The Ripple Effect Of European Colonization Of America

European exploration, in its entirety, is a complex subject with many causes and effects. In the attempt to break away from their previous home, colonists experienced a novel mixing of a variety of life, people plants and animals included. Africans, Europeans, and Indians all became acquainted in a new medley of a society. Each group, all with a unique cultural background, found a common identity as Americans due to the many new encounters and new neighbors. This was the beginning of the melting pot America is today. With “profit-seeking and soul-seeking” as the motive, Europeans concentrated the many cultures in young America.

In 1492, the world was forever changed when Columbus discovered the new world. This exciting news inspired hundreds of new explorers to come see what else the world has to offer. The explorers were Europeans who traveled the Atlantic ocean to conquer the Americas. They wanted to conquer the Americas for glory and gold. The Europeans wanted to make their country the best and they had already experienced brutal wars in Europe for the fame. They had experience, and the Americas did not scare them. The colonization process happened from a span of 1500-1600. The native populations who lived in the Americas had to suffer drastically, as they saw their home land get destroyed. The native populations of the New World suffered due to the purposeful

One of the major and more difficult goals for the Spaniards was to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. The Indigenous religion was so strange to the Spaniards that they believed the indigenous were not as evolved or progressed as they were. When Cortes was writing back to the Spanish crown he dramatized the indigenous people as savages who needed to be converted to Christianity in order to be saved. In the book Religions of Mesoamerica David Carrasco explains how, “These beliefs and missionary efforts reflected the primary attitude of the Catholic Church that the native peoples were “souls to be saved” in a global process of conversion” (Carrasco 21). To achieve their goal or religious conversion the Spanish started missionaries where Franciscans

Although “historians no longer use the word “discovery” to describe the European exploration, conquest and colonization of a hemisphere already home to millions of people”, it was one of the greatest and most important discoveries ever in our history that changed the lives of millions of people. (Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008), pg 1.) For some the “discovery”of America would mean an opportunity for a better life, for others the “discovery” brought misery and death.

Have you ever wondered where why the many different countries in Europe came to America to explore and colonize? There were two main concepts that drew the Europeans to America: the excitement and profit of the "New World", and the past histories of their countries. The English, French, and Spanish each came to the Americas in search of a new beginning; a fresh start in which they could escape past torment and capture new wealth. However, each motive defined the character of each settlement.

Europeans followed a Christian way of life, “In keeping with their Christian beliefs, most Europeans took literally the biblical admonition to subdue the earth and exert dominion over it.”They followed what the bible said and they often tried to convert others such as the Native Americans to Christianity. If they did convert then there would be severe consequences, “The Europeans came as messengers from God to convert the Natives to Christianity, as they saw it. Spanish missions converted many Natives. However, those who would not convert were killed or imprisoned”. Since Native Americans did not practice the religion of Christianity they practiced more of nature or spirit worship. In the book “America” it says, “Native Americans did not worship a single God but believed in many ‘spirits’”. They believed in Gods such as sun Gods,corn gods and nature spirits of birds, bears and wolves.

This books tells us a lot about the relationship between Christianity and colonialism. Originally, the Spaniards went to the New World to convert the natives to Christianity but, they got lazy and greedy. De Las Casas stated that “The reason the Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed” (13). The Spaniards only cared about getting the gold and conquering the land. Of course, they had the intention of converting all of the natives to Christianity at first but it was easier to conquer and to just kill the natives in horrific ways to be able convert all the land to be Christian rather than keeping the people and just converting the people. The land was easier to convert than the people. The land was especially easy to conquer because the natives were such a docile group of people and had such giving nature and were always welcoming with open arms. The Spaniards took advantage of that characteristic of the natives. De Las Casas states how the natives were “submissive” by saying, “Their insatiable greed and overweening ambition know no bounds; the land is fertile and rich, the inhabitants simple, forbearing and submissive” (13). The

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

The first Europeans arrived in North America in the fifteenth century CE. Native cultures included the Olmec, the Maya, the Aztecs, the Incas, the Mound Builders of the Mississippi region, and the Anasazi of the American Southwest. The first metropolis in Mesoamerica, was the city of Teotihuacan, capital of an early state about thirty miles northeast of Mexico City that arose around the third century B.C.E. and flourished for nearly a millennium until it collapsed under mysterious circumstances. Among the groups moving into the Valley of Mexico after the fall of Teotihuacan were the Mexica. Folk legend held that their original homeland was the island in the lake called Aztlan, from that is why today they are known as the Aztecs. The Aztecs were excellent warriors. They set out to bring the entire region under their domination. For the remainder of the fifteenth century, the Aztecs took control over much of which is known as modern Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and as far south as the Guatemalan border. The Chimor kingdom was eventually succeeded in the late fifteenth century by an invading force from the mountains far to the south. The Inka were a small community in the area of Cuzco, a city located at an altitude of ten thousand feet in the mountains of southern Peru. In the 1440s, under the leadership of their powerful ruler Pachakuti, the Inka launched a campaign of conquest that eventually brought the entire region under their authority. Under his

The Native Americans once thrived on the rich land of the Americas, and they built a long-lasting civilization with the help of nature, gods, and organized roles within the tribes. However, the thriving population plummeted after their encounter with diseases and forced labor brought upon them by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadores. Although at first the conquistadores mistreatment of Native Americans seem shallow and unethical, their conquest of the Americas only partially reflects the claims of the English Black Legends..

