Differences Between Europeans And Indigenous People

Europeans and Native Americans have historically been separated from each other for over 10,000 years. The first major encounter they had was when Christopher Columbus arrived on the shores of Bahamas in 1492. What kept the Americas and The Europeans separated for so long? And what did the encounter lead too?

This historically bad treatment of Natives Americans, was common in many of the European colonies of the Americas and was often used as propaganda for the competing European powers to create criticism and animosity towards the Spanish Empire. From the perspective of history and the colonization of the Americas, all of the European powers that colonized the Americas, such as England, Portugal, the Netherlands and others, were guilty of the same atrocities towards the Native Americans. Colonial powers have all been accused of massacring the natives in the Americas. The type of propaganda has been employed for centuries and in every country. We have even heard this from our parents, those people are no good because they

When thinking of the Spanish Conquest, two groups often come to mind: the Spaniards and the Native Americans. The roles of each of these groups and their encounters have been so heavily studied that often the role of Africans is undermined. As Matthew Restall states in his article Black Conquistadors, the justifications for African contribution are often “inadequately substantiated if not marginalized [as the] Africans were a ubiquitous and pivotal part of the Spanish conquest campaigns in the Americas […]” (Restall 172). Early on in his article, Restall characterizes three categories of Africans present during the Conquest – mass slaves, unarmed servants of the Spanish, and armed auxillaries (Restall 175). Estebanico, the protagonist of The

Upon the first colonial establishments, the Europeans viewed Native Americans as uncultured, unintelligent, and uncivilized. The first colonizers found themselves ultimately superior to the perceived rudimentary cultural and societal customs that were observed. Native Americans viewed Europeans as a strictly one sided cultural mass enforcement foreign establishment, stopping at nothing to enforce their perceived superiority in all forms of cultural and societal aspects. Differences in land use, gender roles, and societal history added to the wedging and hostility between the Native Americans and European people.

Upon the uncovering of the of the America’s by the European super powers, most of the native American tribes were quickly captured. The question arises as to why the Europeans conquered the Americans and not the other way around. Europe was able to prosper and grow while the indigenous groups of the Americas stayed in the past. European success over American tribes was attributed to the fact that the Europeans possessed more advanced technologies and skills that could be used against natives, Europeans were literate and could record knowledge and events easily, and the European diseases brought over were devastating to the unprepared indian populations.

Imagine that the year is 1527, you are sailing along the Atlantic Ocean and suddenly you are told to get off the boat, and you’re left stranded near present-day Tampa-Bay, Florida. Believe it or not, this happened to a man named Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. He was part of an expedition led by a spanish conquistador Pánfilo de Narvaez, Narvaez wanted to settle the gulf coast. After an accidental landfall, Narvaez, de Vaca, and many others march inland in search of treasure ; they found nothing, and they were stranded there and forced to survive. This leads us to the question, how did Cabeza de Vaca survive? Cabeza de Vaca survived because of his wilderness skills, his success as a healer, and the respect he held for the Native Americans.

First of all, Native Americans were settled on a hotbed of natural resources which included oil and precious metals such as silver and gold. There was also much fertile land that would entice farmers and frontiersmen to move out west. On this land there was so much potential economic opportunity for farmers, cattle drivers, miners and many other occupations. The government developed the popular public misconception that the indians were misusing the land and that Americans had the right to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in the west. These ideas led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which authorized encroachment of Indian lands by the US government in order to divide up reservations and control Indian activity. The government tried to force assimilation on Native Americans as well as an attempt to “kill the indian, save the man.” These ideas and policies are similar to those popular during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Jackson developed a sense of ‘paternalism’ towards indians and believed he was saving them by forcing them to live out west of the Mississippi river away from white culture. The difference was that Jackson did not believe in assimilation of indians into white culture, he believed they should be kept separate. With the help of the Federal government removing indians from land west of the Mississippi, Americans were

It’s not a coincidence that every year on the second Monday of October, students have a day off from school. That day is used to commemorate Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the Americas. Christopher Columbus and many other explores departed from Europe seeking to discover new land. This time in history became know as the Age of Exploration. Historians debate whether the Age of Exploration is as great as it is said to be. There were several downsides to the Age of Exploration. This time period in history should clearly be remembered, but not celebrated due diseases that traveled and killed millions, and the unfair treatment of native peoples.

