Dbq The Relationship Between English And Native Americans

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west and found himself on the shores of a new world. His mission was to secure new land for Spain. Other European countries heard of his findings, they too crossed the ocean in hopes of securing new opportunities in this newly discovered land such as fur trading and gold mining. Little did they know that a community of indigenous people had already settled in this land thousands of years before. The Europeans decided to negotiate with the natives in order to set up their own communities in the land but the Native Americans held beliefs about society and religion that were far different from their European peers. Europeans thought the Indians to be “Noble Savages, gentle and friendly, but uncivilized, brutal, and barbaric” (citation). They could not see past their own

The first interaction that took place in the New World, occurred between a group of European settlers and Native Indians, who inhabited the borders of the United States. Indian tribes, who resided in the North, lacked the skills and literacy Europeans had obtained, such as craftsman’s ship of tools, weapons, and wheeled vehicles. However, their simplistic lives allowed them to master skills, which would become important and useful to new settlements, such as farming, hunting, developing structures, and engage in far-reaching networks of trade. Europeans viewed the Natives one of two ways, “they were regarded either as noble savages, gentle, friendly, and superior in some ways to Europeans, or as uncivilized and brutal savages.” (Give Me Liberty

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

The interactions between Europeans and Native Americans have not always been positive. There are numerous difference that interactions between the two groups. Europeans were known as a group that during the 16th and 17th century, made a great deal of change with their religious views. They were once without religion, but were known to turn to sects like Christianity and Puritanism. The Native Americans were a group known to be without religion. These people did not believe it one God and a book to follow. They believed in various higher beings that oversaw things like hunting, crops and sacrifices. These spirits didn’t represent a sense of hope or something to look forward as did being a Christian. William Bradford and Mary White Rowlandson were two religious people who came from England to the new world in order to seek new opportunities in their religious pilgrimage. Upon their arrival to Massachusetts, they lived in settlements were next to Native establishments. Both women told stories of the horrors that the Natives put upon them.

The rhetoric used to describe how Columbus and other European explorers “discovered” the Americas is vanishing. It is much more accurate to say that these European explorers helped make the first contacts between two different worlds. Before the Europeans ever set foot in the Americas, Native Americans or Indians were inhabiting the lands. However, the peace in the lives of Indians would eventually be disrupted by disease and war over land when the Europeans arrived. Each group of Europeans that came over to the New World had a slightly different motivation. Ultimately, the role of Europeans in the previously “undiscovered” regions of the Earth would be reenvisoned.

How did interactions between Europeans and Native Americans shape the way each group viewed their world? How did they see each other? How did each group expect to be treated? What influenced things in this manner? What events (if any) changed their views?

After 1492 with the Protestant Reformation, improved navigation techniques, the discoveries of Christopher Columbus, European exploration of the “New World” began in earnest. However, the ways in which they interacted with the Native Americans differed drastically. Some were respectful of the Native American culture, and tried to work with the natives, other tried to conform the natives to their own beliefs.

In the early 1600s many Europeans became interested in colonizing the New World. Motivated by the success of Columbus, rival countries wanted to gain land and power in the newly discovered continent. After establishing their American colonies, these Europeans eventually encountered the local Indians. Despite the Indian's attempts to make peace with the colonists, fighting broke out in various parts of North America as more settlers emigrated to the New World. The Indians were annihilated or pushed to the fringes of their territory as a result of war, disease, and slavery.

From 1500 to 1610, relations between indigenous peoples and Europeans had a large variance relying primarily on the point of view you took in the time period. To indigenous peoples, relations with Europeans were copiously taken up by conflict, with Europeans using advanced weaponry, disease, and technology to take natives’ land. When Jamestown was first settled in the early 1600s, there was constant warfare between the Powhatans and the colonists. For the indigenous peoples, these contacts were essentially negative because of the deadly combination of disease, conflict, and terror presented by the Europeans. However, from the European point of view, contacts between Europeans and indigenous peoples were certainly essentially positive. In the mid 1500s, Spanish missionary activity was captivating monumental amounts of indigenous people and converting them to Catholicism. Additionally, contacts with the indigenous people were beneficial for the Europeans because it gave them a stable source of labor in the late 1500s, displayed when the Spanish using them for their encomienda system. Through all these beneficial side effects,

Prior to arriving in Jamestown, Englishmen had many different opinions of the Native Americans. The Englishmen knew that they would have to form a good bond with the Americans if they wanted to keep the peace between them. Subsequently, they knew they were going to need the Americans help once arriving to Jamestown. According to The Norton Mix American History, “The Englishmen had to form a good bond with the Natives because knew they were going to need the Native Americans help and that the English were relying on Native Americans crops for their food, they knew they wouldn’t survive

In 1492, Christopher Columbus “discovered” what is known today as North America. Mistakenly, Columbus thought that he had landed in the Indies, and therefore the native peoples were called “Indians.” The New World soon became flooded with Europeans from a number of countries, and the Indians allowed them to settle on their land. Treaties and agreements were made between the settlers and the neighboring tribes in which European goods were exchanged for Indian land and assistance. The survival of these settlements could not have survived without the active support and protection of the Native Americans. However

From the time the first colonies were settled in America, relations between the Native American Indians and white settlers ranged from respected friends to hated enemies. Into the 1800s, Americans who were still in competition with the Indians for land and resources considered them to be uncivilized and barbaric. But many Americans admired the Indians and valued their contributions to American history and culture. These people hoped that with time the Indians could be peaceably assimilated into American society.

The Natives and Europeans collided with one another when the Europeans came to America in the early 1620s. The discovery of the Natives and Europeans brought new ideas to the table, some ideas that were not acceptable for one another. When the Europeans first came to American it evaluated the impressions that they had for the Natives. Europeans saw that the Natives knew how to farm on lands, how to hunt, and other basic survival skills, which the Europeans later on took advantage of, because they only depended on the Natives. Native and European Americans are similar in some aspects, but are also very different in many ways.

Aron McCusker APUSH Period 8 Summer Essay 1 17th Century European Relations with Native Americans During the 17th Century, Europeans flocked to the Americas in search of new lives and opportunities. Upon development of their new colonies, the discovery of native inhabitants posed questions for both parties on how to coexist. At first, most European colonies and their surrounding native population worked together, but as time passed, a growing insensitivity towards each other led to controversy.

Growing up in America, more specifically in New England, students were taught that the relationship between the Indians and the English, was all well and good, but the truth is that the English basically killed the Indians, so the Thanksgiving that we know and love, is all a sham. Because of the Indians in America not being exposed to disease, they had no built up immunity to sickness, although, if the English had never come to America, they would still be running this country.