European Colonization Of Europeans And Native Americans

From David Jones’ point of view, it is important to note that these epidemics were just some of the causes of population decline during European contact. Poverty, environmental stress, massacres, dislocation, malnutrition, and destruction of traditional subsistence patterns also changed the composition of many Native American groups. Eventually, these changes caused substantial depopulation and cultural change. Jones agrees that disease carried a decisive role; however, he argues that it is not the key factor in their depopulation. “Many factors contributed to American Indian susceptibility to Old World diseases, including lack of childhood exposure, malnutrition, and the social chaos generated by European colonization” (Jones 34).

The Native American’s were the first known settlers in North America, ten thousand years before Columbus came to the continent. Their origins completely unclear, anthropologists believe there were three to five million Native Americans in North America in the year 1492 (Hoxie and Iverson, 1997). As early as the Revolutionary War in 1775, European settlers started taking note of the Native Americans. Unfortunately, the Native American population plunged significantly in the first decades after their first contact with Europeans. Native Americans were now unprotected and exposed to deadly diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles which did not previously exist in their society (North American Natives, 2016).

The colonization of the Americas began in the year of 1492, when Christopher Columbus and his band of explorers arrived off the coast of the Bahamas. This new “discovery” for Europe would have drastic effects not only on the settlers themselves, but on the natives and their environment. It is without a doubt that the appearance of these explorers placed the Indians on a dangerous trajectory. Now, it is currently understood how the colonization of the American continent brought disease, war and ultimately death for many of the natives. Early exploration, conquest and settlement brought about new economies for the Europeans, new religious freedoms, and knowledge of the world and of exploration, producing great benefits for the colonists. Although the settlers did face risks and sometimes death during their conquest, they undoubtedly benefitted from this expansion. The Indians, however, were dealt a different hand. The culture that they had developed and the immense civilizations that had evolved were ultimately destroyed as the spread of epidemics, constant war, and brutal exploitation brought these prosperous and hospitable peoples to their knees.

There is data to suggest that around the beginning of the 16th Century, there were approximately 18 million Native Americans living in North America. By 1900 the population of the Indigenous peoples had declined to about 250,000. The common belief has been that this rapid decrease in population has been due to the disease that Europeans brought with them when they migrated to the “new world”. Historian Alfred W. Crosby writes that “it is highly probable that the greatest killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin soil epidemics.” Many reports and essays focus on disease as the main killer of the Indigenous population, but few often look at how the European and Indigenous population responded to disease. The questions

Throughout early history, beginning with 1492, exploration was well on its way. European nations began heading west towards the New World in search of new trade routes to the East Indies. With support from kings through financial aid and moral guidance, a new peak was reached upon the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean islands off the mainland of the Americas. Such an extraordinary event, future voyages were sent off to explore the rest of the New World by Spanish, French, and English ships and explorers. During these times of exploration, traveling nations encountered the Natives among the lands where they would then determine their future through alliances and conflicts. The settlement patterns, along with the attitudes of the American Indians that were encountered with by the Spanish, French and English exploration, can be compared and contrasted through the goals of these nations culturally and socially, and even through the opportunity for economic growth .

Although the natives might have never made it to modern day like customs, the impact of the European exploration and colonization on the native people was through the conversion to Christianity; death/diseases; and the exchanges and teachings towards Natives. Without all the modifications the Europeans made on the Natives, and also colonizing in the Americas we wouldn’t have mixed race population or event the today’s united states. If the European explorers never came over to the US, some generations of family in today’s time probably would have never existed. The pain, sweat, blood, and tears that led into creating the nation, we have now been crucial during those times. It was unjust and unethical for the Europeans to treat the Natives as

As a result, the diseases that were transferred from Europe decreased a large amount of native Americans’ populations..

“The Indian population fell from between fifteen and twenty million when the first man arrived.” Dinesh D’Souza, author of “The Crimes of Christopher Columbus,” explains the decline of the Indian population. “European enslavement of Indians and the Spanish forced labor system extracted a heavy toll in lives...” Another contributing factor to the downfall was the disease brought by the Europeans. “...the vast majority of Indian casualties occurred not as a result of hard labor but because of diseases that the Europeans transmitted to the Indians.” Smallpox and measles became great

As one of the most prominent trade routes between Europe, Africa, and America, the effects of the Columbian Exchange was both beneficial and destructive the the “New World.” After Columbus’s sea voyage in 1492, European colonies stepped on the land of possibilities. However, whereas people witnessed the American exponential economical growth, the intrustion of European colonists brought with severe ecological, demographical, and cultural destruction.

“The settlement of the Western Hemisphere by native peoples and the ‘discovery’ of the ‘Americas’ by Europeans were actually parts of the same human impulse; the need to explore and discover what lies over the horizon. In that sense they are more similar than different.” This is a valid statement applicable to both the Native Americans and the Europeans. The first people to live in the Western Hemisphere are believed to have migrated from Asia. These Native American people now living in America had traveled in hunter gatherer groups, often following after animals to keep a steady food source. Yet, the Native Americans also had a drive to continue exploring the vast land on which they were living. The farther they journeyed the more they

Imagine foreign men coming into your country, invading your land, and killing your people. In the late 1400’s, European explorers, mainly Spanish and Portuguese, in search of a new route to Aisa, found America. The impact of their discovery to the natives was immense, the explorers spread disease, made the natives lives miserable, but also showed the natives new ways of agriculture. The First reason why the explorers greatly impacted the natives was the spread of disease.

Native Americans were the first inhabitants of what we today would call the United States, were they not? As hard as it may be to believe since they're called "Native Americans," it has actually been agreed upon that they were not. The first people to arrive in North America are believed to be sojourners from Asia. These bands crossed a land bridge in search of big game. Slowly, these people began to learn different techniques to survive in North America. They eventually gave up nomadism and instead began to set up habitations or stay within a certain area. These humans learned to farm and how to maintain cities. The Aztecs were a great example of this as they built the amazing city of Tenochtitlan in Central America.

The founding of the New World fascinated many Europeans because of the possibilities of the economic, political, and social growth. Europeans packed their belongings and boarded the boat to new beginnings. Arriving in the Americas was not what they had expected. Already pre-occupied in the land, were the Native Americans. The Native Americans refused the Europeans colonization in the America’s, but not all colonies in the Europe just wanted to colonize with the Natives. The intentions of the Europeans colonies were all different, as the Dutch solely came for business transactions. The Dutch business transactions resulted in the change of economic, political, and social movements, changing the lives of the Native’s.

Disease is one of the first the cultural and economic devastations that occurs that effect Native Americans. When the Columbus comes to the New World, he brought curiosity, plants foods and biological pathogens, in laymen’s terms, germs. The Old World has brought many infections to the New World for instance small pox, measles, bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria. Furthermore, the Native Americans had no immunities to the infectious viruses. As a result to the many outlandish illnesses popping up, in an economic aspect, about 90 percent pre-Columbus Indians died, mostly to the fact of ailment. In a cultural sense, with so many Indians dying off, there was a depletion of Native Americans, thus, diverse tribes would come together and form anew.

Since the Europeans set foot on North American soil in 1620,they have had a devastating effect on the native population. I will be discussing the long term effect of North American colonisation on the Native Americans, focusing on such issues as employment opportunities, the environment, culture and traditions, health, as well as social justice.