Let’s back to the early 1600s, after the Columbus’s voyage came to the New World, most all the European nations began to proceed colonized the Native American by force, invading their lands, inter-married with the native women, create the Empire on the American continent. But, the main point that European came to the New World is spreading their religion, they tried to convert the native into Christianity. This caused more tension between the native and the white people. According by William Bradford described in his journey “Of Plymouth Plantation”, it said “Men, Indians! Indians! And withal, their arrows came flying amongst them...Thus it pleased God to vanquish their enemies and give them deliverance; and by His special providence so to dispose that not any of them were either hurt or hit, though their arrows came close by.” He claimed God protected his people from the enemy. In otherwise, the most reason that European come to North America is founding gold, a valuable items, that every man who desires for their ambitious dreams. Among these men, one man stood up and called for the establishment a colony, he is John

The establishment of the original thirteen British colonies was not the first time that foreigners had reached the present-day powerhouse of a country, which is the United States of America. One example of Europeans in North America before the colonists was the French fur traders had frequently traded with the Native Americans. However, when the settlers arrived in the swamp studded marshes of James’ Town, which was the first colony, they must had been upset, as they were primarily after valuable minerals: gold, silver, as Britain’s economic system, at the time, was mercantilism—in which the main goal was to increase a nation’s wealth by regulating all of the nation’s commercial interests. Before the settlers arrived in the New World, French had traded some with the Indians. In A Micmac Indian Replies to the French, the French called the Native Americans’ home a “little hell”, a statement that the Micmac Indians didn’t find too tasteful—the Micmac Indian leader then asked why the French would leave their paradise, and risk their lives to reach a “little hell” . This reply from the Indian leader shows a few things—first, the Indians weren’t too impressed with the customs of the French, second—the Indians were knowledgeable of how important, as well as costly, their homeland was to the Europeans—and what goods it contained. Lucky for the settlers, one of their other interests was in the new world in plenty—land. One of the reasons the Europeans needed land so badly was that

The greed for gold and the race for El Dorado were the main inducements of the Spaniards who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels in a mad pursuit after the gold and all other precious property of the Indians” (Peace 479). The royal rulers of Spain made it a rule that nothing would jeopardize their ability to rob the land from the native people of Latin America. The missionary process, “had to be encouraged, but the missionaries could not be permitted to dominate the colony at the cost of royal rule” (Gibson 76). The European governments established missionaries to cleanse their minds of any guilt aroused by the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children. When European “ships arrived in the 16th century to colonize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization” (Ribero). The overall devastations caused by the Christianization of the native inhabitants created a blend of cultures within the indigenous civilizations which gradually isolated old native ways into a small population of oppressed people. The Christianized people became a symbol of loyalty to the European powers and were left alone simply on their religious status. This long term mission of total religious replacement caused very strong and advanced

The Europeans eventually came to dominate the land once held by the Native Americans through theft, disease and converting the natives to Christianity. First many times the Europeans had their own best interest in mind when they went to meet the natives. The Europeans such as Cortes had heard stories of gold and wanted to take the gold for themselves. He told the Aztec Chief Montezuma the amazingly ridiculous lie that the Spanish had “a strange disease of the heart for which the only known remedy is gold” (Kennedy and Cohen) Worse yet for the Aztecs who believed the Spanish conquistadors were the god Quetzalcoatl and thus allowed entry into the city. This gave up the intelligence of what the city had; it gave the Spanish the knowledge of how to defeat the city. Shortly later Cortes conquered the Aztec capital. However, Cortez was far from the only European who was attempting to take advantage of the wealthy natural resources of the new world. Juan Ponce De Leon searched for gold in Florida. Francisco Coronado explored the southern plains in his search for gold abusing Native Americans along the way by placing iron collars on them and harassed his captives with vicious dogs. Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incan empire in Peru and took a huge load of silver for Spain. Later the silver taken from the mines in Bolivia and Mexico resulted in a silver price revolution in Europe. The Europeans also captured natives and

The founding of the New World fascinated many Europeans because of the possibilities of the economic, political, and social growth. Europeans packed their belongings and boarded the boat to new beginnings. Arriving in the Americas was not what they had expected. Already pre-occupied in the land, were the Native Americans. The Native Americans refused the Europeans colonization in the America’s, but not all colonies in the Europe just wanted to colonize with the Natives. The intentions of the Europeans colonies were all different, as the Dutch solely came for business transactions. The Dutch business transactions resulted in the change of economic, political, and social movements, changing the lives of the Native’s.