America Before Columbus Analysis

455 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Commerce between the Old World and New World in the Columbian Exchange

Miljkovic Nadine
Honors US History 4B
7 September 2014
“America Before Columbus” Response This article was both fascinating and startling. I had never heard of Cahokia before, and was stunned to learn that there were tribes practically in every state here in America. From previous history classes, it sounded like tribes were few and far between. The Europeans thought that Native Americans needed to learn the value of their gifts and to not just give away their wealth. Yet, the Indians were simply following the religious, white man belief that giving is better than taking. It is the definition of hypocrisy. Europeans thought that the tribes were simply wandering around, yet there were dubious to the fact that these tribes had intricate trade …show more content…

Buffalos that were vast and spread across the country now have small claims in prairies. Other animals went extinct altogether. Large trees that grew due to burning and fertilization by the Indians disappeared due to Europeans using them for other purposes. The Columbian Exchange was the trading of Old World and New World animals, crops, disease, and ideas. These diseases killed two thirds of the New World and many others in Africa as well. The corn and potatoes given to Africa and Europe saved their populations. The tomatoes spreading to Italy led to some of the greatest foods of all time: pizza, spaghetti, and ravioli, which I am very thankful for. Thanks, New World. I am less thankful for bees being brought to the Americas, but their pollination was very helpful. Though Europeans provided miniscule improvement to the Americas, there was a great injustice done to the Native Americans. It is truly a shameful period in history that is scarcely recorded in United States history textbooks in our schools. No amount of Indian reservations or casinos could make up for the mass deaths caused by Europeans moving into the Americas. There should have been a greater effort on the Europeans part to learn about this “alien” culture and to include them into the new societies. It’s shocking that I’ve never heard of Cahokia and all of these tribes before. More Americans should be aware of what was once a thriving

Show More
Related

  • English Colonists vs Native Americans: Property Rights in the New World

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    To many of the English colonists, any land that was granted to them in a charter by the English Crown was theirs’, with no consideration for the natives that had already owned the land. This belittlement of Indians caused great problems for the English later on, for the natives did not care about what the Crown granted the colonists for it was not theirs’ to grant in the first place. The theory of European superiority over the Native Americans caused for any differences in the way the cultures interacted, as well as amazing social unrest between the two cultures.

    Read More

  • Significan Mercantilism In The Columbian Exchange

    1540 Words  | 4 Pages

    Columbian Exchange: The Columbian Exchange was an exchange of peoples, animals, diseases, and foods between hemispheres. Foods and diseases from the New World, such as maize, potatoes, and syphilis, were carried to Europe. Food, livestock, and diseases, such as wheat, barley, cattle, horses, smallpox, measles, and influenza, traveled across the Atlantic to the New World. This term is

    Read More

  • Changes in the Land by William Cronon

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cronon raises the question of the belief or disbelief of the Indian’s rights to the land. The Europeans believed the way Indians used the land was unacceptable seeing as how the Indians wasted the natural resources the land had. However, Indians didn’t waste the natural resources and wealth of the land but instead used it differently, which the Europeans failed to see. The political and economical life of the Indians needed to be known to grasp the use of the land, “Personal good could be replaced, and their accumulation made little sense for ecological reasons of mobility,” (Cronon, 62).

    Read More

  • How Did The Environment Affect The Native American Indians With Particular Reference To The Woodlan

    1295 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Indians thought of land very differently to the white man. The land was sacred, there was no ownership, and it was created by the great spirit. They could not sell their land to others, whereas the white people could fence off the land which belonged to them, and sell it freely to whoever they wanted. The Europeans didn't think that the Indians were using the land properly, so in their eyes, they were doing a good favour to the earth. To the Indians, the land was more valuable than the money that the white man had brought with him, even though it didn't belong to them.

    Read More

  • Columbian Exchange Argumentative Essay

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    The most important person of the Columbian Exchange should be mentioned is Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian navigator and explorer. Columbus had sailed across the Atlantic four times which supported by Isabella, the queen of Spain. As a consequence, he found the “New World” which is America,

    Read More

  • The Columbian Exchange And The Columbian Exchange

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    Columbian Exchange or the big exchange was a great exchange on a wide range of animals (Horses, Chickens, sheep, swine, Turkey), plants (Wheat, barley, corn, beans, tomatoes), people and culture, infectious diseases, and ideas, technology (Wheeled vehicles, iron tools, metallurgy) all these things happened between Native Americans and from Europe after the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Resulting in communication between the two cultures to initiate a number of crops that have led to the increase in population in both hemispheres, where the explorers returned to Europe loaded with corn, tomatoes, potatoes, which has become one of the main crops in Eurasia with the solutions of the eighteenth century. At the same time, the Europeans crops, cassava and peanuts to Southeast Asia with a tropical climate.

