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Colonization and the native american indian
The relationship between native americans and early colonial settlers
Colonization and the native american indian
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When the English colonizers traveled to Eastern North America, both Native Americans and the colonizers had different expectations for one another. One of the colonists, Edward Waterhouse, talks poorly about the Indians just from the Virginian violence. He only takes into account these Native Americans and makes it seem like it’s the entire population in America. He calls them rude, barbarous, and savages. He believes that conquering the Native Americans will be far easier than civilizing fairly with them all. On the other hand, when Powhatan and Captain Smith talk with each other, Powhatan thinks that Smith will use force to take his land because of his men being armed around their camp when Smith comes to trade. Smith however, tells him he doesn’t want to do …show more content…
Disease was a huge issue. Almost wherever the westerners colonized, they would get the natives severely sick. ““People began to die very fast, and many in a short space” after the newcomers visited their village.” When people became sick, the natives believed it was someone’s fault. They thought it was an attack as a weapon to weaken and kill a person. Because of all the colonizers, most Indians believed that the Europeans were attacking them in the form of disease. Overall, this all shaped the societies the two sides lived in. Europeans learned how to farm better but showed the Native Americans how to plant more efficiently. Trading steadily increased with the introduction of beaver pelt to the foreigners. Disease sometimes made a step-back in the two sides getting along. With more Englishmen coming, that meant that more settlements had to be made. This sometimes caused the Europeans to use force so they can have more land. That also took away from the two sides getting along. Their accomplishments however helped push the two sides to come together and live as
In Jamestown, the settlers had to deal with the Powhatan Indians. The relationships with them were unstable. John Smith, whom was the leader of Jamestown, was captured by these Indians while he was on a little trip with some of his men. As he left two of his men, he came back to find them dead and himself surrounded by two hundred members of the tribe, finding himself being captured. “Six or seven weeks those barbarians kept him prisoner…” 87). After this event, the relationship only grew worse and there was constant fighting between the settlers and Indians. The Indians practiced many methods in capturing settlers such as “scalping” and other dreadful techniques. The settlers did many negative practices also which is the reason they fought so many wars and battles against each other. Later on, the Indians killed the English for their weapons that were rare to them. In contrast to the Plymouth colony, these settlers dealt with the Pequot Indians and the relations were much more peaceful for a certain time frame. At one point, one Indian was brave enough to approach them and spoke to them (in broken English). He taught them the ways of the land, and developed a peace with the man. The settlers from the Plymouth colony learned many ways to grow food from these Indians. “He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities, and was also their
To many of the English colonists, any land that was granted to them in a charter by the English Crown was theirs’, with no consideration for the natives that had already owned the land. This belittlement of Indians caused great problems for the English later on, for the natives did not care about what the Crown granted the colonists for it was not theirs’ to grant in the first place. The theory of European superiority over the Native Americans caused for any differences in the way the cultures interacted, as well as amazing social unrest between the two cultures.
Most times the cause of this fighting was that Europeans were taking over land that was not rightfully theirs. The Natives often lost these battles because their weapons and tactics were not as advanced as the Europeans. Therefore, the large number of deaths in battles caused a change in the Native’s population. To add, when the Europeans first arrived in the Americas they established a new economic system called the encomienda system. The encomienda system was a system of forced labor in which Native Americans worked on Spanish-owned estates.
Powhatan questions why the colonist is not willing to live in peace and instead take by force. During his viewpoint, Powhatan shows the effects of the colonist getting along and having cooperation with the natives. Which is no violence, sharing of resources, the abundance of supplies, safety, rest, and enjoyment of life? Powhatan compares how life would be if they live in peace than to live with conflict. I am not so simple as not to know that it is better to eat good meat, lie well, and sleep quietly with my women and children; to laugh and be merry with the English, and, being their friend, to have copper, hatchets, and whatever else I want, than to fly from all, to lie cold in the woods, feed on acorns, roots and such trash, and to be so hunted that I cannot rest, eat, or sleep. Chief Powhatan states, “I, therefore, exhort you to peaceable councils.” In addition, he insists that the guns and swords be removed and sent away indicating he seeks a peaceful relationship between the two
The Europeans invaded America with every intention of occupying the land, the bountiful natural resources as well as the complete domination of the native people. The Europeans desire for the land created an explosive situation for the native peoples as they witnessed their land and right to freedom being stripped from them. They often found themselves having to choose sides of which to pledge their allegiance to. The Europeans depended upon Indian allies to secure the land and their dominance as well as trade relations with the Indians. The Indians were in competition with one another for European trade causing conflict among the different tribes altering the relationships where friends became enemies and vice versa (Calloway, 2012, p. 163). These relationships often became embittered and broke into bloody brawls where it involved, "Indian warriors fighting on both sides, alongside the European forces as well as against European forces invad...
