Native and European Relations in Early America Essay

The many cultural differences between the Europeans and the Natives also caused frequent clashes and rifts between the two groups that often led to destruction of land and people, and sometimes resulted in blood – shed, war or captivity. The Europeans not only wanted the Natives land when they arrived, but they also brought a sense of superiority and a string of diseases with them. These diseases are what would soon aid in wiping out most of the Natives tribes.

Over the course of the 17th century, the relationship between the English colonies and the Native Americans changed drastically. At first, there was a peaceful relationship and the two groups even helped each other out; but, as time passed, the relationship began to deteriorate and the two groups became hostile towards each other.

The moment when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas was the beginning of the interactions between American Indians and European colonists. These very first interactions were mostly positive due to the the generosity of the Indians but turned violent when the Europeans began to mistreat, kidnap, enslave, and kill the American Indians. Actions taken by the American Indians and European Colonists, especially actions of violence, during the 1600s caused the relationship between the two parties to be negative and conflicting in New England and Chesapeake.

de la Casas describes the second voyage that he embarked upon with Columbus. He described how each island was depopulated and destroyed. His observations of the land were no so descriptive of the native people and the land, but of the gruesome images the Spanish painted upon the Indies. de la Casas says, “…the Indians realize that these men had not come from Heaven (9).” He goes into detail about how the Christians would take over villages and had no mercy describing one particularly crude act to show how ruthless the Spanish were. He says, “Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer (9).” The Spanish were so coward and angry anytime an Indian was actually capable of slaying a Spanish man that a rule was made; for every Christian slain, a hundred Indians would die. Natives were captured and forced to work jobs like pearl diving where they would very rarely survive due to man eating sharks or just from drowning and holding their breaths

It is no secret that Europeans and Native Americans have an intricate history of conflict and cooperation. Going all the way back to the 16th century, where it all started, their encounters were mostly unpleasant. Indians were the first ones to settle in the Americas, so they had to be creative when it came to living with all this new land. Each tribe had their own culture, beliefs, religions, ideas, and ways of living which for the most part, were not in agreement with European lifestyle. In my opinion, all of those differences are what lead the Europeans and Native Americans relationship to frequent destruction.

When the Europeans arrived in the Americas they were looking for riches, spices, and new trade routes to India. When they found this new world and the Native Americans that lived there, they deliberately mistreated them. Looked at as obstructions, the Natives were driven from their land and homes and pushed west. Europeans that encountered the Native Americans had different ideas about them depending on their political and religious beliefs but none were positive. Those ideas ranged from pity for them as non-Christians to be converted (Doc. A2) and treated as children to a lower status of human to be taken advantage of for profits. The Natives were forced to mine precious metals, and farm sugar cane and tobacco. They were not viewed or treated as equal persons. They were considered part of the wild land to be conquered, enslaved, killed, and beaten into cooperation.

With the initiation of the 17th century came the colonist from the "Old world", in addition two settlements came to be, Jamestown and Plymouth which were greatly aversive from each other. To the Colonist surprise the Continent of the soon to be discovered America had already been inhabited by wandering Natives groups and tribes. Through out the years of 1067 to 1704 the European and Natives had attempted harmony between the two through various cultral contracts, however the Europeans benightedness destroyed that image and had altered that into a very destructive conflict. The colonization of the European was followed with an unstable yet somewhat peaceful relationship between the existing Native groups. The Native had came forth willing to

In 1542, a Christian missionary named Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote about the little-known realities of the brutalities occurring in the New World between Spanish conquistadors and Native Americans. Even though the Spanish originally set out to bring Christianity to the New World and its inhabitants, those evangelizing efforts soon turned into torture, mass killings, rape, and brutal slavery of the innocent natives to fulfill their greed for gold and wealth, according to Las Casas. In his primary account A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas attempts to inform King Phillip II of the cruel acts and injustices committed by the Spanish conquistadors. Despite this condemnation, Las Casas does not reject imperialism, because he feels Spain has the obligation to spread the word of Christianity around the world. Instead, he finds fault with the Spanish conquistadors for implementing this evangelization the wrong way, by both physically harming the Native Americans and, fundamentally, in their underlying perception of them as inferior. Furthermore, the key to the coexistence of imperialism with Las Casas’ Catholic ideas and his defense of indigenous peoples lies in considering and treating these Native Americans as equals and as humanity rather than inferiors.

