The Impact Of European American Aggression On Native Affairs Essay

We Native American’s live a horrid and terrifying life full of mistreatment, brutality and often complete genocide if we do not comply with the demands of the European’s. The foreigners not only changed our lives for the worse, but also brought along with them violence, disease and death. They changed my way of life, our way of governing, and if we don’t comply to their way we might as well have asked for a death sentence. People called us “Savages” and “Violent”, but what choice were we left with when they invade our homes ultimately destroying our way of life. Being put in the position of watching women and children slaughtered before my very eyes everyday is something I have to experience for the rest of my life. We Native Americans were pushed to the edge of extinction by the total genocide induced by the European People.

The Europeans had became greedy and selfish. They had become reliant on the native Americans to do everything for them. They had made them do necessary tasks that they could have done themselves, but chose not too. They had made them carry them when they didn’t want to walk, feed them, fan them,carry their hammocks,etc. They had become conceited, thinking they were too “royal” to do anything for themselves. They had made the Native Americans slaves and servants to their every bidding no matter the circumstance. They had become puppets to the Europeans and they controlled the Natives and forced them to do whatever they wanted. They had made the Natives lose their dignity and sink so low by making them complete their every request. The Natives had been worn down and degraded to be known as nothing to the Europeans but servants and people who they could call to do something for them. Countless Natives had died because of what the Europeans had brought to them

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.

American history frequently centers on the issues of ethnic diversity and resource allocation. In the contemporary, we begin to see the experiences of the Native inhabitants of the Americas in contrast to European settlers and colonizers, is a prime example of this process in motion. When European settlers first arrived to the New World in the 15th century, firstly the Spanish, they brought with them a material cultural based upon an economic standard of resource exploitation, which in a sense was hostile to most of the Native peoples of the Americas. For instance, as Blackhawk notes that, Europeans built permanent settlements consisting of immovable structures, whereas many of the Great Basin peoples were semi-migratory in nature. Additionally, as Europeans claimed possession over the land, its resources, and began a process of territorial delimitation, Native peoples whose lives

To better understand the conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans, one must closely examine the state of Europe’s economy at the time. Europe struggled with difficult conditions. This included poverty, violence and diseases like typhus, smallpox, influenza and measles. There were widespread famines which caused the prices of products to vary and made life very difficult in Europe. Street crimes and violence were prevalent in cities: “Other eruption of bizarre torture, murder, and ritual cannibalism were not uncommon”.2 Europeans

When the Europeans first came to the America, they assumed that they would be welcomed and be looked up to because of the gifts and trade they brought over. However, they couldn’t be farther from the truth, as the Natives feared their foreign weaponry, technology, and animals. Both groups, although in different circumstances, had misconceptions of each other that altered the views the Europeans and the Natives had of each other.

Ever since Christopher Columbus “discovered” the Americas in 1492, conflicts with Native Americans raised due to the overtaking of their land. Prior to European settlement Indian tribes were located across North America. Horses allowed Indians to migrate with their main source of food, the buffalo, increasing their amount of land territory. As European settlers arrived on the east coast, Natives from that area began to move to the west coast often causing inter-tribe conflicts. Conflicts between natives and settling Europeans also arose because of the colonies need for more land which resulted in them following the same route the Natives took westward Warfare between the Europeans and Indians remained constant, as Natives fought to protect their land. The effects of these wars lowered the social position of the Indians, as well as significantly lowered the population of both sides fighting the wars. Conflicts with the Indians were often about land; however, sometimes they were a European display of dominance. After the many conflicts between Europeans and Natives, the population of Natives within the United States borders diminished. In order to satisfy their need and desire for an abundant amount of land, Europeans who migrated to the Americas picked wars with Natives often resulting in many negative impacts on both sides.

The Europeans had begun conquering the land the natives. An example is the Spanish, Cortes and his followers had taken land in Mexico. They Spaniards and massacred Aztec as they left Tenochtitlin according to Crossroads and Cultures (563). The book, Broken Spears, provided real accounts of the Spanish conquering through Mexico. Within the book, mentioned was the Spanish attacking villages when they were most vulnerable (ex sleeping, or traditional celebrations). This had changed the America’s peaceful societies into ones that fear for their lives. The accounts mentioned in the book stated that, “They attacked the man who was drumming and cut off his arms. Then they cut off his head, and it rolled across the floor” (pg 67). This type of unjustifiable murders will occur for a long period of time. This type of brutal killings happened throughout America’s by the European’s changing the way of life for the natives.