    Read More

  • The Columbian Exchange

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Concluding, the significance of the Columbian exchange greatly impacted what we know of life today. The major impacts that have shaped what we know of the world today happened during the Colombian exchange. The major impacts of the Colombian exchange was Christianity that led to the rise of the Catholic Church, new food crops and domesticated animals that improved the Europeans and American living, new military technology such as weapons and horses, slavery of the natives and Africans and diseases that drastically harmed the different ethnic groups. Colombian Exchange between the old world and the new world still holds a drastic impact on the world today. If we didn’t have these influences then the world would be completely changed. Trading still continues today and has made an impact all over the world.

    Read More

  • Native Americans

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    expansion on the native Americans of the Great Plains in the mid-19th century." History today. no. 4 (2006): 42.

    Read More

  • Lasting Effects of European Colonization on Native American Indians.

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Native Americans are amongst the most disadvantaged and poorest. They suffer the worst health conditions, receive the least educational and employment opportunities, treated unjustly by society, had their culture and traditions significantly ruined and have their much loved environment destroyed. This is the result of colonisation, disease and removal from their homeland by the European settlers. It took only three centuries for them to destroy a culture that had been in existence for more than 20,000 years, and although many groups are attempting to regain their cultural identity, it will never be the same

    Read More

  • European Influence On Native American Culture

    236 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Europeans’ preconceived opinion about the Natives Americans had a big impact in the life of the Native Americans . Many Indians died not only because of the diseases that the Europeans carried, but the cruelty of the settlers and the brutality of slavery also contributed to the destruction of the native population. The ones that entitled themselves as Christians and grabbed about their holiness, marched through the continent expelling people from their own land, raping women and killing people. The Native American culture suffered a great loss as well “European trade goods quickly became part of Native American material culture, and their efforts to gather furs for trade for these goods altered the ecological balance in much of the New

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Indians Old World By Neal Salisbury

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his essay, “The Indians’ Old World,” Neal Salisbury examined a recent shift in the telling of Native American history in North America. Until recently, much of American history, as it pertains to Native Americans; either focused on the decimation of their societies or excluded them completely from the discussion (Salisbury 25). Salisbury also contends that American history did not simply begin with the arrival of Europeans. This event was an episode of a long path towards America’s development (Salisbury 25). In pre-colonial America, Native Americans were not primitive savages, rather a developing people that possessed extraordinary skill in agriculture, hunting, and building and exhibited elaborate cultural and religious structures.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Columbus' Arrival in the America's

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to understand the effects of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas, one must first understand the native populous' level of technology, as well as their cultural background. In this essay you will find first hand accounts as written by the people that were with Columbus when he landed, as well as documentation from his hand. The point of this essay is not to degrade an explorer of new lands, but to show that he, like so many other explorers, assumed that the native peoples to be primitive because of their relative lack of "modern" technology. Unfortunately, we assume that our culture is always the best, this essay will also prove that that can be false.

    Read More

  • American Indian Greed Analysis

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    American Indians were impacted most by the greed of europeans and the new people coming into their land. Their greed is what caused american indians to be almost wiped off their own country. It’s nonsense when people say europeans just wanted to expand and had to do what they had to do. American Indians were willing to work with them, but were backstabbed. It’s sickening how far greed could take europeans to do the most inhumane things. Their greed caused many sufferings like deaths, enslavements, and many rape cases. It also caused a lot of damages to their culture. It’s shocking how all these doings to american indians are overlooked in history. People know of it, but aren’t disgusted at it. Some people actually try justifying it. Most of

    Read More

  • The Columbian Exchange: A Giant Step Towards Globalization

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Columbian Exchange was a giant step towards globalization. This trade route connected the world and introduced world changing concepts to both sides. Disease, religion, and a new government were shipped to the New World. Europe, however, was better affected by the exchange of goods. New crops that were able to better feed the population were imported. These population booms were able to set up the environment for the Industrial Revolution. The Columbian Exchange gave Europe the assets needed to prosper into the nations that it has become through the importing of new crops, changes in population, and Old World nation's desire to control more of the trade routes.

    Read More

  • Differences Between Globalization And The Columbian Exchange

    456 Words  | 1 Pages

    First of all, the countries both traded new things with other countries and they benefit the populations of the countries. In the powerpoint, “Columbian Exchange and Globalization”, it shows that Europe got new things from the Americas such as peppers,peanuts, and sweet potatoes and the Americas

    Read More

More about America Before Columbus Analysis

Open Document