The effect of European settlement on Native Americans was devastating, on account of, the Europeans only wanted land and would accomplish this task by any means necessary. Despite the icy landscapes and coastlines, the Native Americans journeyed from Asia on foot or by boat to at different times and over thousands of year, making them the first to inhabit North American (Kincheloe, 2007). With this notion, the Native Americans never imagined how the European’s lifestyle would impact their lives drastically. First, the European brought diseases causing the Native Americans to become ill, due to, lacking immunity from the diseases and illness. Thus, the diseases eliminated many Native Americans. As the Europeans continued traveling to North America
There were initially two to ten million natives in the United States prior to European contact. Those numbers dwindled down drastically in the years that Europeans came and started colonizing. The Europeans came to explore the New World in search of land, spices, gold, God and glory. Among these colonists were the Spanish who colonized most of the southwest of the United States. Evidence of their settlements can still be seen today in the missions scattered across the land. These missions were started with the purpose of converting the Native Americans to Christianity. Try to put yourself into the shoes of the Native Americans, imagine living your entire life with a particular set of beliefs, based on what was handed down by your ancestors and culture. Then suddenly a group of foreigners would come and proclaim that your views are all wrong and that you must follow their beliefs for the salvation of your soul. This is exactly what the Spanish colonizers did to the Native Americans as they invaded their territory which is the reason why the relationship between the two parties were strained and rife with tension. The conversion of the Natives and the constant hostility by the Spanish conquerors subsequently led to the disintegration of native life and culture.
As a result, the diseases that were transferred from Europe decreased a large amount of native Americans’ populations..
The discovery of the Americas was probably the most important discovery of its time, but along with it came a great catastrophe for the people of this land. Although the Europeans brought many great innovations into this newly discovered world, like new animals such as horses, they also brought great technologies and tools. Taking all this into account, they introduced great innovation for the Native Americans, but this cannot back up the detrimental damage these Europeans would cause to the Natives. Due to the discovery of Columbus, many Europeans migrated to this newly discovered land, and coming along with them they brought diseases. Diseases played such a huge negative role in the Native Americans' lives since they had a huge impact on
By the 1500s, when Europeans first began arriving in North America, as many as 10 million Indians lived on a continent mapped by trails and rivers, many of which, were used as an extensive trading network by the, then,
European migration vastly affected the Native population in areas such as family life, religion, and food. Diseases had been transmitted and spread throughout rapidly. When they began to explore and settle they had introduced epidemics such as smallpox. Native americans were not in better health and had no immunity to these diseases. They had also caused a disruption in their food supply.
The Europeans exploration of the Americas has changed the course of history forever. Before the “discovery” of the Americas, the Eastern world was entirely separated from the West. People in Europe, Africa, and Asia traded exclusively amongst themselves, and likewise in the Americas. After the Spanish and the Portuguese had explored and claimed much of the new world, things began to change considerably. The new world became a colony for European nations to provide raw materials for them and help their economies. This affected the lives of many natives who had already been living in the Americas. Many were killed by the diseases the Europeans brought over, and some were even killed by the Europeans for sport. Despite these negative outcomes, there were some good effects from this. The Europeans earned many new goods, such as pineapples, potatoes, turkeys, and tomatoes. The Europeans also brought over some goods, such as many types of livestock (cattle, horses, and chickens) as well as some fruit and
Conquest and disease are often the primary negative factors analyzed when discussing European interaction with Native Americans in the Americas. However, with the use of bioarcheology, Historians particularly Clark Spencer Larsen, have been able to learn more about the lifestyle and diet of mission Native Americans in Florida from remains which paint a broader picture than traditional European sources. The mass introduction of corn and hard labor into the diets and lives of Plains Native Americans had a detrimental effect upon the wellbeing and health of those living under Spanish rule. These effects become much more pronounced when compared to the distant ancestors of the Native Americans.
On 1492, Christopher Columbus was the first person who found North American. After that, European people increasingly started to go North American and they tried to survive in the new world. But North America still had many native Americans to live there. So in my opinion, when Europeans found native Americans and Europeans began to comprehend native American’s living habits. But Europeans came to America that had positive impact and also still had negative impact to native Americans.
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.
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.
The consequences of European contact with the Native Americans had grave consequences surpassing the expectations of both sides. However, while the Europeans were able to overcome most of the initial problems surrounding the contact, the Native Americans endured the effects for much longer which led to the decline of Native American power in North America. Both biological effects such as the impact of diseases, and cultural effects including the formation of new societies and the European influence, had devastating effects on the lives the Native Americans had formerly known. While some of the effects of contact could be seen as positive, overall the negative effects from Native American contact with the Europeans proved to outweigh the
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
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).
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.
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).