ipl-logo

How Did European Colonization Affect Native Americans

796 Words4 Pages

In 1540 to 1700, the Scientific Revolution occured, events and tools created during this time period would change life forever. First, the astrolabe and the compass were both technological advances created to help navigate and explore the world. Also, at this time Asian spices were huge, but Italy and Egypt controlled the trade routes to Asia. Then, explorers started to sail the world, finding new routes and lands. Lastly, Christopher Columbus tried to sail to Asia in late 1492, but messed up on his way there and discovered the New World. European colonization changed the lives of Native Americans in the New World. Trade had a major effect on European and Native American lives. The Columbian trade was a huge success in both areas, but better for …show more content…

“Then there was great destruction of American Indians by war, disease, and killing work, and the importation of [African Slaves] into Spanish America was begun in order to fill the void in the labor market,” (Columbus, Document 5). This quote explains that Native Americans were dying from diseases, wars, and killing work that Europeans had to start buying slaves from Africa just to do the work of the dead Native Americans. Moreover, Native Americans did get sick, but the diseases weren’t as bad as the ones in Europe. A drastic population decrease happened from diseases which resulted in a small amount of Native Americans left. For one reason, it was common for rodents to get on ships and getting to the new land, and rodents can carry diseases. Another reason is that Native Americans weren’t immune to these diseases and when the diseases came to the New World, their immune system and body's weren’t ready for it. Furthermore, Columbus wrote that wars had also started between them, these wars happened from land and other reasons. After Native Americans started to die, Europeans brought African slaves to replace the Native

Show More
Related
316 Words | 2 Pages

The Columbian exchange was obviously a huge part of American history, and had huge impacts for both the European colonists and the Native Americans. The appearance of the colonists had both negative and positive effects on the native people, while the native people as well created benefits and setbacks for the Europeans. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, and malaria killed many Native Americans. The natives immune systems were not strong enough to handle them. The Europeans were also affected by disease, as they had never been exposed to some illnesses that the Native Americans passed on to them, such as syphilis.

Read More
184 Words | 1 Pages

I completely agree disease was the key factor in the depopulation of Native-Americans in the Americas for the following reasons 1-These illnesses, such as Influenza, measles, chicken pox, mums, typhus, and smallpox known as European disease are infectious disease that spread in contact. Even though we have more sophisticated antibiotic today, doctors still struggle to treat them. It is understandable at the time of the Native American that those illnesses were fatal because the sanitation was very poor, and the health care was far developed. As a result millions died.

Read More
1296 Words | 6 Pages

In fact, “Native Americans died in appalling numbers, in many cases up to 90 percent of the population.” The diseases were at its worst in the Aztec and Inca Empires since the people lived close together. However, in the old world, disease related deaths were not nearly as prevalent as in the Americas. The reason for this difference is that the Native Americans had no domesticated animals (except llamas), which resulted in no acquired immunities to old world diseases.

Read More
380 Words | 2 Pages

The impact of the Columbian Exchange on Native American Indians in North America during the sixteenth century was that the Indians were evicted from their homelands, given diseases, and brought into a new culture that was difficult for them to adapt to. The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of new plants, animals, diseases, human populations, technology, religious beliefs, and other ideas between the triangular trade of countries America, Africa, and Europe. The trade was beneficial to the Europeans but became a death sentence for the Native American Indians. As the European urge to move to the Americas and the spread of colonization increased the willingness of the Indians to share their lands and resources decreased.

Read More
453 Words | 2 Pages

Linking the eastern and western hemispheres, the Columbian exchange affected the Americas by introducing lethal diseases, leading to negative demographic, economic, and social effects, however, it also introduced many new crops and domesticated animals which helped lead to a large increase in food supply and transportation. With the introduction of the Columbian exchange, many goods were traded between the old world and the new world. However, a consequence of this is the upbringing of new diseases that the new world has never interacted with before. The new world being isolated from the rest of the world had not built-up immunity to the diseases the Conquistadors brought with them from urban areas. Therefore, diseases such as smallpox caused demographic changes by ravaging the lives of countless indigenous societies, and increasing the mortality rate, taking credit for eliminating 90% of the indigenous population.

