Colonialization Of Native Americans By John Axtell

The Europeans settlement had a vast impact on the Native Americans. When the Europeans arrived in the new world they were disappointed in what they had found. The most significant changes were the Europeans domination of large plots of land called “manors”. The controlled the system that was called feudalism, this is where the lords were given control over land, vassals and who ever inhibited the land. These laborers were servants called Serfs, who were protected by the vassals.

The puritans attempted to keep the peace with the Native, however they were still prepared themselves for disputes with the Native Americans. The Massachusetts bay company insisted that men where to be trained how to use firearms. Anyone who was caught selling Indians a gun was going to be deported back to England to be punished. They created rules for the Indians that prohibited them from entering puritan towns. They claimed everything that they were doing to the natives was for their own good. They wanted to convert the natives to Christianity and save their souls after all it was their Christian duty. Despite the resentful treatment by the puritans, the Indians and puritans coexisted in somewhat of a harmony for a while. The Indians even helped the puritans survive a harsh and long winter by sharing their crops with them. If the Indians wanted to kill the colonist, they had the opportunity to do so during that harsh winter. The puritans had little food, shelter and clothing, they were left very vulnerable to an Indian attack. However, another small pox outbreak killed thousands. The puritans saw it as another movement of God giving them the ability to take more land from the Indians. Europeans where known for using God to justify their heinous acts of cruelty towards the native Americans. When plague came about or they had conquered and enslaved a tribe

Native American’s greeted the new colonists in a friendly, welcoming manner from the start. The new colonists considered this a sign of weakness, stating how easy it would be to dominate the native people. When Columbus arrived, there were 12-15 million Native Americans in the Americas, in 1890 there was under 250,000, with 98% of the population gone. With the belief in Manifest Destiny, the colonists forced the Native American’s off their own land, farther and farther from where they originated from, and eventually onto reservations, removing them from their way of life and their culture. During the transition from their homeland to reservations, many of the Native American’s died due to disease, cold, hunger, and the hardships of travel. Along with the annexation, the colonists demanded assimilation.

During westward expansion, the Native Americans got kicked to the side. The settlers coming west often saw the Indians as a threat to them and their families. However, this was not the main reason the Indians were pushed aside. The settlers saw the Indians had fertile land and wanted it for themselves. The Indians were the opposite of what the settlers thought they were. The Indians often helped the people moving west across the plains; giving them food, supplies, and acting as guides. However, the U.S. Government did not see this side of the Indians, instead they forced the Indians onto reservations. During the time of the expansion of the United States to the present, the Native Americans went through many things so that the United States could expand; they were pushed onto reservations, and forced to give up their culture through the Ideas of Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism.

Whether by means of seizures or monetary acquisition, colonists procured the lands of Native Americans, which furthered their demise. With the European arrival at Jamestown, colonists simply established a settlement on Indian land without giving them any consideration. Over time, as colonists’ population

Most colonists that came in the early 1600’s were Christians, a religion that has very specific rules and rigid regulations that must be followed to be a “saved” person destined for a paradisiacal after life. Within these restrictions were the directions to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). It seems clear that from the first the Christian religion was telling the colonists to “help” the natives by making them conform to the culture of the colonists and destroying their own. This was always done with a sense of Native American natural inferiority. In most cases, the Native Americans were not told the entire nature of their conversion. A Jesuit described the tactics used in converting Native Americans, “The outward splendor with which we endeavor to surround the Ceremonies of the Church…with a magnificence surpassing anything that the eyes of our savages have ever beheld – all these things produce an impression on their minds” (Le pays reneverse by denys delage 168). For those truly religious souls, coming to the New World meant a chance to bring salvation and Christianity to new

During the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had formed policies which reduced land allotted to Native Americans. By enforcing these laws as well as Anglo-American ideals, the United States compromised indigenous people’s culture and ability to thrive in its society.

