When Columbus and his men arrived to the islands, he noticed that the natives were generous, and accommodating because they willingly traded everything they owned and brought them such things like: food, water, and gifts. Since the beginning the natives offered all of their hospitality to Columbus and his men. Columbus believed that the natives were ignorant because they had no weapons for self defense; when he showed them a sword, they had no idea how to use it and ended up cutting themselves. Columbus was more than certain, that he could take control over the natives, and captivate them as slaves. In his writing he wrote, “They would make fine servants….With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Zinn, 3) This attitude leaded to enslavement, feeling superior, and genocide by Columbus and his men towards the natives.…
In Ward Churchill’s “History Not Taught is History Forgot: Columbus’s Legacy of Genocide”, depictions of the European’s genocide and greed are numerous. Christopher Columbus nearly caused the extinction of the native Taino’s people. He used slavery as the premiere method of extinction. Upon his arrival, the Taino’s population ranked eight million. When he departed, that number had dwindled to 100, 000. His successors carried on his policies, and the natives were further decimated to a mere 22, 000 in the year 1514. By the year 1542 they were reduced to 200 individuals, rendering them virtually extinct. The consequences of Columbus’ policies indirectly led to an absolute extermination of an entire culture.…
“With the dawn of the 16th century, there came together in Europe both the motivation and the means to explore and colonize territory across the sea.”…
Author John Ehle has written a book that follows the struggles of the early Cherokee people that were torn between the ways of their ancestors and the new régimes that some of their people want to follow. The Cherokee people were confused with how to adapt to their surroundings and to claim their own rights that the current government was denying to them. In the Trail of Tears, Ehle uses many different people and the historic accounts of their actions to tell the story of tragic and unfair deals made with the Cherokee people by the United States. One of the main historical figures Mr. Ehle centers upon is Major Ridge. He tells of Major Ridge's ideas and hopes that would lead his people to prosperity. The United States government is closely analyzed; specifically pertaining to how the government neglected to help the Cherokee people become more efficient for themselves and not protecting them from other land greedy states.…
When English colonists first arrived to the New World, the Native American Indians were curious yet kind to these “white men”. However, as time passed the colonists’ hunger for more land grew stronger. They began to take advantage of the Indians by signing treaties that were not completely understood by the natives. Consequently, a brave Indian took upon the initiative to protect their properties. Tecumseh, leader of the Shawnee, began his quest to put a stop to American greed by uniting the molested tribes to defend their lands.…
The early 1600s brought the first European settlers to the Americas, and on arriving they found the land inhabited by thousands of Native Americans. The colonists' lack of knowledge about the land and people led to a series of disputes to ensure the colonists' safety. Unfortunately, this eventually led to genocide, an act of hatred directed towards the natives, but undeniable because overtime the colonists began to kill for sport rather then defense against the Indians' attacks.…
In the first half of the book it explores the main argument of colonization of Jamestown within the broader view of English exploration. It begins in the Elizabethan Era, exploring the mixture of religion, economic growth, and political standpoints that led to English people to imagine the opportunity to split monopolies of Spain and other uprising countries. For example, “In the 1550’s English merchants organized companies to initiate trade with Morocco and with Guinea on the west coast of Africa, hoping to penetrate the Portuguese monopoly there. Another company was founded to pioneer a route to Muscovy as a means of gaining access to the East and its commodities” pg. (23). It also led to efforts in the Northern American territories such as the ill-fate “Roanoke Colony”. Little by little, English developed a stockpile of overseas experience that helped them understand the world better and what was needed to sustain long-term efforts in colonization.…
Before the Europeans made contact with the Native Americans that had already came up with their own thoughts and beliefs towards them. The Europeans felt superior to all other people and cultures that weren’t their own. It was as if their way of life was the only way to be and live. This way of thinking is basically to otherize a person or group of people. The Europeans had never encountered the Native Americans before but they imagine them to be barbaric because they did not seem to have a form of government and had what they felt was too much freedom.…
One seemingly very appealing idea to the Europeans was to conquer new land and expand their own. Fray Bartolome de las Casas, the Bishop of Chiapas, angrily describes the invasion of Europeans into New Spain to show their inhumane nature. Fray tells how they murdered people on the pretense of settling the land; this describes their want for conquest. In document 5, the author similarly describes the horrific actions of the Spaniards but in a rather somber tone, to depict the expansion hungry side of the Europeans. Again the Europeans are shown conquering new land. Guaman Poma de Ayala, a bilingual Quechua Indian, angrily informs King Philip the III about the overpowering Europeans who have taken control of the Indians, and are ruining the labor force and Indian nobility. As told by Guaman, the Europeans are attempting to conquer Indian land as well. Conquest and expansion proved to be one of the driving causes behind European journeys to the new world, and benefited the Europeans. One thing that was hurting them however was the expansion the Ottoman Empire and their capture of Constantinople, which cut off trade routes with Asia. So they were forced to find another method to obtain resources.…
1. Three arguments’ that Juan Gines de Sepulveda used to justify enslaving the Native Americans were for gold, ore deposits, and for God’s sake and man’s faith in him. 2. Three arguments that Bartolome de las Casas gave in attacking Spanish clonial policies in the New World were the Indians eating human flesh, worshiping false gods, and also, he believed that the Indians were cowardly and timid. 3. For comparisons that Sepulveda used, in lines 1-7, to express the inferiority of the Indians was their prudence, skill virtues, and humanity were inferior to the Spanish as children to adults, or even apes to men. Comparisons he used to dismiss the significance of the Indians “Ingenuity for various works of artisanship” were the animals, birds, and spiders that could make things humans could not replicate. In either situation, there was no appropriateness. 4. Las Casas may have weekened his case by requiring that the Spanish must restore what had been taken unjustly from the Indians because the Spanish ultimately modernized them and if they were given back what had been taken, they would again become ‘retro’. If the Indians had been given back their bow and arrows, then they would have no use for them because they have guns. 5. The bias that Las Casas expressed in the last paragraph in his book was that Muslims are savages.…
The Iberian powers were able to establish and maintain colonial empires in the Americas for so long based on luck. There was no way to foresee the outcome of each conquest. There were a few times that the battles could have gone either way. It is commonly argued that the Iberians were able to colonize easily because they were “civilized men” while the natives were “barbarians”. (Restall 132) The real culprits were military prowess, strategic thinking, Iberian disease, and lack of a unified community.…
In the early settlement of America, disease and forced labor played a significant role. In the Spanish colonies from Florida and Southward, smallpox took an enormous toll on the conquerors and the native peoples. The so-called “black legend” regarding the Spanish and Portuguese was actually somewhat true, but also somewhat misleading. The concept held that “the conquerors merely butchered or tortured the Indians (‘killing for Christ’), stole their gold, infected them with smallpox, and left little but misery behind.” (Kennedy, p. 23) All of this was actually true – but that wasn’t all the conquerors did, and is therefore the error of the “black legend”. The Spanish and Portuguese conquerors built an enormous empire that spanned two continents. It was not just bad traits that they brought with them – they brought good things too, like culture. Soon, their culture would be integrated into the native societies, including the conquerors’ language, laws, and religion.…
Although often viewed as inferior, savage and helpless, many historians are starting to discover the intelligence and wisdom the Indians had and shared with the colonists that came to America so long ago. As the settlers slowly began to create a new world on the already inhabited North America, they were plagued with starvation due to a severe drought in the area. Due to the dry lands and the settlers expectations to “rely on Indians for food and tribute,” (Norton 17) they were disappointed to find that the Indians were not so keen to handing out food and help to the strangers that have just come onto their land and begun to settle in such a time of severe weather and starvation. As time goes on, both the Indians and the Englishmen realize they both have what the other needs; tools from the white men and crops, land and knowledge from the Indians. As a result, the chief of Tsenacomoco, Powhatan, and colonist, Captain John Smith on an ideally peaceful, mutualistic relationship to ensure the survival of both civilizations. This agreement will leave the groups in cahoots for 100 of years leading to some disastrous scenarios and betrayals.…
The other important point, as evidence from the Columbus’ and Cortes’ reports, Europeans wanted to subjugate the natives by imposing their cultural and religious value to them. Their goal was to partake of new resources that they are exposed to convert these people, either forcefully or voluntarily, as suggested in both, the Columbus’ Journal, “ As I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, . . .” and the Cortes’ Letter, “. . . and I forbade them sacrificing human beings to their idols as they had…
In the second chapter, Crosby gives his argument on how the Europeans were able to conquer the Americas so easily. Fatal diseases and high mortality-rate among the indigenous native were the key killers in the new world. He gives many examples from primary source evidence such as journals and statements by the European conquistadors and missionaries.…