Discuss The Difference Between Native Americans And Europeans

Kelsey Kimble

Dr. Campbell

HIST 2201

9 October 2014

Midterm Examination

1. In the late fifteenth century, Europeans desired a better way to trade with Asia. By then, there were people, like Christopher Columbus, who were willing to take a risk and sail across a rarely traveled sea in an attempt to find a route that would eliminate the middlemen of land based trade routes. This is when Europe first became aware of the Americas and soon wanted to begin colonizing settlements in the newly explored land. The colonization of Europeans in the Americas is exemplified through the early conquests and later colonization by various European nations. Contrary to popular belief, Columbus was not the first man to discover the Americas. Society was actually

First, each society’s government system was different. At the time, Europe operated under a strictly monarchical government. The king and queen always had final on say on political issues and anyone that was not considered to be of social importance did not get any say in said decisions. The Native Americans, however, followed a well developed diplomatic protocol. Therefore, all people were considered to have an equal voice in political decisions— they operated on the basis of consensus politics. Another very interesting difference was the way that each culture treated their women. European women had little to no rights. They could not vote, did not have a voice in the community, and were considered to be the property of their husbands or fathers if unmarried. Native American women had just as many rights as men and were even considered of higher importance than men in a way. They could vote and even owned property. This specific difference shows how Native Americans were ahead of their time seeing as their treatment of women is more closely related to today’s society than the Europeans’. Finally, each society had a different idea regarding the ownership of land. Native Americans believed in the notion that no man should be allowed to own land and that it was their job to give back to the land and cultivate it since the land had done so much for them. Europeans believed in ownership of land— that a man could pay for land and it be solely his property. These differences were what sparked most of the conflict between the two