Read More
1301 Words | 6 Pages

Another negative effect of the Columbian Exchange was the disease that it brought to the New World, which was a leading cause of widespread death throughout the area. When the Europeans sailed across the Atlantic, they brought all of the germs that were native to the Old World, such as smallpox and tuberculosis, with them. The Europeans were not affected by this, as they had already developed an immunity to these bacteria. The natives, however, were impacted greatly by the germs that were brought to their homeland, for they had never seen viruses like the ones brought aboard European ships. Diseases spread quickly amongst indigenous peoples, killing, in some places, 100% of a population as they travelled from person to person.

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

All of the trading caused an extremely negative impact on the Americas. All of the new diseases that were introduced cause major problems for the natives there. The native Americans welcomed the invaders with open arms because they were unaware of the diseases they carried. Due to their tolerance for the diseases they brought, the Europeans did not give much thought to or concern about the risks they posed to the locals. Nearly over 90% of Native Americans perished due to the smallpox, influenza, and other virus

Read More
318 Words | 2 Pages

When Europeans came to America, life of Native Americans changed drastically. The Europeans stole their land, brought disease, and gained possession of all of their resources. Native American’s lives were dramatically changed. The Native American’s who lived on the coast were affected first. They were usually either killed, captured or made ill by diseases the Europeans brought.

Read More
761 Words | 4 Pages

These people brought diseases that these native peoples didn’t have immunities to or even ways to treat these diseases with medication or other ways that were used. Examples of diseases that were spread are measles, influenza, whooping cough, small pox and mumps. These diseases soon turned into childhood diseases that were believed to have killed around ¼-½ of children before the age of 6 years old. Also because of these diseases lots of crops died that were important to the natives daily lives. All of this caused many problems and changes to the environment which in turn negatively affected these people.

Read More
568 Words | 3 Pages

But not all of these cultural impacts were good. The first Europeans that the Natives met were Columbus and his people then of course more and more showed up but they all had the same impact on the Natives. The first impact was the Natives population. The europeans drastically decreased the Native Americans population.

Read More
654 Words | 3 Pages

It is estimated that approximately 95% of pre-Columbus Native Americans were killed by European diseases. Since the outbreak of the diseases spread because of the European colonization, it made conquering the Americas much easier. Health was definitely the most detrimental obstacle that the Native Americans had to face as a result of the European

Read More
903 Words | 4 Pages

When the colonists arrived they somewhat knowingly spread illnesses to the unsuspecting Native Americans. “Several proven instances confirm that European settlers sometimes purposefully exterminated natives with pathogens.” (Gindin) As stated in the quote, these people were clearly knowing about the fact that these illnesses being brought overseas were extremely deadly to the Native Americans whose bodies had never been exposed to the different diseases and had no time to build up a tolerance/immune system to them as they killed so

Read More
1169 Words | 5 Pages

As the Europeans found native along the coasts of the New World, they found them easily malleable and able to be used, so they enslaved them and those who fought back were wiped out. Europeans, as well as the Africans, had built up a resistance to many diseases such as smallpox and were therefore not really affected as much by the diseases if they became sick. However, the Native Americans had not had contact with the disease and it quickly spread rapidly and slowly helped the Spanish rid themselves of the natives so they could take control of the land. Geoffrey Cowley offers insight on just how profound the effect of smallpox was when he writes, “ ...When the newcomers arrived carrying mumps, measles, whooping cough, smallpox, cholera, gonorrhea and yellow fever, the Indians were immunologically

Read More
598 Words | 3 Pages

However, the Columbian exchange didn’t always benefit both the Native Americans and the Europeans. Diseases were also exchanged, specifically to the Native Americans. Whether the exchanges were positive or negative, the Columbian exchange had a huge global effect, both immediately after the exchange and long-term. The Columbian exchange caused inflation in Europe, change in hunting habits of Native Americans,change in farming habits within Europe, and a large decrease of Native American populations.

Read More
117 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More

More about How Did European Colonization Affect Native Americans

Open Document