Disease and Medicine along with war and religion were three ways American history has changed. When the colonists came over from Europe they unknowingly changed the world forever in ways they couldn't have imagined. These effects were present to both Native Americans and Europeans. Some of these changes made life easier for both Native Americans and Europeans but some made relations worse too. And some effects wouldn't show up until it was too late.

For fifty years, the first generation of English settlers and Native American Indians maintained peace with one another using a peace treaty agreement between Chief Massasoit of the Pokanokets and the English settlers. Moreover, the Natives and the English treated each other with respect and traded with one another. Thus, if either the English or the Native American Indians went against the terms of the treaty or disrespected each other in any way, the peaceful relationship would cease. However, as the second generation of English people emerge, the terms of peace became forgotten, and the English began to disrespect the Pokanokets. The breakdown of relations between the Native American Indians and the English Settlers was caused by the failure

De Las Casas was responsible for sending his share of the Natives into harsh environments to work, but he was able to repent from that way of life. Bartolome De Las Casas became a priest and finally understood that treating the Native Americans harshly and making them slaves did not mesh well with the Christian teachings of the Bible. He spent the remaining years of his life fighting to end enslavement of people, and he also faced charges of treason because of his writings that detailed the destruction brought on by the Spanish Conquistadors. De Las Casas proclaimed, “[Hispaniola] was the first land in the New World to be destroyed and depopulated by the Christians” (39). The Conquistadors tried to decrease the Native population by separating families, brutal violence, and overeating so that there would not be any extra food for the enslaved

The exploration of the Europeans to the west changed the civilization in the Americas. A main staple in the settling of the newcomers was the relationships that the Europeans had formed with the foreign Native Americans. These would end up turning sour because of expansionism, intolerance for the native culture, and new diseases that the Indians had never been exposed to. The relationships not lasting can be most clearly seen between the Europeans and the Native Americas in New England, and the Spanish southwest.

This capture allowed them to fund Christopher Columbus’s journey across the Atlantic Ocean. This journey began with the primary intention of uncovering a new route to China. If they wished to open trade with the Chinese, it would require a more efficient way of transport between the countries. During their trip, they made an unintended stop in what would become America. After landing, the Spanish were soon met by the natives of America. The acts they committed against the Native Americans were treacherous. In an account by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, he describes these horrors committed. In one particularly gruesome excerpt Bartolomé alleges that “they killed an infinite number of souls, and cut off the hands and noses of countless women and men, and others they threw to the savage dogs, who ate them and tore them to pieces (Casas).” As these horrors were occurring, similar activities were on the horizon in Africa.

Dr. Zinn references numerous accounts of innocent bloodshed, cruelty and the enslavement of Indians by Columbus and his soldiers from De Las Casa’s books prior to Columbus’ return to Spain. Dr. Zinn records the following statements from De Las Casa book in which he says; "Endless testimonies ... prove the mild and pacific temperament of the natives. But our work was to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle and destroy; small wonder, then, if they tried to kill one of us now and then.... The admiral, it is true, was blind as those who came after him, and he was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the Indians...." To please

According to De Las Casa’s the real “savages” were supposed to be the Spaniards, who were animalistic in character; it was so brutal to distinguish the difference between wild animals and the Spaniards. There was not any humanism feeling in the souls of Spaniards; they only know how to destruct and harm for other living creature. The densely populated and the most fertile land of the world turn in to a desert after the arrival of the Spaniards. They were considered as the world worst beings. Also, they make every Indians as their slaves escaping women and children. Spaniards aim to kill people was to get the gold, be wealthy drastically, and be powerful no matter what happened to the natives. In contrary, after the war between the native Indians