Europeans emerged from a technologically advanced society, on the other hand, Native American people lacked innovative technology and relied solely on what nature provided. As these two drastically different cultures collided each other’s way of life was forever altered. Life changed from the ground up through the exchange of animals, seeds, and even microorganisms. As these two vastly different cultures collided their interactions sculpted future events that led to one nation’s industrialization and another’s reduction; furthermore, Present day life in America was shaped by this collision. Before the European and Native American worlds collided, Native Americas had not encountered horses, cattle, and swine. These animals were introduced to them through the European explorer, Christopher Columbus. Cattle and pigs were readily employed by the Native Americans as food; however, the arrival of the horse revolutionized Native American life, permitting tribes to hunt the buffalo much more effectively. The horse not only permitted improvements for hunting, but it also made Native American’...
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Show MoreIn the introduction, Hämäläinen introduces how Plains Indians horse culture is so often romanticized in the image of the “mounted warrior,” and how this romanticized image is frequently juxtaposed with the hardships of disease, death, and destruction brought on by the Europeans. It is also mentioned that many historians depict Plains Indians equestrianism as a typical success story, usually because such a depiction is an appealing story to use in textbooks. However, Plains Indians equestrianism is far from a basic story of success. Plains equestrianism was a double-edged sword: it both helped tribes complete their quotidian tasks more efficiently, but also gave rise to social issues, weakened the customary political system, created problems between other tribes, and was detrimental to the environment.
The Native American’s way of living was different from the Europeans. They believed that man is ruled by respect and reverence for nature and that nature is an ancestor or relative. The Native American’s strongly belie...
The Effect of the Spanish, French and British on Indian Culture in North America The life styles of the Indians of the Americas changed greatly over time, almost completely influenced by Western culture. Each of the different Western civilizations affected the Indian tribes very differently. This is partly due to the reasons why they came to the "New World." The British came primarily for land due to their fast population growth and partially for a new economic venture. The French came for furs and luxuries that only Indians and the untamed land could provide. They created trading posts and shipped these commodities back to the mainland.
The author starts the chapter by briefly introducing the source in which this chapter is based. He makes the introduction about the essay he wrote for the conference given in at Vanderbilt University. This essay is based about the events and problems both Native Americans and Europeans had to encounter and lived since the discovery of America.
“As European adventurers traversed the world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they initiated the “Columbian Exchange” of plants, animals, and diseases.”(P. 26). The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. The exchange of plants, animals, diseases and more modernized technology, beginning after Columbus landing in the Americas in 1492. It lasted through the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, sheep and pigs were introduced to the Americas. The Americas introduced to Europe many new crops such as potatoes, beans, squash, and maize. In time Native people learned to raise European livestock and European and Africans planted American crops. This was the positive effect of the encounter and it was largely responsible for the doubling of the world’s population in the next three hundred years. There were also many negative effects to the “Columbian Exchange” A major consequence was the spread of disease in the New World. Diseases carried by Europeans and Africans devastated the population of the Americas. As Europeans traveled through the Americas epidemics came with them. Typhus, diphtheria, malaria, influenza, cholera, and smallpox killed many of the native people. One example was
These inhabitants "lived, died, and bred alone for generation after generation, developing unique cultures and working out tolerances," that is up until 1492, when Columbus and the European conquerors invaded the harmonious land and instantaneously initiated the many long years of corruption. The arrival of the Europeans immediately brought drastic changes to the way things were previously done in the Americas; they "immediately set about to transform as much of the new world as possible into the old world." Because they were people who practiced mixed farming with a heavy emphasis on herding and because they saw only very few domesticated animals in the new land, the Europeans began the action of importing Old World domesticated animals, such as the pig, cow, and horse. This action could most definitely be described as "the greatest biological revolution in the Americas since the end of the Pleistocene era."
