The result of King Philip's War was a resounding and bloody victory for the English settlers. Its main impact was that it paved the way for further colonial expansion into the frontier. While it by no means ended fighting between the colonists and Indians in the Northeast, it basically meant that the Wampanoags the Narragansetts, and the Nipmucks, the most historically powerful tribes surrounding Massachusetts, had to accept English rule. In some ways, it just accelerated what was already happening to Indian peoples in New England--their poverty and shrinking lands were a major cause of the war, which was a "last stand" of sorts for the Wampanoags in particular. The victory for the colonists was complete, but it came at an awful price, with thousands dead in a series of raids on the frontier that destroyed several settlements. In addition, many Indians were sold into slavery, most of whom wound up on the hellish West Indian plantations. The overall effect of King Philip's War on colonial territory, then, was to open the New England backcountry to settlement.