European Colonization of North America Historical Essay Example

📌Category: History
📌Words: 1093
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 23 January 2022

As early as 1492, Europeans began to colonize North America after Columbus re-discovered the Continent. The Native Americans were a surprise to the Europeans, but the Europeans often times did not regard them as people of the same class. At first, the Europeans treated the Native Americans with respect and niceties, trading with them and teaching them new things. In the end, things ended badly between the Europeans and the Natives, there were serious consequences for the way they colonized. While the Natives gained new skills and tools, the negative effects from the colonizers are too prominent to disregard. 

When the Europeans arrived in the Americas they were shocked to find people that lived there. Christopher Columbus thought he had made it to India, and thus called these Natives Indians, which could be deemed an offensive name. However, these people are believed to have come from a land bridge over twelve-thousand years ago. Archaeologists tell us that American Indians may have been on the North American continent for fifty thousand years. They were the first Americans, and they were great explorers, too” (Kincheloe).There has been some debate over how long the Natives have been on the continent, but we do know that these people did not come all at once. The Natives crossed the land bridge from Asia to the America’s in a time when they could only travel on foot or by boat, so the journey was not an easy one. They were originally hunter-gatherers of a nomadic culture, and the changes the Europeans brought were truly a shock. 

The Europeans came to America for several reasons, but they weren’t actually the first to find the country. The Vikings from Scandinavia, actually settled a colony in North America around the year 1000. They ended up abandoning the colony and so it was left to the natives again until Christopher Columbus came along in 1492. The British were the first to start settling a colony at this time, along the east coast of North America. The Spanish and Portuguese colonized a lot of South and Central America in the 16th century, and Spanish expeditions of the land began in the early 1540’s. However, most of the North American Settlers from this time were French or English.

Europeans didn’t just want to explore for the fun of it, they had legit reasons. Mostly they were looking for better trade routes with India. “In 1300s - 1400s people in western Europe searched for trading routes... because the old spice trade route was too hard and too long”(kids.kiddle.co). At the time the trade routes were controlled by Italian merchants who charged taxes to use the road, and the Europeans were tired of having to pay it so they decided to look for a direct trade route to Asia. Although trading was probably the main reason for exploration, different people had all kinds of motives. Spreading Christianity was another big reason for exploring, “...Europeans placed greater demands upon the native populations, including expecting them to convert to Christianity (either Catholicism or Protestantism)”(lumenlearning). There were tons of different reasons the Europeans came to America, the Renaissance, and fortunes and fame for all kinds of people. These were some of the main motives for explorers. 

Originally, the Europeans showed little-to-no hostility towards the Native Americans. “...[European colonizers] were initially more interested in cartography and trade than in physical conquest”(Britannica.com). The Europeans first introduced tools and materials to the natives around the 1500’s. “ In the 1500s, some of the earliest objects Europeans introduced to Indians were glass beads, copper kettles, and metal utensils. Native people often adapted these items for their own use. For example, some cut up copper kettles and refashioned the metal for other uses, including jewelry that conferred status on the wearer, who was seen as connected to the new European source of raw materials”(lumenlearning.com). Things were smooth for a while as the Europeans settled in, and the Natives eventually taught them how to grow things on the lands. This was how Thanksgiving came to be.

The Europeans colonizing actually had negative effects on the ecosystems in America. In one well-known instance, beaver-trimmed hats became exceedingly popular in Europe, and at the same time the Natives wanted more European weapons. Soon the beavers went extinct in New England, New York, and a few other areas. Without the beavers there were no beaver ponds, which would usually serve as habitats for fish, and also water sources for woodland animals. Which ultimately affected the environment. Europeans also introduced pigs, “which they allowed to forage in forests and other wildlands.”(Lumen learning). The pigs ate a lot of the food that woodland animals depended on, which ultimately led to a shortage of game. A lot of these animals that were in short supply were ones that Natives traditionally would hunt. This is just one example of the many ways Europeans negatively impacted the environment.

When the Europeans arrived, the natives didn’t have a concept of owning things, and especially not owning land. So when they claimed the land as their “property” it was a bit of a shock to the natives. “[The natives] viewed land as a resource to be held in common for the benefit of the group”(lumenlearning). And often times when Europeans wanted to buy land from them, they were tricked into “thinly disguised land grabs.” William Penn and Roger Williams were some of the few that made efforts to deal fairly with the Natives. Money was also a new concept to the Natives, which was just another way the Europeans exploited the natives. Colonists established and taught the natives about fences, fields, and a variety of ways to mark private property. This however deprived the natives access to the natural resources they used to use regularly. This is just one of many examples that shows how badly the colonizer's really affected the natives and their environment.

Another thing the Europeans spread was diseases, which was what probably had the biggest impact on Natives. The Europeans would unknowingly bring diseases like smallpox, measles, typhus, influenza, and cholera, to the Natives. The natives had no immunity against all these new illnesses and oftentimes they died if they contracted a disease. “Native peoples of America had no immunity to the diseases that European explorers and colonists brought with them… Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time.” We still are unaware as to how much of the Native population died from illnesses, but some people estimate up to ninety percent” (Ncpedia.org).  “In the 1630s, half the Huron and Iroquois around the Great Lakes died of smallpox.. The loss of the older generation meant the loss of knowledge and tradition, while the death of children only compounded the trauma, creating devastating implications for future generations”(lumenlearning). There was an astonishing amount of Indians lost to these diseases and it likely would have changed a lot if the natives had the numbers they did before European diseases got to them.

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