10 Famous First Encounters That Went Smoothly and 10 That Turned Into Disasters

When the Lewis and Clark expedition reached Nez Percé territory in 1805, its members were in dire straits. They were hungry, exhausted, and in no position to demand anything. The Nez Percé helped them survive by providing food, advice, and practical support at a time when things could have taken a very different turn.

James Cook’s arrival in New Zealand did not go smoothly everywhere, but Tupaia influenced the course of some of those early encounters. As a Tahitian navigator capable of communicating in the various related Polynesian languages, he helped prevent total confusion and paved the way for meaningful exchanges. This is one of those rare instances where the presence of a single person helped make an encounter less dangerous.

These first encounters between the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag are often remembered as a school play—smooth and idealized. In reality, these relations were strategic, cautious, and based more on mutual needs than on cordiality. Nevertheless, these early encounters gave rise to diplomacy, negotiations, and a lasting peace—at least for a time.

The first contacts between the French and the Wendat were often established through trade and alliances rather than direct conflict. This did not make things simple, but it did provide a certain structure. Many of these initial encounters took place peacefully, as both sides quickly realized they had everything to gain by maintaining order.

When Jacques Cartier reached certain regions of Atlantic Canada in the 1530s, his initial encounters with the Mi’kmaq were marked more by trade than by violence. Goods were displayed, gestures were exchanged, and both sides strove to discern each other’s intentions despite their limited shared language. The criterion of “peace” may seem rather lenient in historical terms, but it nevertheless meets that standard.

When the Dutch established relations with Japan in the 17th century, those relations were cautious and strictly commercial from the outset. There was not really a climate of trust. Both sides were primarily concerned with maintaining stable and controlled trade.  

Sacagawea was not merely a guide accompanying the Lewis and Clark expedition. Her presence also influenced how certain groups perceived the expedition upon its arrival. A group traveling with a woman and a child did not exactly look like a band of marauders, and that changed the atmosphere of an encounter before anyone had even spoken a word.

Given the tragic turn this story takes, it may seem strange to describe this first meeting as peaceful. Yet when Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma II met for the first time in 1519, the atmosphere was solemn, ceremonial, and, on the surface, calm. There were gifts, public gestures, and the kind of measured politeness one adopts when one knows that the stakes are enormous.

Early contact with Europeans in Hawaii would cause serious harm, but some encounters between British explorers and Hawaiian leaders initially took place in a diplomatic and measured spirit. There were ceremonies, exchanges, and a genuine effort to establish mutually beneficial relations. Initial contacts can be peaceful, even if the story that follows takes a darker turn.

Nordic sagas suggest that some of the very first encounters between Nordic visitors and the Indigenous peoples of North America initially led to trade before violence ensued. This pattern seems to have repeated itself over the centuries. Curiosity marked the first encounter, while mistrust often characterized the next.

Some of these initial contacts lasted for a while. The next ten either collapsed quickly or ended in disaster from the very beginning.

Christopher Columbus’s first encounters in the Caribbean are often sugarcoated by the terminology we still use today to refer to “discovery.” But disaster was present from the very beginning. This encounter led to slavery, forced labor, exploitation, and a demographic collapse that devastated the Taíno communities.

Cook’s arrival in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa in 1769 went awry almost from the start. Maori were killed during the initial encounters, and any chance of a more cautious approach vanished immediately, right there on the shore. Subsequently, relations improved in some areas, but the first contacts were violent and destructive.

The meeting between Francisco Pizarro and the Inca ruler Atahualpa in Cajamarca in 1532 is one of the most striking examples in history of a first contact that turned into a trap. There was an invitation, a meeting presented as a negotiation, and then an ambush. Thousands of people perished, and Atahualpa’s capture instantly changed the course of the empire.

The first meeting between Cortés and Moctezuma may have seemed to unfold peacefully, but the initial contact between the Spaniards and the Aztec world as a whole proved catastrophic. Mass violence, a siege, political collapse, and epidemics followed one another at a breakneck pace. This serves as a stark reminder that even a serene opening scene can lead directly to disaster.

When the First Fleet arrived in 1788, the British acted as if this territory belonged to them and as if they had the right to claim and define it as they saw fit. While some of the early encounters were marked by caution rather than immediate bloodshed, the overall history of these contacts led to dispossession, violence, the spread of disease, and lasting trauma. Disaster does not always strike all at once. Sometimes, it takes root as a system.

The English colony at Jamestown quickly led to tensions with the surrounding Powhatan world. While there were certainly moments of exchange, mistrust, food shortages, raids, and the use of military force turned this relationship into a recurring crisis. No one in this story seems to have had the patience to stick it out for very long.

The first encounters between the British and the Aboriginal people of Tasmania took a catastrophic turn at an alarming rate. Land seizures, violence, abductions, and disease devastated communities and diminished their chances of survival. Some stories of first encounters are complex. This one is, above all, brutal.

Ferdinand Magellan’s arrival in the Philippines in 1521 quickly gave way to conflict, following an initial phase of establishing contacts and forming alliances. He found himself immersed in a political world he did not fully understand and became entangled in local rivalries. This misunderstanding of the situation came to an end at Mactan, where he was killed.

Contacts between the Beothuk people of Newfoundland and European fishermen and settlers were limited, tense, and ultimately disastrous. Competition for resources, violence, forced displacement, and disease led to the Beothuk people’s decline. What makes this story particularly grim is the fact that genuine mutual understanding was almost never given a chance to develop.

The people of Sentinel Island are known today for their refusal to have any contact with the outside world, and history gives them every reason to continue this way. Attempts to approach North Sentinel Island have repeatedly resulted in hostile reactions, injuries, or deaths. From the outside, this may seem extreme. From their perspective, however, it is a matter of survival.