sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas and one of the settlers John Rolfe. After the marriage the relations between the Powhatan and the Englishmen was peaceful for a few years. Pocahontas died in England in 1617 and the Chief Powhatan in 1618. After the death of the Chief, his younger brother, Opechancanough, became the paramount chief. He maintained a friendly face to the English, but in 1622, the Indians suddenly attacked the colony in a raid later known as the Indian Massacre of 1622. The third of the colonys population was wiped out, but the death toll would have been much higher if not for a warning from a Native boy living in Jamestown.

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This resulted in the second Anglo-Powhatan war, which ended in 1632. The third war started in 1644, when the Indians, still under Opechancanough, attacked the colony. Opechancanough died in 1646, and the new chief, Necotowance, soon made a peace treaty with the Englishmen. In the treaty a border between the Virginia Colony and the Indian tribes was drawn.