...When we discuss the discovery and colonization of the Americas, Columbus often comes to mind first. These days we analyze Christopher Columbus in various ways. Was he a pioneer that changed the world for the better? Or was he a man who began the end of a native way of life? Can we actually accuse Christopher Columbus of mass murder? These questions will most likely never be answered. One fact is certain: from 1492 and throughout the 16th century, Latin America’s native population was invaded, conquered, enslaved, and killed. Wasserman and Martin described it perfectly when they wrote, “Almost overnight, the natives of the Caribbean went from trading partners to slaves.” [Wasserman, pg. 80] Columbus envisioned a vast array of trading posts to come out from his discoveries. What happened instead was colonization. It is clear that Columbus’ search for wealth, trading routes, gold, and fame led to the mass destruction of the native population of Latin America. Columbus described the natives as “very intelligent,” and “a very fine people.” [Four Voyages, pg. 96] He believed from the start that these people could easily be converted to Christianity because of their honest, sincere character. The obsession that Queen Isabella had with spreading Christianity actually gave Columbus the opportunity to take the voyage. When gold was discovered, more settlers began arriving. Island-by-Island was taken over and the native population was used to extract resources. This was all done in the...
Words: 730 - Pages: 3
...EARLY COLONIZATION PERIOD IN AMERICA By the 1700’s two settlements had been established, Chesapeake and New England regions. Both New England and the Chesapeake region started off as colonies, established by England, and were divided into two distinct societies because of their religious, economic and geographical differences. The first major difference between the two settlements was religion. On one hand, the puritans, who colonized the New England, were very religious. They wanted to create a model society in which there were limits to legitimate commercial behavior, and the religious idealism would turn into a renewed sense of community. They were very strict in their religious beliefs. The Chesapeake region took a different approach, and did not put religion at the center of life. In the Chesapeake, religion was much less severe. These was the difference between two region. The second difference between the two settlements was economy. The Chesapeak’s economy was almost entirely based on farming. Rice, indigo, tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton were cash crops. Crops were grown on large plantations where slaves and indentured servants worked the land. On the other hand New England’s economy was largely depend on ocean. Fishing was most important to the New England economy. Farming was difficult in New England for crops like wheat because of the poor soil. As can be seen the economic sources was different between the two region. The last difference between the two settlements...
Words: 353 - Pages: 2
...English colonization of the seventeenth century underwent remarkable complications demonstrated by settlement patterns and transformation of social structure. Specifically, throughout the settlement process, Indians experienced immense religious influence by the English and conflicted over both land and religious liberties. Also, as individuals emigrated from England to the Americas, challenging liberties concerning economic and societal structure began to surface. Furthermore, by delving deeper into the tensions that accompany freedom, insights involving the reasoning behind English impact arise. When analyzing the English settlement patterns in the Americas, Native Americans were challenged religiously and by the liberty of their land. For...
Words: 1195 - Pages: 5
...population could spread out. The motherland experienced a severely populated country and could not fully sustain such a high amount of people on the island. The nation also desired the resources that America would offer. Britain needed to have a great amount of resources to sustain its influence upon the world. During the time of Britain’s colonization of America the small island experienced was dense and grossly overpopulated. The wealthy kingdom experienced a population around three to five million people during the time of colonization (Wrigley). This amount of people although spread out still left the country in a very populated...
Words: 635 - Pages: 3
...Mulu Berehe 05/15/14. Essay # 3. “What Sacagawea means to me” There are many contradictions in life, yet none as influential in everyone’s life as the idea of colonization. In “What Sacagawea Means to Me,” Sherman Alexie illustrates how colonization is a contradiction. He states “colonization might be a natural process, tragic and violent to be sure, but predictable and ordinary as well, and possibly necessary for the advance, however constructive and destructive, of all civilizations.” I agree that colonization does have both positive and negative effects. Colonization causes many changes in the lives of the people being colonized and those changes can be both good and bad. To me the ideal form of colonization would be how the missionaries who came to Ethiopia did it. European colonization resulted in many negative effects on the Native Americans. Colonization lead to the destruction of the Native Americans’ life as they knew it. Within a short period of time their way of life was changed forever. The changes were caused by a number of factors, including loss of land, disease, enforced laws which violated their culture and much more. When the Europeans arrived they brought with them diseases unknown to the natives. The natives had no immunity to these unknown diseases, so they were easily infected and died from these diseases. This lead to massive deaths in Native American communities as they came into contact with the settlers. The killing of natives was not just done...
