In his journal of his third voyage to the New World, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus said, “I have come to believe that this is a mighty continent which was hitherto unknown.” While he was correct he had reached a large continent, he was incorrect in assuming that it was uninhabited. In fact, the Americas had a sizable native population. After Christopher Columbus’ voyages, the Americas became a destination for many European colonists who hoped for a fresh start in the New World. However, this had dire consequences for American Indians. The migration of Europeans, the diseases they carried, and the warfare they inflicted in the Americas devastated the American Indian population by drastically transforming their land, killing numerous
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Before contact with Europeans, local Indian tribes demanded little from their environment and used techniques such as three-sister farming to tread lightly on the land they used. However, conditions began to change after the first wave of English Puritan colonists crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the Mayflower in 1620 (165). Colonists considered Indians to be pagan peoples and wanted to avoid any assimilation into their culture. They evaded this by stealing the natives’ land and modifying the grounds to resemble England. The colonists cleared forests to make fields to use for English style agriculture and they killed wild animals, such as wolves and bears, who were predators of the colonizers’ livestock (188). Consequently, the Indians’ prime sources of clothing and food were eliminated. All of these changes made by the colonists alienated the Indians and forced them off of their land. In 1642, the Narragansett chief Miantonomi expressed concern about the impact of the European migration on his …show more content…
Spanish colonists could not persuade new emigrants to move to Florida because of its poor reputation in Europe (78). So, they looked to gain control over local tribes. They offered gifts and trade to Indian chiefs who would allow priests to enter their villages. Some chiefs fatefully embraced this new alliance and began to trade with the Spanish (78). However, this new contact with the Spanish introduced new diseases to the natives, who were not immune. As more Indians perished from these diseases, the remaining population realized that traditional shamans, Indian spiritual experts, were unable to protect their people from these epidemics. So, they looked to the new Spanish traders were unaffected by disease, in the hopes that they could provide spiritual protection (78). Alas, these natives were sadly mistaken. Increased contact with the Spanish would only cause more Indians to contract European diseases. By 1659, the Spanish governor reported that ten thousand Indians had died of measles, one of the diseases spread by the colonists (79). Indeed, epidemics in the New World brought about by European colonizers harmed the American Indian population because they caused the deaths of those who lacked immunity to these
Before contact with Europeans, local Indian tribes demanded little from their environment and used techniques such as three-sister farming to tread lightly on the land they used. However, conditions began to change after the first wave of English Puritan colonists crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the Mayflower in 1620 (165). Colonists considered Indians to be pagan peoples and wanted to avoid any assimilation into their culture. They evaded this by stealing the natives’ land and modifying the grounds to resemble England. The colonists cleared forests to make fields to use for English style agriculture and they killed wild animals, such as wolves and bears, who were predators of the colonizers’ livestock (188). Consequently, the Indians’ prime sources of clothing and food were eliminated. All of these changes made by the colonists alienated the Indians and forced them off of their land. In 1642, the Narragansett chief Miantonomi expressed concern about the impact of the European migration on his …show more content…
Spanish colonists could not persuade new emigrants to move to Florida because of its poor reputation in Europe (78). So, they looked to gain control over local tribes. They offered gifts and trade to Indian chiefs who would allow priests to enter their villages. Some chiefs fatefully embraced this new alliance and began to trade with the Spanish (78). However, this new contact with the Spanish introduced new diseases to the natives, who were not immune. As more Indians perished from these diseases, the remaining population realized that traditional shamans, Indian spiritual experts, were unable to protect their people from these epidemics. So, they looked to the new Spanish traders were unaffected by disease, in the hopes that they could provide spiritual protection (78). Alas, these natives were sadly mistaken. Increased contact with the Spanish would only cause more Indians to contract European diseases. By 1659, the Spanish governor reported that ten thousand Indians had died of measles, one of the diseases spread by the colonists (79). Indeed, epidemics in the New World brought about by European colonizers harmed the American Indian population because they caused the deaths of those who lacked immunity to these