Christopher Columbus Discovered The New World

The vast land of what is now America has always had a lot to offer people of other cultures. Settlers came to this new land in the first place looking for gold and other treasures to bring back home. So it comes as no surprise that Native Americans would trade with outside countries.

Before the Europeans came to Canada, Natives had their own culture, traditions and norms. These differences were obvious to the Europeans who sailed to Canada, their interactions with the Native peoples proved these vast differences. One major difference noted was that the Iroquois organized their societies on different lines than did the patrilineal western Europeans. Iroquois women “by virtue of her functions as wife and mother, exercised an influence but little short of despotic, not only in the wigwam but also around the council fire.” “She indeed possessed and exercised all civil and political power and authority. The country, the land, the fields with their harvests and fruits belonged to her … her plans and wishes modeled the policy and inspired the decisions of council.” The Europeans were astounded by this way of life.

Native Americans easily engaged in trade with Europeans. They wished to include new glass and metal items in their society. European and Native Americans viewed trade as a means for economic development. Native Americans viewed trade, also, as a way for communicating with individuals and maintaining interdependence. This is evident in the elaborate gift giving celebrations that occurred before exchanging of goods occurred. For Europeans, however, these social and spiritual functions of trade were limited a great deal more.

The  status of women in Algonquian and Iroquoian society. The Europeans viewed the structure of Native American society lacking the complexity of their own community.  Their drawings and accounts  of the Indian people reveal that the tribe's division of labor and gender roles were actually very advanced, especially where the status of women was concerned. Since  married women in Europe held few rights to their property, family wealth, or even children, women of the tribes had  greater independence and discretion over their produce, conditions of labor, and property.  Native women even served as representatives in the tribal councils, and held  rights over the land they worked.  This  demonstrates that although “women’s work” was belittled in European cultures, Native women’s daily contributions were recognized by Native men and the tribe as a whole as vital to the prosperity of the community and worthy of respect. Analyzing the condition of women in America, a  woman's status in their community was directly related to the social hierarchy, religious culture, and natural environment in which they lived, and that the combination of those ingredients varied vastly  across the continent.

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

Throughout the course of history there have been numerous accounts regarding Native American and European interaction. From first contact to Indian removal, the interaction was somewhat of a roller coaster ride, leading from times of peace to mini wars and rebellions staged by the Native American tribes. The first part of this essay will briefly discuss the pre-Columbian Indian civilizations in North America and provide simple awareness of their cultures, while the second part of this essay will explore all major Native American contact leading up to, and through, the American Revolution while emphasizing the impact of Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonies on Native American culture and vice versa. The third, and final, part of this essay will explore Native American interaction after the American Revolution with emphasis on westward expansion and the Jacksonian Era leading into Indian removal. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to provide insight into aspects of Native American/European interaction that are often ignored such as: gender relations between European men and Native American women, slavery and captivity of native peoples, trade between Native Americans and European colonists, and the effects of religion on Native American tribes.

During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, the Europeans decided to embark on many journeys that would change their way of life forever. These journeys and the exchange of people, ideas, animals, food, and diseases between the two groups shaped history for the next five hundred years. When the Europeans arrived at this new-found land, they discovered what they considered to be an entirely new species of humans, the Native Americans. These two newly encountered groups of people had a few of the same characteristics and way of living, but overall the differences between them were extremely immense.

In The First American Women, Sara M. Evans describes the changing roles of the respective populations of indigenous, white European, and black slave women, from before Columbus’s arrival to the American Revolution, and how the perception of these roles were shaped by the sociocultural context of each group. For example, although indigenous women in North America had significant political and economic power, especially initially, most white European settlers did not recognize this power-- their Eurocentric lens conveying women as inferior-- and thus they instead saw these female political leaders as slaves, basing this conclusion on a comparison to black slaves.

Europeans and Native Americans were first introduced to each other when Europeans arrived at the New World, the northeastern side of North America. Native Americans were originally perceived as noble savages through writings because humans were not tempted by the narcissism of the modern world. Other times, Native Americans were perceived as devils since they did not have churches or religions and men often changed wives many times (Berkin 19). Europeans traded goods such as glass beads, mirrors, and brass bells for the furs and land of the American Indians. While Native Americans and European immigrants increased contact with each other, Europeans’ attitudes and perceptions towards American Indians began to decline as they took over the land

“’Pre-Columbian’ refers to the period before Columbus landed in the New World”, Carol Strickland wrote in the book The Annotated Mona Lisa (20). Five hundred and twenty-five years ago, Christopher Columbus decided to travel by three ships to discover new countries in the western hemisphere. Columbus and a hundred other men sought out to find a new route for trading and to discover Asia. One of his main goals during this travel was to find civilization somewhere other than where he was, the Old World. On the way of attempting to find these places, Christopher Columbus bumped into what history refers to as the New World. If it wasn’t for finding the New World, the people who were on the ships would have never made it to China alive. There were limited resources on the boat, that would not last throughout the whole trip. When reaching the New World, he discovered there were people living within the society in villages. There were some similarities of these two different worlds but there were more differences. These two worlds both made do with what resources they had. There were more differences because of the resources each of the worlds had and the way their societies were. I believe the New World has given the Old World new opportunities for livestock and other resources but also received some benefits from the Old World. This was the start of making the Old World a better place.

Larry Schweikart argues that Christopher Columbus was responsible for the killings of millions of Native Americans. Columbus is most known as the first person to come to the New World. The history books try to glorify his expedition, but there is solid evidence that he was responsible for enslaving, torturing, and occasionally killing the Natives he encountered in the New World.

In early 16th century, European countries send out sailors to explore the world to obtain more resources, such as gold, territories, and food. Christopher Columbus is probably the most famous person when the discovery of America is being brought out. He and Cabeza de Vaca both sail to America ─called Cathay or Indies in the documents because they think they were sailing to Asia─ and meet the local people, Indian, in person. According to their diary and letters, they have some different perspectives and some similar thoughts about Native American. These literatures hold drastic impact in learning about Native American for future generations. (specifics)

WEEK 2: Forging a New World: how contact with natives made Englishmen into Americans READINGS: Boyer, Ch. 1 and 2; Steven W. Hackel, “Facing East, or Looking Outward and Inward” (Review of Daniel K. Richter’s Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America) Reviews in American History 31, No. 2 (June 2003): 184-91; Boyer, Ch. 1 & 2. 1) Use these sources and this documentary or your Boyer readings to paint a picture of native society in the parts of the present-day United States where first European contact took place.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the fur trade and fur trading industry was at its height. There were many fur trade companies in most civilized regions of North America.One major compnents of the fur trade was the hunters or trappers, which many of were Native Americans. Since Europeans came to America, there had been constant interactions with Native Americans, both peaceful and violent. Native Americans, Europeans and American settlers could benefit from one another, leading to an extensive style of interactions of any kind. These topics are thoroughly discussed in Michael Punke’s, The Revenant, and Shirley Christian’s, Before Lewis and Clark. In both novels, settlers endure hardships with Native-Americans, and in some instances agreements

The arrival of Columbus and other Europeans did not lead to the civilization in the Americas. Civilization in the Americas came into being before the arrival of Columbus and other Europeans. In America, people are thought that the “heroic” Explorer Christopher Columbus discovered America, and thus there are currently various events held in celebration of his “discovery.” Now, due to research and various forms of evidence, people are becoming aware of the fact that Christopher Columbus indeed did not discover America. When Christopher Columbus arrived in America, people and their culture had already existed.