Europeans believed that it was god who led them conquer the new world. They also believed that the were superior to both the Native Americans and Africans. Although Europeans believed that their superiority and God’s approbation led them to conquer and colonize the Americas the three factors that explain why Europeans dominated the New world are Environmental differences, Europe's capitalist orientation, and European technological superiority. Environmental differences played a huge role in leading the Europeans to conquer and colonize the new world. During the Columbian Exchange the Europeans brought their domesticated animals to the new world which the Native Americans hadn’t been exposed to and traded them. These domesticated animals
For example, when it came to land Native Americans believed groups owned land. They sold land and believed that after the lands resources had been fully used the land went back to the group that sold it. Native Americans would often burn parts of forest and let smaller animals come there which created a forest edge but didn’t use land to create wealth.The natives also used shells as currency which was viewed as a symbol of the tribes wealth and only the chief’s could own the wealth. Natives didn’t view currency in an economical perspective because currency to them represent social and political power. Europeans viewed land as capital. They believed that if you owned land you had to make use of it because it was stored wealth. Europeans compared to the Natives improved the land and used the land as another source of income which they natives didn’t do. Europeans didn’t believe that the land went back to the owner and believed that once they owned the land it was theirs.This was significant as the Natives were selling large amounts of land for a cheap price thinking that they would get it back. Europeans also traded with the Indians and gave them metal pots and knives in exchange for furs and lumber. Once the natives stopped wanting steel made pots the Europeans used the Native’s shell currency and traded them with various groups to continue getting
Europeans made use of Cannons, Muskets and Swords to defeat the Indians. According to Diaz “The first assault they wounded over seventy of us”(Diaz). This shows that the Native Americans were great at battle and were able to do damage to the Europeans, however, Europe reigned supreme because of their technology as Diaz claimed “Our artilleryman killed many of them with his cannon”(Diaz). Europeans could also fight a long distant battle and kill a group of Natives rather than one at a time due to their Technology which helped them defeat the Natives. Europeans were also better at using swords which gave them a huge advantage while fighting the natives. “They suffered greatly from the strokes and thrusts of our swords”
The Europeans changed the land of the home of the Indians, which they renamed New England. In Changes in the Land, Cronon explains all the different aspects in how the Europeans changed the land. Changing by the culture and organization of the Indians lives, the land itself, including the region’s plants and animals. Cronon states, “The shift from Indian to European dominance in New England entailed important changes well known to historians in the ways these peoples organized their lives, but it also involved fundamental reorganizations less well known to historians in the region’s plant and animal communities,” (Cronon, xv). New England went through human development, environmental and ecological change from the Europeans.
The Europeans came to the Americas with an imperialistic attitude. They wanted to take over the land and they thought their goods and beliefs were better than those of the Natives. Document 7 shows that the Mother Country sent over many goods of their own for trade from the colonies. The goods from the Mother Country overpowered and took the place of the Native’s goods. Document 3 provides an example of how important the crops and other goods from the Americas were to the Europeans. By taking away many of the Native’s goods and replacing them with their own, the European’s changed life over in the America’s. Also, the Native’s had already been in the Americas for many years before the arrival of the Europeans. They had established a religion, language, and way of life. The Europeans thought they were better than the Native’s. Their main goal was to come to the New World and spread Christianity, and they were determined to do so. Document 1 explains that from the minute they arrived to the Americas, the Europeans were instilling their religion into the Native people through friendship and gifts. Not to mention, Document 6 states, “missions were built to help spread Christianity.” It also says, “missions and settlements helped spread European languages.” By looking at Latin America today we can see how much the Spanish and Portuguese has helped mold what it is
“ [They] spent most of the conquest and colonial periods reacting and responding to the European strangers and invaders” (99). Both sides were different in many ways; Their communication, transportation, culture, and the way they survived differentiate the Europeans from the Native Americans. They both acted as wisely as they could when this encounters began after the discovery. “[Tribes] worked mightily and often cleverly to maximize their political sovereignty, cultural autonomy, territorial integrity, power of self identification, and physical nobility” (100). The Europeans were stronger, had better technology, better weapons, and had plenty of experience fighting people like the Native Americans. They could have easily conquer them , but they had a problem of resources, reinforcements and survival. Native American were many but they lacked the knowledge and experience of war and evolution. Europeans were technologically evolved and were experienced at fighting wars, but they ...
Cultures had been flourishing thousands of years before the Europeans arrived to the New World. Great empires such as the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas inhabited the vast lands of Central and South America. These three major powers controlled the land before Columbus or Cortez were even born. Although the Pre-Columbian civilizations and the Europeans shared some similar ideas, life was very different in the New World compared with that of Middle Age Europe.
Before the arrival of Europeans on the American continents, a wide variety of Indigenous tribes inhabited the land. Those tribes formed alliances, made war, studied, migrated, and worshipped for generations before Europeans began recording their histories. When the Europeans arrived on scene they had conquest in their hearts as they plundered tribal stores and lands for wealth, all while attempting to rescue the locals from the perceived threat of eternal damnation. However, the tribes of the Americas, like Indigenous tribes in other parts of the world, had their own faith systems. In some areas of the New World, Europeans successfully outlawed native faiths and imposed one or another version of Christianity on the local tribes, but in other
Although the Europeans presence in the Americas from 1492 to many years later caused drastic change in the environment, their part in forever altering the entire American ecosystem was minor when compared to the part of the true criminals: the European animals. The introduction of these European animals into the New World had the most destructive effects on the new environment and everlastingly altered the ecology of the Americas. During the time that pre-dated the arrival of the Europeans, the Americas remained basically untouched and prevailed as virgin land. The land was populated with not just American Indians, but also populated by vast numbers of plants and animals.
Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World in 1492 sparked an era known as the Columbian Exchange, in which the exchange of plants, animals, technology, ideas, and diseases occurred. It also marked the migration of many European settlers into the Americas, where they implemented their Eurocentric ideology on the First Nations who were residing there. A large amount of Latin Native Americans were taken as slaves back to Europe, or forced to commit rigorous labour and chores on sugar and coffee plantations in the Caribbean or South America. European monarchs utilized such resources through a mercantilist policy, giving Europe an economic boost. Based on the profits they were making through colonialism, they decided to set out and go imperialize more territory around the world. These events reinforce the idea that Europe could only flourish through the marginalization of Aboriginal
The European conquest of the new world was most commonly attributed to the superiority of the Europeans in all the facets of their confrontation. They had the superior weaponry, and were thought to have a superior intellect. After all, they were just bringing "civilization" to the new world, right? It sounds nice when you are learning about Columbus in grade school, but the traditional story is pretty far from the truth. The truth is that the Europeans, when they discovered this was a brand new world and not the spice islands, sought to rape the land for its gold and natural resources and enslave the Amerindians (native Americans), who were regarded to be less than human. One has to wonder why it was so easy for the Europeans to impose their will on the Amerindians. Was it solely because the Europeans were superior technologically and intellectually? Unfortunately the answer is not that simple. The Europeans were superior in those areas, but the bulk of the disaster they imposed was not what they knew, but what they brought with them, disease. Disease, on the epidemic level, is thought to be the major factor in the decline of the Amerindians during the age of discovery.
The Columbian exchange brought new animals, foods , and diseases to different countries. The Columbian exchange helped start new careers and bring new things to different parts of the world opening up new discoveries and alliances. The only thing that the Europeans brought to that was original, was slavery. Slavery was brought to America from the Europeans, when they tried to use the natives but it did not work very well so they used the Africans. The Native Americans were no longer slaves but still treated like a lower class and were killed raped and pushed off their
The Europeans brought with them not only a desire and will to conquer the new continent f...
During the early years of colonization and exploration in North America and Africa, many New World "collided" and brought to each other many new things, both good and bad. There were exchanges of ideas, products and crops that greatly advanced the cultures of all involved, but on the other hand, new diseases, and harsh treatment of one another were also present.
Most people are familiar with what the Europeans did, but many are not aware of what the European adopted from the natives. The Tribal Indians affected many of the daily life rituals of the Europeans were affected by the natives from language, government, literature, recreation, medicine, hygiene, and food. Because of the benefits the Europeans gain from the Natives Americans the Europeans camps and settlements were able to prosper and grow. A side affected by the growth of the Europeans settlements is the resistance of the Native Americans who are forced to move again, deeper into the American wilderness; this changed their population size and where settlements began. Much of the culture of the Native Americans has been lost forever due to the influence of the
Following Spain and Portugal's first efforts to claim the "New World" for their own, England, France and the Netherlands establish colonies throughout North America, predominantly seeking economic wealth and opportunities with occasional religious intentions. While the Spanish savagely plunder the riches of the natives to satisfy their own greed in this newly untapped world, the English, French and Dutch pursue a seemingly less violent approach through lucrative trade and establishing colonies, to meet their own intentions. In the northern regions of North America (what is today Canada) and the southeast (what is now Florida) occurred the beginning of French and Native American interactions for trade. On the Atlantic coast of what is today much of the Northeastern United States lies the English colonies that dominate their focus on producing tobacco and trading goods for luxurious furs. While there is the presence of a Puritan society that hoped for religious tolerance within the Massachusetts Bay colony, this was one of the few exceptions among the English settlements. In New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony in present day New York, lies a trading and farming community that is solely there to claim a stake in the "New World". Representing Spain, Columbus establishes a gold seeking society motivated in finding riches. As European countries settled vast expanses of territory through North America, each nation shows their desires for economic gains and a presence in the Americas.
The European influences to the Native Americans were Europeans carried the new diseases to the Indians. “Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time” (Kincheloe). Slave trade was another influence to American Indians. Europeans soon realized that they could provide commercial goods such as tools and weapons to some American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians captured in tribal wars, and these captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. Therefore, “slavery led to warfare among tribes and too much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest” (Kinchloe). Lastly, Europeans change Native America and African’ roots. Native Americans
Starting in 1492 with Columbus and continuing for 350 years, Spain settled and conquered almost all of South America, the American Southwest, and the Caribbean. The Spanish empire grew to be the largest European empire since ancient Rome, and it used the wealth that it obtained from the Americas to support nearly endless warfare in Europe, which protected the Americas with a large navy and a very powerful army and brought Catholicism to the New World. At this time, Spain saw the New World as unruly and uncivilized because most of the people there were pagan. The Spanish, being strictly Catholic, believed they had the right to conquer and colonize the New World to convert the Natives. They went on with the belief that saving souls was worth