Native Americans and Europeans were the begging of the new world. Their differences are more than similarities, whether by the religion, culture, race, and gender. Native Americans and European spoke two different languages, and lived in two different ways. The reason why Native Americans were called Indians, because when Columbus landed in America he thought that he was in India, so he called them Indians. Native American were nomadic people, some of them were hunter and some were farmers. Europeans were much more developed than Native Americans, and had more skills. Also, there were differences in holding positions between Native American women and European women. The cultural differences led to a bloody bottle
Europeans first touched the shores of America, Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips had not moved west across the Atlantic, and New World crops such as maize, potatoes, and sweet potatoes had not traveled east to Europe. Americas, there were no livestock, all animals of Old World creation. Except for the llama, alpaca, dog, and guinea pig, the New World was not identical to the trained animals associated with the Old World, nor did it have the viruses associated with the Old World’s small populations of humans and such associated animals as chickens, cattle, black rats, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Among these germs were those that brought smallpox, measles, chickenpox, influenza, malaria, and yellow fever. The Columbian exchange of crops affected both the Old World and the New. Amerindian crops that have crossed oceans for example, maize to China and the white potato to Ireland has been incentive to population growth in the Old World. The latter’s crops and livestock have had much the same outcome in the Americas. The full story of the trade is very long, so for the hope of shortness and sharpness let us focus on a certain area, the east...
The Native American Indians had no beasts of burden, no plows, no wagons, no means of transportation, and no way to move heavy objects other than by their own power. The Europeans brought over horses, oxen, donkeys, and camels. Horses became very valuable to the Native Americans. For the hunter-gatherers or nomads, the effect was beneficial because the horse enabled them to cover great distances, and hunters could locate and kill the bison more easily. H...
Reflecting on the colonization of North America is an uneasy topic for most Americans. The thought of war between the Indians and the early settlers creates an image of clashing cultures between the well-armed Europeans and the hand-crafted weaponry of the native Indians. We tend to have the perception that the early colonists came and quickly took away the land from the Indians but, in reality, the Europeans did not have this power. Though French explorers and English settlers had a different perception of land ownership than that of the Native Americans, the fate of the Europeans rested in the hands of the Indians. Either from self-preservation, civility or curiosity, various American Indian tribes assisted the early European colonies through the sharing of resources, by befriending them as allies and, ultimately, by accepting them as permanent neighbors.
Animals have always been mentors to humans, informing them about upcoming dangers, and teaching them how to hunt, gather, and find fresh water. The animals’ ways were of such a magnitude of importance that the Native Americans began to use stories based on these animals to teach lessons in life. Stories about these animals have emphasized the virtues of the animals, and repeatedly taught children to be, “wise, gentle, brave, or cheerful in the same manner as certain birds and animals” (Caduto and Bruchac, XI). An animal of great importance to the tribes of North America, was and still is, the elk. The elk was not only a source of food but also for clothes, tools, glue, and even teepee coverings. The teeth of the elk were used a jewelry to be worn only by the women of the tribes, also as a currency among the Native Americans. By scrutinizing Native American stories and scientific facts we can see how elks’ physical traits and ecological interactions can be traced to the culture of the Native American people.
When humans travel, they often brought their plants and animals with them. Early man brought their dogs with them, even to the Americas, while much later settlers also brought their cows, horses, and agricultural plants to the New World. However, things also traveled the other way, and potatoes and corn became widespread in the rest of the world after the Europeans brought it back from the Amer...
For at least fifteen thousand years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus and Thomas Hariot, Native Americans had occupied the vastness of North America undisturbed by outside invaders (Shi 2015 pg. 9). Throughout the years leading up to Columbus’s voyage to the “New World” (the Americas) and Hariot’s journey across the sea, the Indians had encountered and adapted to many diverse continents; due to global warming, climatic and environmental diversity throughout the lands (2015). Making the Native Americans culture, religion, and use of tools and technology very strange to that of Columbus’s and Hariot’s more advanced culture and economy, when they first came into contact with the Native Americans.
Analyze the major similarities and difference among European, Native American and African societies. What was the European impact on the peoples and the environment of the Americas and Africa during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
When European exploration led to the populating of the Americas, it was described as the event with one of the greatest ecological impacts in history. The force behind this impact was the mass movement of people and their behavior's toward their "New World". It only stands to reason that a clash would occur with the natives of these lands. One of the areas with the greatest conflict was the field of technology.