The Europeans were the ones to initiate the human encounter seeing that Columbus accidently stumbled upon America. To the natives, the Europeans were strangers, invaders that they saw as threats, causing them to go into a defensive state. The Natives responded in multiple ways based on factors such as: “perceived nature, power and stance of the European challengers” (Axtell 100). In order to maintain the status quo ante, the natives attempted at using five strategies: incorporating the Europeans, beating them, joining them, copying their ways, and avoiding them altogether. The Europeans were seen as “equal or superior” in the native’s eyes “powerful and potentially dangerous “persons,” animated “souls” like their own, or “gods,” “spirits” from the heavens (Axtell 101).
Lastly, the European conquest affected the indigenous population negatively because their establishments were destroyed. When Moteuczuma was killed the most powerful empire came to an end. The images from the Lienzo of Tlaxcala clearly display how the indigenous population renounced their own spiritual beliefs to embrace the religious beliefs of the Europeans. (Mesoamerican Voices, p.45) Although image 3.3a shows Malinche gracefully being baptized, the reality of the indigenous population is that they loss many people and suffered many injustices.
“Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England” was published in 1983 by historian William Cronon. The book focuses on environmentalism and history of New England. Cronon describes the shift from Indian to European dominance, the European’s view of nature through an economic lens, and the anthropogenic changes to the environment that occured. Throughout the book, Cronon argues that the European colonists used various tactics to assert dominance over the Indians.
Europeans brought deadly diseases with them that caught on to the Aztec and the Inca empires, and all the native people in North and South America died. The Europeans got rid of all the Aztec and Incas Empires. “It was this zealous hunt for gold that drove the Spanish conquistadors throughout Latin America, where they would vanquish the Aztec and Incan Empires, just as they had done to the people in the Caribbean. Spanish conquistadors throughout Latin America, where they would vanquish the Aztec and Incan Empires, just as they had done to the people in the Caribbean.” The European Imperialists did similar things to the Aztec and Inca Empires as they did to the
When analyzing the development of the Americas, people often overlook the fact that simple geography and environment was one of, if not the biggest influences in shaping the future of the Americas after colonization. For example, The geography and environment of the coastal colonies impacted the settlers’ very way of life. The most prominent geographical differences that affected colonial development and growth were between the Northern and Southern regions. The middle region contained environmental factors from both the North and South and consequently was less radical in the way that it shaped colonial development. The Northern and Southern areas differed and as the way of life in these regions shifted to adapt to the environment, one prominent
When Amerigo Vespucci first “discovered” America, he was surprised to find inhabitants there who already had a developed culture. When the Spaniards, French, and English came and began to inhabit the area, the long history of injustices against Native Americans began. Starting from the encomienda system, to the Indian Removal, the settlers began to subjugate the Native Americans. Soon, when America began to obtain lands in California and Texas, settlers began to believe in the idea of Manifest Destiny. This idea convinced the settlers into believing that they had a right to the land in the West and began to industrialize there.
The Amazon Rain forest is losing its natural landscape more and more as the loggers who are cutting down trees and removing its importance to the world. Cattle ranchers are also a big problem to the amazon rain forest because they are removing land just for the cattle to have more space. About 20% of the world's fresh air is found coming from the Amazon Rainforest also the environmentalist are helping the Amazon a lot by letting tourist to learn about the rainforest and the donations and money they receive goes to the rain forest so they can help the amazon survive this terrible crime. The Environmentalist want to help by slowing down the clearing of the rainforest.
Prior to the discovery of the New World by Europeans, Native Americans populated what is presently North and South America in massive numbers; however, due to massive population loss, mainly caused by diseases introduced by Europeans and Africans, the Native Americans were unfortunately forced to live as inferiors to the Europeans. A major issue that faced native populations of the New World was the fact that the Europeans introduced foreign animals that carried diseases the natives had never seen before. Specifically in Mexico and Peru, the natives had alpacas and llamas in small and isolated groups, so diseases were not able to originate in them [McNeil 178]. On the other hand, the animals that the Europeans brought over, such as cattle,
Historians differ on what they think about the net result of the European arrival in the New World. Considering that the Columbian Exchange, which refers to “exchange of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492,” led to possibly tens of millions of deaths on the side of the American Indians, but also enabled agricultural and technological trade (Henretta et al. 42), I cannot help but reflect on whether the effects should be addressed as a historical or a moral question. The impact that European contact had on the indigenous populations of North America should be understood as a moral question because first, treating it as a historical question is difficult due to lack of reliable historical evidence; second, the meaning of compelling historical claims is contestable as the academic historian perspective tends to view the American Indian oral history as invalid; and finally, what happened to the native Indians is morally repulsive and must be discussed as such. The consequences of European contact should be answered as a moral question because historically, it is hard to be historically objective in the absence of valid and dependable historical evidence.
Canada had very similar foreign policy to that of Woodrow Wilson’s missionary diplomacy because Canada also used the idea of promoting democracy to secure and further their economic expansion. Todd Gordon’s and Jefferey Webber’s book, Canadian Imperialism in Latin America, argues that the Canadian government justified intervention in the Latin America because they wanted to promote democracy, but really, the Canadian government was just interested in the expansion of its markets in the Andes. Gordon and Webber agree that democracy promotion was one of the United States’ key foreign policy strategies in the world and as Latin American countries started to nationalize their domestic industries and created policies to push Canadian corporations
The development of agriculture and the rise of industrialization generated new cultures and innovations in the new world. Native people in early America developed cultural distinct , men were in charge of the fishing, hunting, jobs that were more exposed to violence, and the women stayed closed to the village, farming, and child bearing. The way of life possessed by natives Americans did not compel them to conquer and transform new land. As opposed to European colonizers, Native Americans subscribed to a more “animistic” understanding of nature. In which they believed that plants and animals are not commodities, they are something to be respected rather than used.
The Colombian exchange created a great cultural impact on The Americas which can be seen even today. Wiping out up to ninety percent of Native Americans, the settlers that came to America created a biological imperialism on another scale. The demand from European countries for exportation quickly created a market that settlers could benefit from and Native Americans could not compete with. Deforestation started on a massive scale due to the high availability of lumber, and seas quickly started to be depleted of fish. The introduction of livestock and agriculture created an environmental revolution.
When the Europeans came over, they brought diseases and wars which caused the Native American populations have a sharp decline. This happened because the diseases were killing off millions of Natives while wars between the Native Americans and Europeans cause more Natives to be killed because the weapons that the Europeans had were more advanced than the Native American weapons. This allowed for Europeans to come to the Americas and colonize without much issue because of the lack of Native Americans that were trying to stop
The discoveries of land or groups of individuals may involve what modern individuals call colonization. Colonization is the ability to formulate control or power that enables the person to dominate the area or individuals into a colony they wish to construct. This form of formulating new colonies was constantly used by many individuals during the early 1500s. Individuals like Christopher Columbus and Hernan Cortes are seen as heroic individuals of history due to their colonizing experiences and discoveries. Although both of these two individuals are seen as heroes to numerous groups, their values and beliefs allowed their colonization’s to have a few contrasts and similarities.
While the colonization of the America’s was negative for many reasons such as the spread of illnesses, and the forcing of religion upon natives, it was also beneficial to the Native’s because it allowed them to have better weapons and to have different foods and goods in their lives. The Europeans exposed the Natives to many new diseases once they colonized the new areas they discovered. The Europeans greatly impacted the family life and religion of the inhabitants of the areas they found. There was also a lot of exchange going on during the conquest of the Americas because the Natives were excited by the new gadgets they had never seen before that the Europeans brought over.
