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Beyond 1492 Encounter In Colonial North America Summary

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Read-Write #1 – Beyond 1492: Native Reactions to Invasion America has come a long way since Columbus began his voyage in 1492. In “Beyond 1492: Encounter in Colonial North America,” James Axtell explains that when it comes to the Indian-European encounter, there’s more to the story than what the average person grasps. Most people know of how the Natives were mistreated and killed off by the Europeans with biological warfare and that a couple thousands of years later the Pilgrims and Natives had their first feast together known as “Thanksgiving”. However, in chapter four, Axtell’s essay describes that surprisingly, there was a “variety of ways Indians responded to the Europeans that invaded their lands in the wake of Columbus.” Axtell chronologically recapitulates the history of the Indian reactions to the European encounters up until the 1700’s and categorizes them into 5 strategies. …show more content…

Although the Natives were more on the defensive side when the Europeans arrived, they did not act upon their notion during the initial encounters. Amongst the many ways the Natives reacted to the Europeans, Axtell stated that the Natives employed 5 different strategies being to incorporate them and when that didn’t work, they attempted to beat them, then join them, then parrot them in their ways enough to trounce them in their own game. When all of the above failed, they resulted to ignore them

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