Depictions of colonization efforts by European powers during the 15th and 16th centuries tend to be either oversimplified or subject to generalization. Different explorers from different countries had varying experiences with regards to interactions with Native Americans and varying degrees of success in establishing permanent and/or profitable settlements. Oversimplification can be demonstrated by ideas such as the pristine myth and the Native Americans acting as noble savages. Asserting that the Native Americans had no impact on the land or that the Natives Americans were a lesser people than the Europeans would be an inaccurate representation of the majority of Native groups. One such misrepresentation of history, the Black Legend, cannot
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The French, seeking to trade furs with the natives, would not need large amounts of land for their settlement. However, the Spanish settlements in Mexico and the Caribbean and the English settlements in North America and the Caribbean were motivated by the growth of rice, sugar, and tobacco, and therefore required conquering large amounts of land. The English empire best shows the effect of natural resources on the treatment of natives, as their Southern colonies were heavily involved in rice and tobacco farming and the Northern colonies engaged in more trade relationships with the natives. For example, South Carolina, an offshoot of the rice-farming Barbados, had particularly brutal treatment of the natives as they needed to displace them to allow for large scale agriculture. However, the New England colonies relied on smaller scale agriculture and trade in port cities, which required much less land. Due to lesser need for land and desire for participating in the fur trade established by French and Dutch traders, relations with the natives would have been more peaceful. In an even more extreme version of this, French settlers in modern-day Canada engaged in a form of “mutual dependency” with their native allies as the French desired fur pelts to sell in a depleted European market and the …show more content…
Originally, the Spanish settlers in Hispaniola, Cuba and Mexico came seeking gold. In Cuba efforts to cultivate gold decimated the native populations. The high death rate in the mines led to a shortage of workers that eventually led to a decline of colonialization efforts in Cuba as it gave way to the rise of Mexican settlements. This subjugation and forced labor in horrible working conditions were an common trend in settlements that turned into agricultural based societies. These practices were developed by the English and Spanish in Grenada and the English in Ireland. During the Reconquista, the Spanish used incredibly violent methods of conquest to colonize the people of Grenada. The Spanish used display violence, deception, and technological military advantages to eliminate the majority of the native population, and those who survived were ravaged by disease. Despite this, the Spanish used the excuses of spreading Christianity among the Muslim people and civilizing an otherwise primitive people to justify these barbarous actions. An example of this is that the native’s reaction to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella being named rulers of the land was described by claiming, “such was the happiness that they all began to cry.” However, in a
The French, seeking to trade furs with the natives, would not need large amounts of land for their settlement. However, the Spanish settlements in Mexico and the Caribbean and the English settlements in North America and the Caribbean were motivated by the growth of rice, sugar, and tobacco, and therefore required conquering large amounts of land. The English empire best shows the effect of natural resources on the treatment of natives, as their Southern colonies were heavily involved in rice and tobacco farming and the Northern colonies engaged in more trade relationships with the natives. For example, South Carolina, an offshoot of the rice-farming Barbados, had particularly brutal treatment of the natives as they needed to displace them to allow for large scale agriculture. However, the New England colonies relied on smaller scale agriculture and trade in port cities, which required much less land. Due to lesser need for land and desire for participating in the fur trade established by French and Dutch traders, relations with the natives would have been more peaceful. In an even more extreme version of this, French settlers in modern-day Canada engaged in a form of “mutual dependency” with their native allies as the French desired fur pelts to sell in a depleted European market and the …show more content…
Originally, the Spanish settlers in Hispaniola, Cuba and Mexico came seeking gold. In Cuba efforts to cultivate gold decimated the native populations. The high death rate in the mines led to a shortage of workers that eventually led to a decline of colonialization efforts in Cuba as it gave way to the rise of Mexican settlements. This subjugation and forced labor in horrible working conditions were an common trend in settlements that turned into agricultural based societies. These practices were developed by the English and Spanish in Grenada and the English in Ireland. During the Reconquista, the Spanish used incredibly violent methods of conquest to colonize the people of Grenada. The Spanish used display violence, deception, and technological military advantages to eliminate the majority of the native population, and those who survived were ravaged by disease. Despite this, the Spanish used the excuses of spreading Christianity among the Muslim people and civilizing an otherwise primitive people to justify these barbarous actions. An example of this is that the native’s reaction to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella being named rulers of the land was described by claiming, “such was the happiness that they all began to cry.” However, in a