had appreciated the Indians’ knowledge of the land and hospitality. Plus, the Europeans often focused on the differences between the Indians and themselves, which in turn affected how they treated the Indians. The Indians experienced firsthand how the Europeans used violence as a means to create the New World. The fact that the Indians came into contact with many nationalities that were unbeknownst to them, each one quite different from the other but all wanting what the Indians possessed, and the fact that the Indians survived all of these experiences and changes during this time period, is in my opinion quite remarkable.
The story of the Indian-European contact would have differed greatly had the Indians been better able to resist the diseases brought forth by the Europeans.
Massive epidemics of smallpox, influenza, yellow fever, diphtheria, measles, and mumps had a definite toll on the native inhabitants who lacked immunities to these diseases that were common in Europe. Often, these airborne diseases would reach the Indians well before they even met the Europeans who brought these very diseases with them. If the Indians had been more resistant to such diseases, then few would have died as a result, quite opposite of what unfortunately happened. A greater resistance would then have meant that the Indians would have had greater numbers to defend themselves and their territories during the upcoming battles, and they could of maintained an independent existence from the Europeans. Thus, the Europeans would not have found entire towns and/or tribes completely wiped out due to the Indians’ inability to fight the diseases brought over from their own countries, and the Indians would not have had a demographic weakness that allowed the various European groups to conquer their lands and extend their rule over …show more content…
them.
The new diseases brought over by the Europeans were not the only sufferings the Indians’ had to deal with; they also had to deal with how the different European nationalities treated them. For example, the Dutch treated the Indians with respect and friendship at first. They seemed to want to co-inhabit the land with the Indians. While the Dutch found the Indians to be generous and helpful, they slowly began to use their friendship to obtain more and more land, until they basically stripped the Indians of their own land completely. However, most European nationalities found the Indians to be inferior people and people to enslave from the onset. For example, the colonists from South Carolina viewed the Catawba tribe as slaves, poor servants, and very unpleasant to live nearby. They also misunderstood the Indians’ concept of hospitality, and instead viewed them as drunks, beggars, and thieves. Colonists from other areas within America saw the Indians as a means to make money, and would often kidnap Indians, especially the women and children, with the sole intent to sell them. However, there were other colonists who did not see the Indians as a threat, but rather more as friends that could help them survive in this new world and that they could frequently trade with and socialize with. Thus, it was very difficult for the Indians to completely understand the motives and personalities of the new foreigners, as they experienced a multitude of attitudes displayed towards them.
Undoubtedly, how the Europeans treated the Indians had a direct correlation to what differences the Europeans perceived and focused on between the two groups. The different perceptions regarding the Indians date all the way back to Christopher Columbus’ time. Columbus described the Indians as naked, not extremely fit, possessing subtle wit, and a very timorous, nervous people. He focused on the Indians being ill-prepared for battle and the fact that they could be easily overtaken by the stronger, more prepared European military. Similarly, many Europeans after Columbus’ time also had expressed the same sentiments, stating that the Indians were ill-prepared and lacked knowledge in warfare and defense tools. They frequently noted how uncivilized the Indians were and how they lacked common knowledge of modern technologies. However, Columbus also perceived and described the Indians as very generous, loving people who would give anything that was asked for. Other Europeans similarly complimented the Indians for their generosity and noted how the Indians often gave them their own precious stones and metals and kept them fed rather than let them die from starvation.
The female Indian work ethic was often noticed as well, with many Europeans, including Christopher Columbus and the English Puritans, believing the Indian women to be better and harder workers and possessing many more personable qualities than the Indian males. Europeans noticed that even in the winter, the Indian women continued to work non-stop to procure and prepare food, often times doubling their workload (even if pregnant), while the men remained lazy and didn’t help with the necessary matters. The Indian women were also viewed as exceptional gardeners and very smart. For example, Europeans admired how the native women stored their corn in camouflaged holes in the ground to both protect it and to prevent their greedy husbands from eating it too quickly. It is likely because of these very perceptions that Europeans, such as the Portuguese, saw money signs when observing female Indians and the opportunity to exploit these hard workers. Interestingly, Europeans noted how the Indian women were quite the opposite of the European females. Plus, many of the same Europeans saw the Indian men as using their wives and holding the women to subjectivity, whereas they prided in themselves as equally sharing the workload and treating their own women in a kind and fair manner.
Because many Europeans perceived Indians to be weak and ill-prepared, and because they wanted the Indians’ vast land for their own, violence played a huge role in the formation of the New World.
One form of violence was between the Europeans and the Indians. It is well documented that the Spanish butchered, beat, and killed countless Indians in order to secure territory. In general, all of the various European nationalities used their advantages in war tactics to force the Indians off of their own lands and onto lands that they were unfamiliar with. This in turn caused the Indians a great amount of hardship, because they now did not know the best places to hunt, or to gather berries, or to garden, or where to build their homesteads. By using violence to force the Indians to move away from their familiar homelands, the Europeans also caused a breakdown of the reciprocal tribal relationships. Thus the violence caused everyone to recreate new social structures and to conform to new ways of
living.
In addition to this, as the Indians increasingly desired European goods, weapons, and tools, there also became an increase in a different kind of violence, that being intertribal warfare. The various tribes were now competing against each other to provide Europeans deer skins and even human beings, in order to obtain desired items. Plus, there was the violence that stemmed from the southern plantation owners. For example, as southern plantations in North America grew larger and larger, the owners used violence to overtake the Catawba lands by destroying the Indians’ hunting weapons, confiscating their goods, and threatening them with their lives. After years of violence in its many forms between the colonists and the Indians, the Indians finally saw the futility in resistance and surrendered to the European dominance. This ultimately led to the U.S. government formation of Indian designated parcels of land.
Finally, it is important to note that this period is defined not by conquest of one group over another, but rather by contact among many groups. For example, the Indians first met Spaniards in the late 1400s with the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The early 1500s saw Spanish conquistadors arrive at the Aztec and Inca empires. Spanish explorers also penetrated North America by means of the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River. An account of the Dutch arriving on Manhattan Island and making return visits was recorded by Reverend John Heckewekder. English settlers made northeastern U.S. their home in the 1600s. Europeans brought Africans with them to the Carolinas and Virginia. France established a colony by the St. Lawrence River in the 1600s as well. Though conquests did indeed occur, what truly defines this period is the fact that all of these groups made contact with one another and that there was a crossing of cultural patterns, ideas, and ways of living.
Recovering from major diseases, experiencing brutal violence and upheavals, making new contacts with multiple nationalities, and changing and adapting to new ways of living were just some of the aspects that characterized the Indians’ lives during this period. Not many could blend the Europeans’ new ways with their own old ways and create a life for themselves. Yet that is just what the Indians did. They created a life for themselves in The New World.