Native Americans are a central pillar in the history of Texas. Texas is one of the most critical states to them. Their story revolves around the exploitation of the natural resources in their places of origin, and it shapes their interactions with the European colonialists and subsequent governments. The acquisition of the Indian lands by the American colonial government through treaties was the first type of contact that the Indian communities had with the government. The primary treatment of Native Americans by their government subjected them to duress, pressures, undue influence, and policies that produced uncertainty, despair, and frustration.

America has come a long way since Columbus began his voyage in 1492. In “Beyond 1492: Encounter in Colonial North America,” James Axtell explains that when it comes to the Indian-European encounter, there’s more to the story than what the average person grasps. Most people know of how the Natives were mistreated and killed off by the Europeans with biological warfare and that a couple thousands of years later the Pilgrims and Natives had their first feast together known as “Thanksgiving”. However, in chapter four, Axtell’s essay describes that surprisingly, there was a “variety of ways Indians responded to the Europeans that invaded their lands in the wake of Columbus.” Axtell chronologically recapitulates the history of the Indian reactions to the European encounters up until the 1700’s and categorizes them into 5 strategies.

Europeans came to the United States and seized the opportunity to take advantage of the Native Americans and in order for them to do that they needed to take away Native nations’ political power. Europeans brought ideas of social control, social hierarchy, and criminal justice system to these Native nations to “delegitimize Native worlds and attack their constructs” (Ross, 14). Through these new ideas, Europeans establish superiority over them and attempt to assimilate Native Americans to European culture. When Native Americans were not assimilating, Europeans decided to make them criminals and incarcerate them. Incarcerating Native Americans, allowed for Europeans to gain political power over them and take their land and

The primary memory of United States’ westward expansion in the 19th century is one of triumph because it doubled the nation’s territory and increased trade. However, the Old West during the 19th century was characterized by America’s brutal obsession with expansion and the concept of American exceptionalism. In Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Judge Holden celebrates the human nature of violence and its necessity to find order in chaos. Blinded by the greed for control, he refuses to acknowledge the norms of civilized behavior. Similarly, under the principles of the Manifest Destiny, the U.S. government’s military interventions toward Native peoples overlooked violence. These parallels reflect the exceptionalist idea that one is inherently more virtuous and entitled to higher purposes. Historians and primary accounts confirm the parallelism that McCarthy draws between violence and American history. Therefore, preconceived notions about the positive aspects of American expansionism are overturned by the significance of its underlying violence.

The process of colonization in the Americas was a complex and complicated series of events, each driven by the varied interests of an array of European empires. For some, the Americas were a world of untold riches, while for others, this discovery allowed for missionary efforts to convert Native Americans to their faith. Regardless of the reason, violence against the many Native Americans who inhabited this “new land” was a common colonization tool to achieve these means. Direct violence is the most well-known approach, one that Spain wielded so effectively that the Black Legend was created to attest to their cruelty. Yet, the violence used was not all direct in nature. Cultural violence, which England employed itself, was used just as often. Overall, though the Black Legend has led to Spain being viewed as the most violent colonizer in the Americas, England’s use of indirect violence through engagement in the fur trade and missionary efforts was just as destructive to Native Americans.

Times were very hard for Native Americans during the mid to late 1800s. The reasons for their afflictions could only be blamed upon the United States of America. For thousands of years, Native Americans had roamed around the Americas. There had also been many tribes spread across the West that fought between each other in order to have their land.1 It wasn’t until after reconstruction in the United States, that the white Americans started having ordeals with the Native Americans. The main tribes involved in the conflict starting around 1850 were the Lakota people and the Sioux. The relationship between them can only be remembered for broken treaties and wars. It is true that these tribes had only mind there own business for many

had sold only the right to use the land, not the land itself. They did