Historically the treatment of Native Americans has been highly problematic, especially throughout the colonization of the New World. Although, when colonising some Europeans took a merciful and sympathetic approach to the Native Americans, generally the treatment towards the indigenous people was not humane. Not only did the Native Americans die at the hand of the settlers, they also died from diseases that had been brought to the new world by explorers for which they had no immunity. In some cases diseases such as smallpox wiped out entire tribes. Together, the introduction of diseases and the actions of the European settlers had devastating effects on the Native Americans.
The Effects of Colonization on the Native Americans Native Americans had inherited the land now called America and eventually their lives were destroyed due to European Colonization. When the Europeans arrived and settled, they changed the Native American way of life for the worst. These changes were caused by a number of factors including disease, loss of land, attempts to export religion, and laws, which violated Native American culture.
Native Americans lived on the North American continent centuries before the arrival of Europeans. These native groups developed and preserved cultural traditions. Many European explorers traveled to the New World around the 1500s in search for God, gold, and glory. This brought them into contact with the Native Americans, and led to a complete change in their lifestyle. Europeans brought the Natives diseases, forced them to relocate, and altered their cultures. All in all, the Europeans left a devastating impact on the Native Americans.
Culture wasn’t the only thing that the Europeans brought over to the Americas. Along with their customs and rules, came the diseases that the Native American’s have never been exposed to. The Europeans brought many communicable diseases such as small pox and measles which were transmitted to the Native Americans through trade goods or someone infected with them. This quickly annihilated most of the Native American population.
Ruth Cuthand’s Trading series is comprised of patches that have beadwork which depicts the microscopic image of various diseases that Indigenous people were exposed to. This series also contains a beaded patch depicting a disease that the Europeans were exposed to as a result of contact with Indigenous people. In
7. The Age of Exploration had a long-lasting effect on Africa and the Americas. Europeans were initially interested in finding alternate trade routes to Asia because the Ottoman Empire had monopolized the routes that had been used in the past. The Americas were discovered on accident, but shortly afterwards Europeans
The Columbian Exchange had a major effect on people residing in the United States. Disease was the number one cause of death amongst the other tragedies that came with the Columbian Exchange such as violence, culture, trade, and people that had followed Columbus. Many Native Americans died from diseases that
When they sailed across the Atlantic, they ended up in the Caribbean. This is where the Spaniards initiated slavery and forcibly worked a large amount of Indians to death, eventually replacing them with Africans. An example of Spaniards imposing slavery upon Natives was the creation of the encomienda system, which was used to effectively enslave the Indians and seize their land. They started marrying one another and producing mestizos, the offspring of a Spaniard and American Indian. Unfortunately, much of it was due to rape. The negative effects on the Indians were not only the consequence of their mistreatment; a vast amount of people died as a result of the Columbian Exchange, a transfer of animals, diseases, culture, ideas, and more. Specifically, when Europeans came to America, they brought over diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza. These illnesses were extremely detrimental for
The native populations suffered incredibly by the Europeans colonization, because of the purposeful mistreatment they put on them. For instance, a Spanish reporter for the government, wrote to his king in 1516 about the behavior his expedition put on the natives. He stated how the native populations had to ender limbs being cut off, and being eaten alive by dogs (Document 1). This is purposeful mistreatment because hearing the natives cry in agony, and watch in terror as their friends and family die in front of them, was not necessary. This could have been easily avoided if the Spanish weren’t so brutal. Secondly, Father Bartolomé de Las Casas, who was an energetic activist who aimed to protect the natives by writing a book in 1542. His book said that the native populations were kidnapped, abused and later killed. If the Spanish did not kill them directly, the natives would end up killing themselves because the brutal treatment was not worth living (Document 8). The consequences of this include a native population decrease, and suicidal tendencies on the natives. This
The diseases the Europeans brought with them affected the indigenous negatively because it killed a large portion of the population in a painful way. The Natives had very little diseases before the Europeans invaded their land. Unlike people in the Old World, the Natives did not farm cattle or pigs and did not live near the animals they did have. They never had the opportunity to develop immunities to diseases that the cattle and Europeans carried when they came upon their shores. The diseases spread quickly and attacked the indigenous in gruesome ways. Smallpox caused sores to erupt on their skins that were so painful that an Aztec account states that “[the sick] could only lie on their beds like corpses” (Document 4). The pain would not
The Sioux defended the north plains so no one could eat the beavers, their gun numbers were the highest of all the tribes and they were the biggest tribe in the plains. This large tribe effected the Europeans as their items were not getting proper trade flow passed the Sioux, the Europeans were getting very annoyed and, they began slowing down the trade to make sure they didn’t create a bad advantage between the tribes. It was due to low food that immunity was down and diseases started to spread, diseases such as smallpox, measles, whooping-cough and many more killed a large percentage of the population. It was estimated that these diseases killed around 80% of the Sioux tribe and 20% of most other tribes near them. The disease caused mass loss in the Plains for both the Indians and the Europeans as they lost large numbers of traders and middle
When Columbus first arrived he found the island populated by thousands of Taino Indians who made the mistake of showing Columbus gold nuggets in the river. This was all Spain needed to finance its crown. Differences between the Spaniards and the Taints began around two years later when Diego Salcedo was killed by the Indians. The Taino Indians revolt against the Spaniards was met with no success and many left the island or fled into the mountains where they began new lives.
Effects of Colonisation on North American Indians 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.
Facing the fact that there was no more gold, the Spaniards looked to the rich land and soil for the next way that Puerto Rico could help the Kingdom of Spain. They raised cattle, and they planted staple crops, but sugarcane was the bread and butter so to speak. The only problem was that they could only trade with Spain for a long time and Spain grew their own sugarcane, too. But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves here. What was needed was a labor force to work these fields, and the Taino Indians were living in the Hinterlands. There was no way they were going to work those fields.
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.