Relationship Between Colonists And Natives

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.

The Native American religion was very different from the Christian religion of the Europeans. The Native American’s didn’t pray to a god, they prayed to something in nature such as the sky or the sun. “O our Mother the Earth, O our Father the Sky” (Tewa Indian). The colonists thought that it was barbaric that the Native American’s didn’t believe in a God. The colonists thought that there was only one correct way to be religious and that the way that the Native American’s practiced religion was ‘the wrong way’.

From the very first interaction, the social and political relations between the Native Americans and the Europeans had begun with much tension. Many Europeans came to the Americas with the intention of discovery. However, when it became apparent that these new lands were inhibited the motives changed, and then the natives were colonized, abused, and in many cases killed. From then and throughout the impending periods of time, the relations between the natives and the Europeans had a few points of mutual peacefulness, but were overall negative.

English colonists first came to America late 1500s with the lost colony of Roanoke. English settlers then tried again for a permanent settlement in the early 1600s with Jamestown. Following Jamestown the English were consistently sending new colonists from England to America. The first English settlers had faced quite the hardships. None of the colonists were prepared or equipped with the knowledge to survive in their new environment. This is where Native American and English colonists interactions began. Prior to English settlers, the Native Americans had also had interactions with the Spanish. At first people believed that English colonists would treat the Natives better than the Spanish colonists. But as history has shown,

The relationship between the English and the Native Americans in 1600 to 1700 is one of the most fluctuating and the most profound relationships in American history. On the one side of the picture, the harmony between Wampanoag and Puritans even inspires them to celebrate “first Thanksgiving”; while, by contrast, the conflicts between the Pequots and the English urge them to antagonize each other, and even wage a war. In addition, the mystery of why the European settlers, including English, become the dominant power in American world, instead of the indigenous people, or Indians, can be solved from the examination of the relationship. In a variety of ways, the relationship drastically alters how people think about and relate to the aborigines. Politically, the relationship changes to establish the supremacy of the English; the English intends to obtain the land and rules over it. Socially, the relationship changes to present the majority of the English settlers; the dominating population is mostly the English settlers. Economically, the relationship changes to obtain the benefit of the English settlers; they gain profit from the massive resource in America. Therefore, the relationship does, in fact, change to foreshadow the discordance of the two groups of people.

European explorers first landed on the shores of what would later become North America more than 500 years ago. Not long after the first explorers had entered the "New World" they found out that they were not alone on this new frontier. Their neighbors in this new land were the Native Americans who had been there for centuries, virtually unaware of life outside the continent. Thus began an inconsistent and often times unstable relationship between the European settlers and the North American Indians. Two nations who had particularly interesting relationships with the Native Americans were the British and the French, both of whom took different approaches to their relations with the Indians economically as well

By the early 1600s both the French and the English had established colonies in North America; the French had New France in Canada and the English had colonies in New England and the Chesapeake Region. These colonies were very different but they shared a few similarities. One aspect they had in common, was that the territories they claimed had already been inhabited by Native Americans for centuries. The European settlers’ relationship with the American Indian’s was in constant turmoil, and between the arrival of the colonists to 1760 there were many instances of cooperation, conflict and compromise between the two groups.

Beginning in the Sixteenth Century, Europeans sought to escape religious and class persecution by engaging on a journey to the New World. However, they were unaware that this “New World” was already inhabited by many groups of Native Americans, who had been established on the continent for thousands of years. At first, the two ethnic groups lived in relative peace. The colonists of Jamestown survived due to Powhatan’s tribe teaching them how to cultivate the land. However, things took a twisted turn as the colonists grew greedy. Due to cultural differences, there was stark tension between the Indian groups and European settlers in New England prior to 1750, which tremendously influenced early political means, social life, and the economy.

During the years between 1607 and 1611, many colonists died due to the following: Enviromental issues, settlers skills, and the Relationships with the Indians. In those years many colonists were traveling and seeking me lives but little did they know, their skill level was very low. As a result, many of the colonists ended up dead. Most of the colonists that traveled were gentlemen. However, these are not the nice men you're thinking of. These gentlemen are men that are usually to used to be useful or doing any work at all. Other than mainly gentlemen, the only colonists they brought were barrel makers, druggists, and people with jobs other than FARMING! Now let's dig deeper into why so many colonists died between the years of 1607 and 1611.

To begin, many conflicts began to arise in the volatile relationship between Native Americans and English Settlers and the Spanish government. Much of the conflicts arose from a clash in cultures. For instance, Francisco Coronado stated that it was wrong for Native Americans to believe in many gods because it was

Type conflict and cooperation between Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans led to the development of North America colonial society through 1750 because the conflict was significant in this development through slavery, land ownership, disputes, and natural resources' distribution. Likewise, cooperation contributed to the development; through trading, the celebration of success and tolerance. To explain this thoroughly one needs evidence.

Many prominent historians argue a clash between culture and religious philosophy was the primary cause of conflict between European settlers in North America and Native Americans. However, a closer analysis of American history suggests otherwise. While a clash in cultures and religious differences did exist, the European domination of Native Americans was primarily fueled by European economic motivations, a desire for valuable natural resources and a craving to expand the American colonial system. Due to this, the conflict was inevitable.

When the first European colonists arrived in 1620 on land in the New World, a disaster was forming. Arriving in what is known today as Massachusetts on The Mayflower, the settlers didn’t have enough experience surviving cold, harsh winters causing almost half of the settlers to die that had arrived on The Mayflower. This had changed in 1621 with the help of the Native people. The American Indians had started teaching the English people how to do many things including harvesting and growing crops. This help from the Native’s had led to the first Thanksgiving between the two groups. These two societies, however, didn’t remain friends. The English settlers had kicked off the American Indians of their own land and tried to make them convert to Christianity. The English settlers had also brought diseases from Europe causing many Indians to get very sick and even some die.

With such a disparity between the groups of people, there was bound to be conflict on a large scale. This conflict, however, extended beyond the colonies; in fact, French Canada and Spanish Southwest were greatly affected by the Native American and colonist conflict. Along with the major conflicts between the Spanish and the natives and several skirmishes among New England settlers and Native Americans, limited trade and prosperity did prove to exist during this time period as well as a series of conflicts, due to the arrival of European

From the moment Jamestown was founded, John Smith and his men fought the Powhatan Chief and his people, and there were constant battles and skirmishes as time went on and the colonies expanded. Seventy years after Jamestown was founded fights with Indians on the border of Virginia continued, and since the Virginian Governor Berkeley refused to fight back, it prompted Bacon’s Rebellion. This intolerance of Natives not only kept the southerners from forming alliances with the Natives, it set them against the others in fear and prejudice that only led to more fighting. Contrastly, the first New Englanders, the Pilgrims who landed in Plymouth, made peace with the Indians. Instead of intermittent skirmishes, they were given shelter when needed and agricultural methods that would help them survive, along with important trade alliances. This help allowed the Pilgrims to survive and prosper in this new land. Though their relations with the Native Americans went south in what led up to King Philip’s War, the former cordiality with them helped the colonists lay the foundation of New England. Since they were kinder to the Natives, the colonists of New England traded information and goods and create relationships with them that helped them establish their colonies, which the Chesapeake colonists never