One example of something that benefited the Europeans more was the clash of the two cultures. While both the indigenous people and the Europeans were introduced to new ideas and skills, the Europeans were benefitted more because they incorporated the new ideas into their culture. They did not drop parts of their already existing culture to use the new goods they were getting from the Native Americans. For instance, the Europeans had never used beaver fur before the Native Americans had traded the furs to them, but this did no...
The European exploration and colonization resulted in commercial expansion of trade in agricultural products between Europe and America. In some time, colonization resulted in religious tolerance and representative government that have for several years encouraged similar developments in other countries. In addition, early European exploration led to redistribution of human populations as magnitude of people from Europe and Africa moved to America. Before the colonization and exploration period, the Native Americans had established a number of forms of social organization.
The clash between the Native Americans and the colonists did not start off tumultuous. In the early days of the exploration and settlement of the New World they lived in peace. The Indians taught them how to farm and live off the land. In a strange land the colonists made an ally. However, the subsequent turn of events was inevitable. Perhaps the chaos that ensued could have been postponed but there was never going to be a peaceful cohabitation between the colonists and the indigenous people. There were so many vast differences between the religious views and ultimate goals of the two groups. The Native Americans had established trade relationships with various tribes, they had their own religions, and their way of life was a stark contrast to that of the colonists. The worldview of the respective peoples was foreign to the other and the idea of a holistic and unbiased approach to the life of others was foreign.
The European influences to the Native Americans were Europeans carried the new diseases to the Indians. “Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time” (Kincheloe). Slave trade was another influence to American Indians. Europeans soon realized that they could provide commercial goods such as tools and weapons to some American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians captured in tribal wars, and these captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. Therefore, “slavery led to warfare among tribes and too much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest” (Kinchloe). Lastly, Europeans change Native America and African’ roots. Native Americans
Overall, There were so many differences between Native Americans cultures And the Europeans. Some of the examples are, the ideas of the lands owner, religion, and the gender. Their differences are more than the similarities. The impact of their cultures it still remains in today’s society. The cultural differences and the religions differences led to a bloody was that remains for 500 hundreds
With the birth of America came the genocide, domination, culturecide, ecocide, separation, termination, racism, stereotyping, marginalization, and forced assimilation for the original Native Indian people of the United States, which resulted in historical and intergenerational trauma. The cultures and lifeworld views of American Indians and the White race (predominate American race), are contrastive, divergent and often conflict. The consensus view of the arriving colonists to America (a land already inhabited by Native Indians) was the belief that English (whites) and Indians shared the same vulnerabilities to health and well-being. That perspective influenced American laws and policies from which many health disparities arose for American Indians. Another additional factor which explains health disparities for American Indians is the forced transition from the Native Indian affluence to the way of the civilized life of their white conquerors.
In many situations, introducing a new party into a land that was formerly inhabited and assimilated by another party with completely different societal, political and cultural values results in a lengthy period of transition and conflict due to misunderstanding. Colonization and the interactions between colonists and Indians during the early stages of settlement in the New World was certainly no exception. Although European societies and political structures were hierarchical and left less to the impoverished members of society, Indian societies and political structures were not as patriarchal and featured communal cooperation. Culturally speaking, Europeans were more fragmented and hierarchical but less ritualistic in religious practices than were Indians. With these innumerable differences and struggles to communicate with not only the European settlers but also with each other, it is no surprise that the Indians fell at the hands of the English in King Philip’s War.
Nations like Spain found it very easy to allow and to bring the Indians into their society and way of life. This was down to the mixing of culture and races. The Spanish colonists were willing to intermarry with the Indians this created the mestizo race. The Spanish also had the use of the priests and showing of ways of improvements to the Indian way of life. There is also the relationship between the natives and the English this relationship was much different to that of the Spanish. Instead of trying to mix cultures the English tended to stay away from the Indian society, although originally wanting to mix cultures and explain about building villages the proposed policies turned out to become failures. They tried to be similar to the Spanish which was their downfall as they did it in a much more forceful and aggressive way. The French relationship with the Natives was strong because of their links to trade with them during the fur trade as the Natives would hunt animals for furs and then sell on the high demand, high value furs to the French and this meant relations and communications would need to be effective for business transactions to be
The Effects of Colonization on the Native Americans Native Americans had inherited the land now called America and eventually their lives were destroyed due to European colonization. When the Europeans arrived and settled, they changed the Native American way of life for the worse. These changes were caused by a number of factors including disease, loss of land, attempts to export religion, and laws, which violated Native American culture. Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to the Native Americans until the Europeans brought these diseases over time to them.
In his writings about the natives and the uprising of the colonist, Edward Waterhouse's language was angry, revengeful, and disgusted. For instance, throughout his whole letter he calls them savages, barbarous savages who had no type of cultivation. With the natives killing 347 English men, women, and children it gave the English more of a reason to call them savages. Also, with the natives not holding up there end of the treaty, it gave the English another reason not to trust them (p. 43). Edward's even calls the natives "naked and cowardly" people worshiped the devil, and did not want to live and be in peace with the English(p. 44).