Words: 859 - Pages: 4
...The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (begun February 1519) was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The conquest must be understood within the context of Spanish patterns on the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista by Christians, defeating the Muslims, who had ruled the peninsula since 711. These patterns extended to the Caribbean following Christopher Columbus' establishment of permanent European settlement in the Caribbean. The Spanish authorized expeditions or entradas for the discovery, conquest, and colonization of new territory, using existing Spanish settlements as a base. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before. In fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a whole generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme (Central America), learning strategy and tactics of successful enterprises. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices.[2] The Spanish campaign began in February 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtemoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. During the campaign, Cortés was given support from a number of tributaries and rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, and the Tlaxcaltecas, Texcocans...
Words: 570 - Pages: 3
...indigenous people that populated America before the arrival of Spanish and Portuguese? Describe the main characteristics of each one of these civilizations. (location, government, religion, social organization, language, etc) - Nonsedentary indigenous people moved constantly as hunters and gatherers. Their groups were small and the social organization was simple. They typically roamed the grasslands of the arid plains, such as the Pampas of Argentina. - Semisedentary indigenous people were forest residents. Hunting was important to them, but the environment of the forest gave way to depending on agriculture. Their agricultural practices were adjusted to thin tropical soils, which they also exercised shifting cultivation. They built villages but moved them frequently. The societies of the people organized themselves by gender roles and tribes. - Fully sedentary indigenous people were permanent settlers, usually on high plateaus rather than in forests. They had sustainable agriculture and complex societies. Sometimes great empires were constructed in their society. 3. The attitude of the Spaniards during the conquest and colonization can be explained by its history, especially by its relation to the Moors and Jewish. Explain some of those historical factors and how the Arab-Jewish-Spanish intercultural dependency shaped the mentality of the Spaniards that later came to the Americas. The attitude of the Spaniards during conquest and colonization can be explained by historical...
Words: 955 - Pages: 4
...Christopher Columbus found America by accident. He was looking for a new route to the far east, but he found America instead. Conquistadors came looking for gold and fame at any cost. Colonization had a big impact on the people that got conquered because many of them died due to the diseases brought by the Europeans such as smallpox, influenza, and measles. Others were casualties of the conquest, and many became slaves. The Indians' culture was destroyed because the Spanish believed that the Indians worshipped the devil and that they needed to be converted to Christianity. The Spanish conquistadors justified colonization as a way to expand Catholicism and to gain a commercial advantage over Portugal. In my opinion, their justification is not...
Words: 288 - Pages: 2
...Hammond September 21, 2015 The Inflicted Spanish Pressure on the Mestiza/Indigenous Women of Colonial Latin America Colonial times in Latin America were tough for both mestizas/indigenous and Spanish women. Latin America’s status of indigenous women changed in terms of their positions in the hierarchy of society, labor roles, and their marriage responsibilities and their own freedoms. The Spanish women began to impose several changes in order to accustom the indigenous women to their level in order to make the “New Spain” a reality. During early conquest, mestiza women, especially those of noble classes were accustomed to be married off as soon as their fathers had an idea of who they wanted to be allied with and to move up in hierarchy. As Susan Socolow said, “Indeed, chiefs offered their sisters and daughters to Spanish conquistadors, continuing the pre-Columbian pattern of using women to appease the powerful and ally with them.” Reigning Spanish conquistadors or other tribal leaders sought to establish alliances, so women were in other words seen as objects to benefit them. Spanish women at the time of colonization were rare, but for instance, Juan Jaramillo was one of the early conquistadors who married. As said, “Her father, don Leonel de Cervantes was a comendador of the Order of Santiago…” The few rare Spanish women available during the colonization state tended to be noble daughters of comendadors, who were married off quickly to other rising nobles, which...
Words: 1529 - Pages: 7
...Incas came out of conflicts between a number of competing communities in Southern Peru and Bolivia. It was the help of the military that caused success against the Chanca. This caused the Inca to believe they were under the protection of the sun God, Inti. Inti was known for being the emperor who was an earthly manifestation. The Incas thought they were on an all-powerful assignment to bring the civilization to those they had defeated. They inhabited some of the world’s arid dessert. Close by were the flat coastal lands and the jagged peaks of the Andes Mountain. The natives lived under the rule of one man, the emperor they called “Chief Lnca,” “Son of the Sun,” “or “Lover of the Poor.” They were the largest empire in the pre-Columbian America. The bureaucratic, legislative and military were the innermost of the empire. The language spoken by the Incas was Quichua or Quechua tongue. This language was spoken in only a minute area around Cuzco. This is where Inca dynasty started. ARAWAK The Arawak are a group of...
