What Impact Did Guns And Steel Have On Native Americans

There have been debates over the years as to which aspect had the greatest impact on the Native peoples from the European explorers. Is it guns, germs, or steel? Over the years, a lot of the credit for European explorers being successful in the New World had been attributed to the advantages that they had, such as better weapons, being able to read, think critically and even the fact that they had horses.

Let us first explore the effects that guns and steel had on the Native peoples. Guns and steel, when mentioned, symbolize Europeans’ technological competencies. Metal swords, ships, armor, firearms, and livestock, gave European colonists exponential military advantages over Native American people holding bows and arrows, clubs, and spears.

Natives, because of the migration of Europeans to the New World also had horses to ride. Natives could now capture large herds of animals quicker, and with the guns, they could also kill them faster. Weapons had such a vast impact on the Native American culture that they soon became the most widely traded goods between Europeans and Natives. Natives cherished weapons because of the hunter-gatherer society they lived. Europeans had a ton of arms and felt that parting with them for Indian goods such as labor or crops was worth the price. Europeans used the native’s fascination with firearms to take advantage and exploit them. Europeans had such an advantage in manufactured goods, that Natives became dependent on them for stronger weapons, thus allowing the Europeans to receive more for the goods. These elements put together did give the Europeans an enormous advantage of the Native people, but I don’t believe them to be the elements that had the greatest impact. Based on research that was done, I am convinced that germs had the greatest impact. Weapons alone can't account for the breathtaking speed with which the indigenous population of the New World was completely wiped out. (Guns Germs & Steel: Variables. Smallpox | PBS

The Australian Aboriginals also suffered large losses from the disease in the 19th century. (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica 2017)

A PBS series released in 2005 titled “Guns, Germs and Steel” based on Jared Diamond’s book of the same name, quotes “Within just a few generations, the continents of the Americas were virtually emptied of their native inhabitants – some academics estimate that approximately 20 million people may have died in the years following the European invasion – up to 95% of the population of the Americas.” (Guns Germs & Steel: Variables. Smallpox | PBS 2005)

This is not to say that before the Europeans went to the new worlds that the native people were surviving for years with no diseases in their system. This is, in fact, untrue, there were diseases present before the Europeans appearance, however due to the fact that