Assignment 1: How The Environment Shaped Native American Culture

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1. The environment shaped Native American cultures and civilizations because the first Americans adapted to the land and evolved into hundreds of tribes, spoke different languages, and practiced different cultures. Because of this most of the cultures were based off nature and cultivation. The cultivation helped with trade and also helped feed the growing population. Along with the different cultures and languages, the language barrier helped develop their way of life.
2. Maize cultivation was a slow spread northward from Mexico, which caused the native societies to be smaller and less sophisticated. Although the maize cultivation was a slow spreading process, the maize was used for trade. The maize would be traded to help the higher population densities. Along with …show more content…

Native populations rapidly decreased after 1492 because of disease, enslavement, and war. When the Europeans traveled to the New World they brought diseases with them that caused many deaths. Also the Europeans wanted slaves to work for them so they didn’t have to do anything by themselves. War began to break out because of the many deaths happening. The most important cause of the decline was disease because it caused the most deaths and also one people were noticing the diseases they would move around trying to avoid it, but only to make it worse by infecting more people.
8. The encomienda system allowed the government to give Indians to certain colonists and that effected Native American populations. This system is essentially slavery, which the Indians didn’t like. The opponents were the Indians. And the supporters were the government and the Christians.
9. Being in groups was the effect of the rigid caste system by the Spanish in the Americas. These groups were based off of your family. For example the more money your family had the higher you were place. And same if you had little to no money, you were placed lower in the system. The higher your family was, the better you were