Words: 1686 - Pages: 7
...Colonization in the Americas European settlers faced excruciating occurrences in their attempts to colonize the Americas. There were various challenges that came upon them. They faced uncivilized natives, economic struggles, and starvation. The European colonizers endured a very difficult time trying to stabilize a new home in North America. Harriott believed the natives would soon learn to be civilized through conversion or conquest, if they did not die from disease(1). Disease was a very big controversy for the settlers of the American colonies. They had to dodge the tragic diseases that the natives inflicted upon them. Europeans had tried to shade themselves from these drastic plagues and diseases. Crops were also something that became a problem for the a Europeans. Starvation began to take its toll and they needed to acquire crops. Searching for crops, planting, and harvesting them became a very common task for the European settlers. Economic struggles and poverty also played a great roll for the Europeans. They had dealt with natives making clothes out of deer skins and being half naked(2). A very big issue was the small native towns. The villages were extremely small and only contained ten to twelve houses. The Europeans wanted to drive the Native Americans out of their land and expand from there. They wanted to develop a better life and realized that they couldn't do that with the natives still there. Land expansion, known as Imperialism...
Words: 327 - Pages: 2
...When the Spanish first step foot in the America, they saw a vacant and natural landscape intended for the gradual spread of Christianity and European culture. However the spread of European culture and religion would proved more difficult than the spanish had originally thought it would. And this was because the indigenous peoples established a long-lasting resistance against their European settlers. For example, in Chile, when the Spanish attempted to establish a string of fort towns southward, they were meet with the resistance of the Mapuche people. They repeatedly annihilated the settlements of the Spanish empire because they threatened the very existence of the colony. 1 Similarly in Uruguay and Argentina, the Spanish were challenged by...
Words: 386 - Pages: 2
...persons of mixed Spanish and Indian origin wrote the book utopia Thomas more Malinali proved invaluable to Cortés’s mission because of her knowledge of Multiple languages Where did the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvars Cabral accidentally make landfall? Brazil Who organized the English colonization of Roanoke Island? Sir walter Raleigh Which of the following was not a significant motivation behind European colonization in the New World? the spread of democracy to the Americas What was the highest social class in New Spain? Peninsulares A significant outcome of the Portuguese arrival in West Africa was an expansion of Africa’s internal slave trade. Which of the following was expressed by Bartolomé de Las Casas in A Very Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indes in 1552? He believed that Indians ought to be allowed to continue to practice their native faiths as a true sign of Christian love and toleration. Which explorer sailed around the southern tip of Africa in 1488? Bartolomeu Dias What was the first permanent European settlement in the present day United States? St. Augustine Which of the following statements about Europeans' view of the New World is NOT accurate? America as a place of savagery, cannibalism, and death The chief goal of fifteenth-century Portuguese expansion was the establishment of a trading empire in Asia. The social hierarchy of New Spain was stratified by race and country of origin. Who was an important advocate of...
Words: 357 - Pages: 2
...American Identity Paper Jerry L. Robinson HIS/110 CA U S History to 1865 February 07, 2014 Charles Salter American Identity Paper With the growing diversity of America, how the Americans view themselves today tend to be more sophisticated. Partly, the developed democracy in the country plays a role in developing the American identity, which is not equated to ethnicity. It is the growth of the American culture, which evolved from the time of the American colonization to date (Spiro, 2008). Evidently, American identity differs from any other lifestyle worldwide. Though the American identity phenomenon has been identified by many individuals, Crevecoeur, an American farmer illustrates a contrast in the life he spent in Europe and that, which he found in America and how British colonies have contributed to the American identity (St. de Crèvecoeur, Trent & Lewisohn, 1904). What distinguishes an American from a European In his first letter, Crevecoeur portrays Americans as a course group with varied religious groups and practices that exist in harmony. Crevecoeur emphasized that the immigrants finally had the opportunity to thrive through hard work and determination. His oratory hints that a European could be Americanized simply by clinching to American culture of patriotism (St. de Crèvecoeur, Trent & Lewisohn, 1904). Additionally, he emphasizes that this could even be much easier if the European morphed into a race of new men who struggle...
Words: 985 - Pages: 4
...the south, with its capital in Cusco. In 1530, Atahualpa defeated his own brother, Huascar, and claimed control over the entire empire. Atahualpa's victory was short-lived as he was soon captured by the Spanish conquistadors in Cajamarca, and later killed. Disease plagued the native population during the first decades of Spanish rule, a time when the natives also were forced into the encomienda labor system for the Spanish. In 1563, Quito became the seat of an administrative district of Spain and part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and later the Viceroyalty of New Granada. After nearly 300 years of Spanish colonization, Quito was still a small city of only 10,000 inhabitants. It was here, on August 10, 1809, that the first call for independence from Spain was made in Latin America, under the leadership of the city's president Juan Pío Montúfar. Quito's nickname, Light of America, comes from the fact that this was the first successful attempt to make an independent and local government. The rebellion only lasted two months before it was...
Words: 329 - Pages: 2
