Colonial Perception Of Native Americans

Improved Essays
Further exploration during the early seventeenth century was imperative to the growth of the countries at that time. The New World was a significant establishment for religious freedom, economic opportunity, and overflowing population from England, and though the United States of America that we know today was born from this experience, it came at a great cost. Entire civilizations of natives along with their culture were wiped from existence, and a large chunk of the remainder was forced into slavery and brought up under abuse and extortion by the colonists despite their original kindness and acceptance. In contrast to this, the colonists claimed that the natives were savage-like and barbaric and therefore, the murder and oppression used by them was necessary and the only way in which proper colonization could take place.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The British Came over to the Americas expecting it to be smooth sailing once they arrived. They did not realize however, that they were going to run into issues such as a lack of food and diseases. They showed up and immediately started hunting for riches and other things of value, but forgot about simple things like eating, and this resulted in diseases and starvation, which then lead to lots of death. Another challenge they faced was the language barrier, “Few settlers other than John Smith bothered to learn the Indians’ language” (Roark, etc., 57). The language barrier hurt them because they weren’t expecting it and it held them back from being able to communicate with the Indians who were already in the Americas.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Colonists decided to settle North America for a variety of reasons including religious freedom, opportunities, land, exile, and to escape the tyranny of English royalty. Although the settlement in Jamestown wasn 't the first attempt at colonization in the new world for England it was the first successful colony. The settlers in Jamestown were funded by the Virginia Company to create and colonize a civilization. The Virginia Company was an opportunity for people to explore the new world funded by wealthy men, who were hoping to make a profit off the new land. Early in the process of colonization there was a high death rate among the settlers, because of unknown diseases and the scarceness of supplies such as food.…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The differences in motivations for coming to the New World greatly affected the way these two settlements functioned and developed. There were two central reasons for England’s drive to create colonies in the…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Settlers treated the Native Americans with no respect. For example, settlers were using all the resources that the Native Americans used to survive. They cut pinyon trees for charcoal to process ore, and since they cut the trees it destroyed their pine-nut crops which Native Americans used those to survive the western Great Basins harsh winters. The settlers also used the fertile valleys, for farming and ranching, and they denied the access to the Native Americans, so they would not get nuts, roots and seeds. The settlers also took away a lot of animals and food from the Native Americans, so they could feed their people.…

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The English were much more militarily hostile towards the Natives in comparison to the Spanish and French and were considered the “most populous and prosperous area of North America” (Tindall & Shi, 66). The English also brought their whole families with them when the settled in the New World. They colonized in present day New England and they wanted to find silver and gold but ended up producing tobacco, which was a major cash crop. Their colonies not only didn’t get along well with each other due to things like religion but also The Virginia colony was always being raided. In the “Instructions for the Virginia Colony”, they warn the settlers about clashing with the Natives but hey were focused on other things like trade and land…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Massacre affected the relationships between the different tribes because the Narragansett, Mohegan tribes and the Pequot Indians were either already at war with one another or with the Pequot’s. But the other tribes didn’t realize what they had gotten themselves into the ones that join with the English that for one they had lied about leaving the women and children alone and also that in the end the English would start a war with them as well and along with all the other Pequot tribes. It’s affected the relationships between the Colonists and the Native Americans because the colonists (the English) got greedy and wanted more and the Native Americans didn’t want to give up more including their land. So the Colonists decided to come up with…

    • 273 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The English wanted to form a colony that they could live in. The justification for the taking of the Native land, was that the Indians had not fully established it, therefore they did not own it. The English wanted to develop a “peaceable colony in a waste country, where the people doe live but like Deere” (Townsend 90). The colonists Insisted that the Indians lived foolishly and uncivilized, and believed that they would acknowledge this, “if they had any braines in their head.” (Townsend 90)…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Indians destroyed the English towns and killed 1,000 settlers, but 4,500 Native Americans died. In conclusion, the Native Americans were treated with no respect and were labelled as “savages”. Thousands upon thousands of Native Americans were killed in the seventeenth century by the Europeans. The Native American’s and the Europeans were unable to live in peace because the Europeans only wanted one thing, money. And they would do anything to get it.…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Holocaust For centuries, the indigenous people of America endured a long period of slavery, mass murder, brutality, and outbreak of imported plagues since the arrival of Columbus in San Salvador in 1492. This year marked the mass extermination of the Natives. In a short period of time, Natives were wiped off so rapidly that, between disease and killings of conquerers, the number of tribal groups decreased by an average of 95% in the first century of contact. The unjustified killing and outright sadism had carried out and was repeated decade after another.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This sentence highlights the question of whether the benefits of imperialism and colonialism justified the negatives that concurrently appeared after the discovery of the Indies. Although the New World provided Europe with conveniences and luxuries, in addition to improvements in a variety of fields of knowledge and technologies, Raynal debated whether these benefits were worth the cost at which they came and criticized the enterprises that arose after the discovery of the New World. Mentioning the “destroyed” lives in addition to those that would inevitably be sacrificed, Raynal, in particular, criticized the human cost of the discovery. The New World was a dangerous place for Europeans and many died there; in the 17th century, Brébuf wrote,…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Colonialism was not an idea of setting up a ‘new world,’ it was an idea of extorting goods from other nations to benefit the Europeans. It set up an unfair exchange between nations. Europe offered their religion, bad debt economy, diseases, civilization, and weaponry. The Americas offered their history, advanced infrastructure and civilization, spices, gold, and labor.…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Paper #1: Chapters 1-3 of Voices of Freedom Looking back at the whole occurrence of the discovery of the New World it becomes evident the many hardships that the colonial settlers caused which justifies the egocentric intentions of the many Europeans. It seems that even though the settlers were fleeing from a country that forced views among themselves or caused unjust situations; the colonists were precisely acting on the foreign population, who they viewed as “lesser”, similarly to that of their homelands. Although at the time the occurrence was not obvious, looking at it from today’s standpoint, it is quit ironic. On more than one instance the settlers treated distinctive groups with an inhumane disrespect with no regard to their well-being.…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Colonists and Native Americans The relationship between the Colonists and Native Americans was a rocky one to say the least. Often times the focus of American history revolves around the war for independence and the beginning of the American government, but in reality American history began much sooner. Native Americans and early Colonists had once hoped to work together and mutually benefit one another, one can clearly see that this did not work. History shows us how and if violence could have been avoided, what the main causes of conflict were, and which party appeared to be most at fault. One thought provoking question that could be asked is whether violence could have been avoided, or if it was imminent.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For my class, I chose the title “The Full Story of Native Americans.” There are many times in a history class or just in a general class where history has been changed or altered, and it leaves out the Native Americans, forcing the students to not receive the full story. I want to teach a class where this is not the case. My title explains to the students that they will get the entire story of Native Americans not just bits and pieces like many classes tend to give.…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the colonization period of the Europeans, they stumbled upon the Indians in the Americas. They were “odd” to the eyes of europeans because of how the Indians treated nature. The Indians treated nature as a being of nature that a person can use it but not own it, the unclaimed land was for everybody to use. They valued land as a resourceful use instead of an economic use, they were not devoted to wealth or the “luxuries” of life. Not being selfish was seen as a determining factor of who the person was not the wealth or luxuries that a person had, their reputation was based on how much they shared.…

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays