How The Painful Result Of British Colonialism

The Painful Result of British Colonialism A study by National Geographic suggest that when New England colonists first arrived at Plymouth rock in 1620, the population of Native Americans was 18 million; by the year 1622, almost 90% of the population had been eliminated. It all began when the New England colonists landed on Plymouth in 1620. The colonists had started to build a colony when they met Massasoit. Massasoit and a man known as William Bradford created a peace treaty between the natives and the colonists. Over time, the colonists and the native people lived in peace, but the Colonists started to become greedy and power hungry when the peace treaty was broken. Once the treaty was broken, the natives were being harassed and treated poorly by the colonists. There were many ways Natives were affected by colonialism, but some of the more known ways that natives were impacted by colonialism were that they were affected by disease, forced to give up their land, and eventually became second hand citizens.
The first way Native Americans were affected by colonialism was that the diseases the British colonists brought with them killed off most of the Native American population.
In the PBS documentary ‘WE SHALL REMAIN- AFTER THE MAYFLOWER¨, the narrator says British disease caused the death of 90% of the Native population. This shows us that before the British had gotten here the Natives were just fine and it was only after the British had settled that Natives started suffering. Not only that but Natives had no sorts of immunity since they had never been exposed to smallpox and other diseases that the British had brought. Also because of the many encounters that the Natives had with the British resulted in Natives catching the diseases and taking it back to their
tribes. Secondly was that the Natives were manipulated by the British into giving them land. In the PBS documentary ‘WE SHALL REMAIN- AFTER THE MAYFLOWER’ the narrator states that “Colonists would provide Natives with healthcare then later the colonists would charge them land in order to pay for the healthcare”. I say it was manipulation because the Colonists would only tell the Natives what the price was until it was too late to back out of the price. Not only that but the Natives had trusted the Colonists and for the Colonists to be charginig Natives with land was plainly taking advantage of that trust. It was not fair to the Natives to have to pay with land for healthcare with land because they had to move out of said land in order for the colonists to move in. As colonists started to expand their territory they started to treat Natives like second class citizens. In the PBS documentary ‘WE SHALL REMAIN- AFTER THE MAYFLOWER’ Philip [the son of the deceased chief] says “ the English should treat us as we treated the english when we were too strong for the English.” this means that the English are giving no respect to the Natives because the tables have turned and the English now have more power than the Natives. We also discover that Natives couldn’t even follow their own religion. They had to convert to christianity if they wanted to live in towns instead of tribes. It’s obvious now that Colonists weren’t as kind as the history books say they were. In retrospect we can see that Native people were drastically affected by the strange diseases brought by the colonists. Not only that by they also had to give up their land in order to pay for healthcare. To make matters worse by the third year after colonists arrived at Plymouth rock 90% of the Native population was gone. Imagine that for a good minute; what if aliens finally come to visit earth but instead of just visiting they decide to colonize here with their strange disease and need for land they’ll probably do what the colonists did to the Natives and in this scenario we happen to be the Natives.