Imagine a person bought something that the person valued. The person was the owner of the product and took good care of it.Then, all of a sudden, a stranger comes and takes that product and declares it “discovered”. Now since the stranger “discovered” it, the product now has to be shared among them. This is similar to what happened to Native Americans in North America. Native Americans owned and lived in North America for several thousand years. Then, all of a sudden, European explorers came to North America and claimed the land “discovered”. Europeans started moving into the land and later, started sharing the land. Encounters between Europeans and Native Americans in the colonial era led to the exchange of diseases with Native Americans,

American history frequently centers on the issues of ethnic diversity and resource allocation. In the contemporary, we begin to see the experiences of the Native inhabitants of the Americas in contrast to European settlers and colonizers, is a prime example of this process in motion. When European settlers first arrived to the New World in the 15th century, firstly the Spanish, they brought with them a material cultural based upon an economic standard of resource exploitation, which in a sense was hostile to most of the Native peoples of the Americas. For instance, as Blackhawk notes that, Europeans built permanent settlements consisting of immovable structures, whereas many of the Great Basin peoples were semi-migratory in nature. Additionally, as Europeans claimed possession over the land, its resources, and began a process of territorial delimitation, Native peoples whose lives

In the early 1800’s, The United States and Spain had continuously argued with the Native people. The Louisiana Territory was purchased from France in the year 1803, Americans continued to push farther west for fertile land that could be used for farming. Due to overcrowding of eastern cities like New York City and Boston many settlers moved out west for a new start. It allowed for colonists to spread out and own untouched fertile land. When white settlers arrived they had realized that most of the land acquired from the territory was occupied by Native Americans for thousands of years. For decades Americans had thought that the land west of the Appalachian Mountains were unoccupied, but they were wrong. There were many tribes that had occupied this land. This included tribes like, The Choctaw, Cherokee, and The Chickasaw. In a sense, Americans had violent outbreaks with the Natives the minute the colonists’ had arrived in the United State. As the colonists’ tried to establish complete dominance and superiority over the Indians, ongoing heated debates over land ownership, and demanding requests to satisfy greed made forceful attacks between the groups unavoidable.

Before Europeans ever ventured to North America, the land had been populated by Native American nations that had their own distinct cultures and social structures. Native Americans had trade routes and established complex relationships between tribes. They were not merely heathens waiting to be civilized by the Europeans. Yet, Europeans would use those justifications to lay claim on their land.

As all authors are undeniably guilty of, James Axtell has a bias, and not one shamefully swept underneath the rug. The enlightening article Axtell has published remains not only as informational; it stands convicting in a sense. Unfortunately, the reader may find themselves lumped into the assemblage of Americans that regard the Native Americans as “pathetic footnotes to the main course of American History” (Axtell 981). Establishing his thesis, Axtell offers plentiful examples of how Native Americans contributed to Colonial America,

American western expansion made the conflict with Native Americans practically inevitable. Henry Clay even went as far as stating that their complete “disappearance from the human family would be no great loss to the world”. The westward movement and territorial expansion from the Louisiana Purchase created a devastating loss to the indigenous peoples. The settlers were ignorant and mistreated the natives and their entire culture. It was assumed by the settlers that any land they may stumble upon that seemed “empty” or “unsettled” by their own colonized standards was up for the taking and now theirs to have. They forced their religious beliefs

When the Spanish had first interacted with the natives, they were able to justify much of their brutal treatment of the natives through Christianity, as they claimed that they were simply working to spread it to a society of pagan heathens. Spanish conquistadores claimed that “riches were wasted on pagans and more properly bestowed upon Christian subjects of Spanish rulers.” (Taylor at page 24) After this initial spout of brutality, the Spaniards and other Christian Europeans sought to spread Christianity directly to the natives, with mixed results. Many natives did accept the Christian God following the viral epidemics that wiped out the majority of their population, as they saw the epidemics as a failure of their own spiritual beliefs to protect them. However, most natives ultimately mixed Christian traditions with those of their own religions, much to the dismay of the European missionaries who sought to convert them.

When thousands of new and strange people came pouring in from on boats, Native Americans thought little of it. Bringing in foreign diseases, destructive animals, and powerful weapons was only the beginning of Native American suffering. Even as immigrants were strongly disturbing their way of life, they helped the strangers survive through freezing winters and famine. As the invaders prospered, they began moving in all directions, conquering land as they travelled. All throughout this wide expansion, skirmishes between the settlers and the Native Americans began to become more and more evident. Fighting back against the immigrants was pointless and it only left the Native Americans with lost people as well as lost land. Settlers had more firepower, more of everything that was all but unknown to the Native Americans at the time. As the settlers pushed, the Native Americans had nothing else to but move one step ahead of the permanent tourists. Finally, once the new residents of almost all of North America were happy, they began to, which can’t be said better in any other words, “feel