These differences were also smaller details under the larger ideas of barbarianism, new cultures, and the even bigger idea of inhumanity. The Spanish saw the Native Americans as slaves because they showed to be hard laborers and gave into the Spanish power. The Native Americans had a natural knack for manual tasks, so much that most Spaniards compared them to insects because both insects and Native Americans could do certain tasks that normal humans, such as high class Spaniards, could not. The Spaniards would never do such work as they believed that work was meant for slaves. When the Spanish took over the Aztec capital city, Sepúlveda remarks of how the Native Americans were “oppressed and fearful at the beginning.” The Native Americans were seen as weak willed, for they barely resisted the conquest of their homes. If the Native Americans showed no incentive of retaliating and were better at manual work, it seemed natural to the Spanish that they be enslaved. The Native Americans, on the other hand, saw the Spanish in a different light as well as they watched many Spaniards become obsessed with gold. The Spanish were given Gold as gifts and went crazy just holding it and lusting for more, like savage monkeys. The Spanish, by nature, couldn’t help but become greedy monsters for gold, because in Europe riches were equivalent to power. They could care less about how the Native Americans acquired the gold; all that mattered was that they had it, and the Spanish could take it. These differences in detail are just fragments of the overall beliefs both groups shared, which were barbarianism and inhumanity. Therefore these differences are far less significant than the

Many Europeans believed that they were superior to other cultures. They had a mindset that they were more deserving and more civilized than other peoples. This caused problems between the Europeans and other cultures. When the Europeans arrived in America, there was no hostility between the groups, but as time went on this European mentality caused many conflicts between the different cultures in the New World.

I believe that the Spanish conquest was quite effective because they achieve their goal of establishing territorial gains. The Spanish also demolished one of earliest civilization in history. In the book it mentions that the Maya knew not to go against the Spanish Masters because their military was much stronger than the Mayan warriors. There were very much loss with the Mayan Empire because of the conquest itself.

From 1400 to 1700 C.E. the Europeans began explorations into the new world and made settlements in the Americas. The explorers included Columbus, Magellan, and Cortez, and they are known in this era also known as the Age of Exploration. One of the European countries to first explore was Spain; however, the Spanish were not, one would say, good house guests. The Spanish saw the natives as inferior and In need of Christianity. The settlers mistreated the natives even though the laws back in Spain declared justice in dealing with the natives. the Spanish saw the natives abundance of gold and that they were not Christian, and they felt justified in mistreating them because they thought they were helping them religiously

The relationships between the three major settlers and the Native Americans differed in many ways. All the evidence needed is in the seven documents shown. Each of the documents provides insight to one of the three nationalities. It is fair to assume that the English were focused more on friendship, the Spanish set their eyes on the gold, and the French were insistent on converting the Native Americans to Christianity.

Hook. After just two months after the Narvaez expedition, the treasurer of the Narvaez expedition, Cabeza de Vaca, landed on Galveston Island along with 250 other castaways. Their dreams of colonization and riches had morphed into a quest for survival. However, the real question is: How did Cabeza de Vaca survive? Cabeza de Vaca survived because of his wilderness skills, his success as a healer and his respect for the Native Americans.

It is quite surreal that one can survive for two years in the wilderness. On the rafts that drifted from Panfilo de Narvaez’s ship, there were many people who did not survive. Those people became weak and they lost their minds. The amount of people remaining was four in a year, and one of the four was Cabeza de Vaca. Then that leads to the question: How did Cabeza de Vaca survive? Cabeza de Vaca survived because of his success as a healer, his wilderness skills, and most importantly his respect for Native Americans.